SPORTS
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 15
Stanley cup
» continued from COVER
sixth round selection in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft
(Mike Doers) on November 7, 1988.
However, since the fateful date of January 2,
1992, when then Leafs General Manger Cliff Fletcher
pulled off the largest trade in NHL history by trading
right winger/defenseman Gary Leeman, left winger
Craig Berube, defenseman Michel Petit, defenseman
Alexander Godynyuk, and goaltender Jeff Reese to
the Calgary Flames for centre Doug Gilmour, defenseman Jamie Macoun, defenseman Ric Nattress, centre
Kent Manderville, and goaltender Rick Wamsley, the
Leafs have featured very good teams for the most part
from 1992 to 2004 with one or more bona fide allstar players on their roster. Furthermore, under new
ownership, the team has shown a willingness to field
a competitive roster by spending money on star players. Not surprisingly, the Leafs went to the Western
Conference Finals four times within a ten year period
(from 1993 to 2002).
There are plenty of familiar names on those four
Western Conference Finals teams. The 1992-1993
and 1993-1994 teams were anchored by future Hall
of Famer and future Maple Leaf captain Gilmour as
well as all-star players Wendel Clark (a first-line left
winger), Dave Andreychuk (a first-line left winger),
Glenn Anderson (a second-line right winger), and
Felix Potvin (the starting goaltender). The 1998-1999
team featured future Hall of Famer and Maple Leaf
captain Mats Sundin (the first-line centre), all-star
goaltender Curtis Joseph, young offensively gifted
defenseman Bryan Berard, and Steve Thomas (firstline right winger). The 2001-2002 had Sundin,
Joseph, as well as sniper Alexander Mogilny (firstline right winger), former Legion of Doom member
Mikael Renberg (second-line right winger), savvy
veteran Gary Roberts (second-line left winger), and
the dynamic duo of Bryan McCabe and Tomáš Kaberle
(top pairing defensemen) on the blue line. With all
that talent, why did the Leafs fall short during these
four memorable seasons?
Simply put, the Leafs were relying too heavily on
old players. As good as the core of these teams were
from a pure talent perspective, the heart and soul
of these teams were all in their thirties (Gilmour,
Andreychuk, Sundin, and Joseph) or injury prone
due to their physical style of play (Clark and Roberts),
or suffered unexpected serious career threatening
injury (Berard). Thus, while these Leafs clearly had a
desire to win and were willing to pay a price to do so,
these teams could not prevail at the end because as
good as they were skills-wise, the key players simply
lacked the necessary physical stamina to withstand
an eighty-plus regular season schedule and then come
out on top in the post-season against increasingly
tougher opponents in each successive playoff round.
Indeed, I attribute this reason to the undoing of
the 2003-2004 team, which had so much promise
but ultimately lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in the
Western Conference Semifinals despite having the
likes of Sundin, Mogilny, Renberg, Roberts, Karberle,
and McCabe as well as future Hall of Famers Ron
Francis (a centre), Joe Nieuwendyk (a centre), Brian
Leetch (a defenseman), and Ed Belfour (a goaltender)
along with all-star Owen Nolan (a right winger).
In the shortened forty-eight game schedule 20122013 season, the Leafs lost a heartbreaking seven
game series to the Boston Bruins in the first round of
the playoffs after making history by blowing a three
goal lead in the third period of the series deciding
game. Other than this appearance, the Leafs have not
made the playoffs in the post lockout era (the 20052006 season and beyond), let alone won the Stanley
Cup. Why did the Leafs sink to such a low level? Stay
tuned for Part 2 of my article! u
accomplishments in life. After all, you are trying to
sell yourself, and what better way to do that than to
spend an hour bragging about how utterly marvelous
you are? But remember what I said about those selfesteem issues back in tip #3? There’s a careful balance
you’ll need to strike between stroking your own ego
and stroking theirs. Pay attention to your date. Do
they look bored or are you laughing and exchanging
stories of the good old times in undergrad where each
of you found yourself drunk and naked one night with
a barricade of police cars on either end of the bridge?
Be sure to ask questions that show you are genuinely
interested and looking to engage with them. I’m sure
I’m preaching to the choir here, but generally speaking, people love to talk about themselves, especially
when they have an attentive listener. Just be sure not
to ask cliché questions - instead of looking thoughtful
and charming you’ll come off as anxious and desperate. Ain’t nothing sexy or desirable about that.
Editorial
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doubt your integrity because you’re far classier than
that. Everything that comes out of your mouth ought
to leave the interviewers believing that not only are
you the cat