RICK VAIVE: Don't over-crowd the Leafs bandwagon just yet

Article content

To experience the Maple Leafs winning a series, while sitting with a bunch of hard-core fans, makes you see how much the playoffs mean to this fan base, year after year.

On Thursday night, I was at the draft party for the Baycrest Pro-Am, a charity hockey tournament in support of the battle against Alzheimer’s disease. Game 6 was on TV, and the people were going nuts after the Leafs eliminated Ottawa.

My only advice? Don’t get too carried away, folks.

That’s just two series wins in 21 years, and as much as you respect what Ottawa did, they’re a team with hardly any playoff experience in eight years. They’re just getting their feet wet, yet they just took Toronto to six games. Three of the games were settled in overtime, and there were two other tight ones.

Now the Leafs get Florida, a team looking a lot more like Stanley Cup champions than earlier this season. They can hit, in fact I don’t think any team finishes their checks as hard as these guys. Toronto does that, too, with its defencemen, but not all the time with forwards. That’s a big factor at this time of year.

That hitting mentality is down to Florida’s coach, Paul Maurice, but also to his players, who know it’s a big part of winning the Cup.

What did impress me about the Leafs, even though it looked dicey when Ottawa came back from 2-0 down in Game 6, was how they stayed with it, won faceoffs, killed penalties.

And how important was that Auston Matthews power-play goal? Like everyone has been saying, just get pucks on net. I know they have lots of skill with the five forwards, who love to throw it around on the outside while looking for the perfect seam shot. But  when you have men in front such as Matthew Knies, you must use their talents. You know Florida is going to do that heavy work in front on its power plays.

It was good that William Nylander was able to be around to score two goals. I heard about the pre-game lineup mix-up with his brother Alex. It reminded me of the night at the Gardens in October of 1989, the home opener for the Leafs, when I was playing for the Buffalo Sabres.

On the bench as the anthems were ending, I noticed Gary Leeman’s No. 11 had been circled on the game sheet as a starter, but Vince Damphousse, No. 10, was out there in the centre-ice circle.

I told our assistant coach, who let the officials know and the Leafs were penalized. Dave Andreychuk scored for us on that power play and we won, 7-1. Writing lineups seem like a such a simple task, but messing them up can happen in the rush before a game.

A guy on my son Justin’s team, the Cincinatti Cyclones, had to leave an ECHL game this year because his name was not recorded.

Let’s hope it’s the last time a Leafs star is almost left off the guest list.

The Toronto Sun welcomes former Toronto captain and three-time 50-goal scorer Rick Vaive to our 2025 Leaf playoff coverage. He played 16 NHL and WHA seasons and is the author of ‘Catch 22: My Battles in Hockey and Life.’ He can be heard on Squid and The Ultimate Leafs Fan podcast with Mike Wilson and special guests.