The Future Looks Bright in Leafland

The emergence of James Reimer should leave Maple Leafs fans excited for the future

             The Toronto Maple Leafs have staged yet another one of their late season surges, where they’ve won a number of pressure-packed, must win games. It seems like this sort of thing happens every year. During past seasons, the common line out of Leaf fans was, “it’s our time next year.” They are one of two teams who haven’t made the playoffs since the lockout (Florida is the other team), so fans are definitely growing tired of not being able to see their beloved team playing post season hockey. I believe that this drought will end next year, only if certain things fall into place.

            They say defense wins championships. Brian Burke has built his squad around a strong defensive core. Heading into this past season, Dion Phaneuf and Tomas Kaberle were the pillars of the backend. When Kaberle departed before the trade deadline, Phaneuf, Schenn and young-gun Keith Aulie really stepped up in his absence. These three blueliners will be integral to Toronto’s success moving forward. (On a side note, looking back, it’s hard to believe that Calgary gave away both Aulie and Phaneuf to the Leafs for Matt Stajan, Ian White, Jamal Mayers and Niklas Hagman). Keith Aulie is kind of like a ‘poor man’s’ Chris Pronger in the sense that they’re basically the same size (around 6’5), and know how to play their position well. However, Aulie definitely isn’t as dirty as Pronger, but he certainly knows how to drop the gloves when called upon.

            For the first time since 2002-2003, the Maple Leafs have two players with at least 30 goals (Mikhail Grabovski just misses the cut with 29 tallies). For Toronto to have any chance next season, they need their big 4 (Phil Kessel, Clarke MacArthur, Nikolai Kulemin and Grabovski) to excel. In addition, a full season in blue and white for both Nazem Kadri and Joffrey Lupul will only help Toronto positively.

            For any team to have success in any level of hockey, the goaltender has to be at the top of his game. Throughout the first half of the season, JS Giguere and Jonas Gustavsson weren’t cutting it. Enter James Reimer (Optimus Reime, Reime Minister, Busta Reime) or any of his latest and greatest nicknames. The 23 year old Winnipeg native has a 20-8-5 record with a 2.51 goals against average and a .923 save percentage so far this season. He’s given the Leafs a legitimate chance to win on a nightly basis. The big test for Reimer (I actually heard someone call him ‘God’ this morning on the radio…a tad farfetched, I’d say) will be the off season. One of two things could happen. He could easily work very hard and come back in September looking like the Terminator, or he could spend the summer slacking off, hanging out poolside with an adult beverage constantly at his grasp. Judging by his humble personality, I would expect Reimer to continue to excel next season. With Francois Allaire as the Leafs goalie coach, Reimer’s technical skills will only improve.

            This may be the first blog on this site that is positive towards the Maple Leafs. I firmly believe that this late season hot streak is legitimate. If Toronto shows a similar level of play next season, they will finally end their post-lockout playoff drought.