September 20, 2024 • 21 mins
It's 2002 and there's a thick layer of hope wafting in the air around the Air Canada Centre. The Leafs have finished 2nd in the East, only one point back of the Bruins. Mats Sundin is the highest scoring centre in the league and has led the team to their 4th consecutive playoff appearance. The supporting cast is stronger than ever with Darcy Tucker, Gary Roberts and Alexander Mogilny upfront, Tomas Kaberle & Bryan McCabe on the blue line, and Curtis Joseph manning the net.
After a hard fought 7-game series win against the New York Islanders in the first round, the Leafs are bruised, but ready to battle against the upstart Ottawa Senators, who feature young talent like Daniel Alfredsson, Marian Hossa and an oversized defensemen named Zdeno Chara.
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Follow @Sportsfeld on X! While you're there say hello to @theZubes and @JGoldsbie or reach out to the show and say hey: podcast@sportsfeld.ca
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And as always, thank you for listening to another episode of Sportsfeld.
After a hard fought 7-game series win against the New York Islanders in the first round, the Leafs are bruised, but ready to battle against the upstart Ottawa Senators, who feature young talent like Daniel Alfredsson, Marian Hossa and an oversized defensemen named Zdeno Chara.
Sick of hearing all the ads? Subscribe to Soda Premium on Apple Podcasts to get rid of them!
Follow @Sportsfeld on X! While you're there say hello to @theZubes and @JGoldsbie or reach out to the show and say hey: podcast@sportsfeld.ca
If merch is your thing, be sure to check out the store: http://bit.ly/merchfeldIf you enjoyed today’s show, please rate Sportsfeld 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.
And as always, thank you for listening to another episode of Sportsfeld.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Z shot missed the gold and that's fairnesss A Mars
handing out the embarrassing w cos tanasus turn of US's
gonna Paris, don't have that hockey game.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We want to finish. Tones come up the.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Defenseman joining that rush, but he's carried back down Thomas.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Game it the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
They go up and deck Sunday. That's Sunday bone shot
and the germanto etnames when.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The first game man that us that's seven one hic
he's cutting up over the autum.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Nine are at the pub, shot up clim.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Us.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Where's the day?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
It is? Sports Fellows story time. This month, we are
going back to the ice. We are looking back to
thus and two playoffs maple Leafs versus Senators, a rich
sort of mini history here of the Battle of Ontario,
where both being teams were sort of competitive. The Maple
Leafs had owned the Senators up to this point, but
(02:14):
this sort of felt like maybe this was the year
the Sens breakthrough. We'll get into this a secretly pretty
good Senators team with a lot of players that would
become like important parts of that generation of players, and
the Maple Leafs against all odds some injury, bad luck.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Some bounces get into this series.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
It's a good series, and it all swings on a
triple overtime game, and that is what we're focusing on
on this Sports Felt storytime. Game two of the two
thousand and two NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals the Maple Leafs
and Senators. Jake, how were you as a Mayple Leafe
fan in two thousand and two?
Speaker 6 (02:57):
I would say this year was probably the peak of
my Maple Leafs fandom. I think this was the year
that like I I when I was very young, like
like we're going like zero to I don't know, eight
or nine, I obviously liked the Maple Leafs and cheered
for them, but hockey was not a sport that I
(03:22):
really paid a lot of attention to. I have very
vague memories of mid nineties hockey, and the team also
wasn't very good like post ninety whatever you're that was
ninety three, So I think that probably played into it.
I guess it was not coincidentally, as the team started
to become competitive, and as I got a little older
and started watching more of the games, I think, like
(03:43):
when I think of like Maple Leaf time and like
what made me like I was as passionate a Leafs fan.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I think this year than I was about any team,
Blue Jays included.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
And I remember. I think it's also because I was
I was thirteen at the time, so it's like the
right time for watching sports all the time, and games
like this that go to three overtimes, like you have
the endurance of a thirteen year old that it was
like to not be completely drained by it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
But I remember this.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
I think this year's playoffs, of the pre lockout playoff runs,
I think this is the year that I remember the best,
and this is the year that I remember carrying the most.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
This team one hundred points season. They were forty three,
twenty five and ten. They were second in the division
behind Boston. Which that's life as.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
A may please fan for the more time things change.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Yeah, Sundeans had forty one goals eighty points. Mcgilney had
twenty four. He only played sixty six games. Your old
reliables Kabra, Layne McCabe on defense. Some of the veteran
guys that classic of that era. There was Roberts and
Corson and Domie and Tucker, who was actually second on
the team in points twenty four goals as well. Some
(05:09):
funny veteran guys your k Loomey played a bunch for
this team, Dmitri Yuskvich, Reichel and Renberg and Travis Green.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Renberg was my guy.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
I love you guy, I liked I liked Rednburg too.
He was he had that nice chemistry with Reichel and
he wasn't like a brand name guy.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Mcgilney was my rider die guy on this team, like
my I have had the same map Least jersey since
ninth grade, which is a Alexander mcgilney jersey.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So he was my like, he was my guy on
this team. But Renberg was sort of.
Speaker 6 (05:43):
The you know, you always have those like the underappreciated
quote unquotes that you just like fall in love with.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Rendburg was my guy on that team for that purpose.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
That's funny you mentioned that mcgilney, which I think we'll
get into during the game, but you sort of it's
hard to play. He was both there at exactly the
right time in the league and also maybe ahead of
his time, if that makes sense. Mm hmm, yeah, because
he had the high scoring years as a rookie and
he had some great years, but you have to figure
if he played now, he would be even better.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
I think he's I feel like he's kind of the
midpoint between like a Pavel Burret and an Ovechkin, where
like he doesn't have the pure scoring ability that Ovechkin does,
but he still had that like speed and skill, but
he had the like he had his like spot on
the ice where if like he got the puck there,
(06:37):
he was probably gonna score. But he also had that, yeah,
that speed and skill think of I don't. I don't
think he was as good as either of those guys,
but I do think that he had an interesting mix
of their skill sets. And I remember the I think
it was the year before this, when he was still
(06:57):
in New Jersey. He just murdered us in the playoffs.
I remember when we got him.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I was excited because it meant he couldn't do that again.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Totally.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
The playoffs broke interestingly for the Maple Leaves here. And
I remember because I was sixteen and I could drive,
and life was cool, and I had a girlfriend and
things were good. It was crazy because on the other
side of this, like the Maple Leafs played the Islanders
in the first round and it was tougher than it
(07:28):
needed to be because Sundean got hurt right away. In
Game one, he took a shot to the wrist and
fractured his wrist, and he played the next two games.
He played Game two and Game three, but missed the
rest of that series, in all of the Ottawa series,
So the guy that had been driving them all year
(07:49):
long is suddenly not there. But on the other side
of it, you get the Senators, who Maple Leafs had
absolutely owned in the playoffs as we went over, and
the other the other thing is Montreal beat the Bruins,
who was the team ahead of the Mainple Leafs, as
we said, in the division. So things were looking like
(08:12):
there was a there was a chance. I know, we'll
get into this a little later on, but boy, I
was rubbing my hands together at yeah, prospects of that
Carolina series that.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
This this one. Really I think of all the good
pre lockout playoff years, of which there were quite a few,
this one at the time and in retrospect, and especially
how that Carolina series sort of shook out, this one
feels like the one year where I was like, man,
(08:45):
I will preface this by saying they would more than
likely if they had beaten Carolina, I believe that they
would have more than likely been absolutely spanked by the
Red Wings because no one was beating the two thousand
and two Detroit Red Wings.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
But the Red Wings had it figured out. They were
in there, like having it really figured out.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, but this does sort of feel like the year
of like maybe they could have got back to the
final and then obviously that has not happened since.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
And for Ottawa fans, they were feeling very good.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Actually, you're right, this is a good Senator's team.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
Like Alfredson obviously their leader, but they had Marian Hosa,
who I think watching this game is probably the scariest
player on the ice other than man. Mike Fisher has
some stretches where he's dangerous, but.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Josas like a three minute stretch and I think it's
the second overtime where I don't know how he didn't
win the game four separate times.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Martin Halett, who was also like he went on to
have a very good career, and my favorite thing the Senators.
I mean, you can see Jara like the beginning of
him being the dominant defenseman in the game.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
Yeah, and I feel like from a senator's perspective, as
you just as we just laid out this sort of
blessed path for the Maple Leafs to make a run
in the playoffs with Montreal beating Boston and everything following
the way it did. You're a Sentence fan, You look
at the Leafs just played a tough, tough seven game
series against the Islanders and they don't have Sundean and
(10:31):
you just pace them in game one. Like, if you're
a Sentence fan, this game has to stick as like
a huge what if in just like history for your team.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Absolutely, And I mean they had worked the Flyers ridiculously
and Lalim's numbers like we get into it as we
come into game two, but he has a zero two
point three to two goals against and an eighty eight,
say percentage. He was letting nothing in ridiculous.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
I feel like Patrick o'leim because he has sort of
the at least in retrospect, like when you think of
at least from a Toronto perspective, when you think of
Patrick leem, you think of him letting in the softies
in game seven, like that's the sort of the defining
image of the lem. But like Patrick o'leeam had a
pretty solid run there for a few years.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Oh absolutely absolutely, and then he leads that leads to
them thinking they need to change their goaltender.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
If I'm not mistaken, that's right.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
But as we were saying, if you're an Ottawa fan,
and I knew Ottawa fans at this at this point
in my life, especially after the series starts, they are
convinced this is the year that it switches and this
Ottawa becomes the dominant Ontario team. They win five nothing
in Game one in Toronto and just like absolute slap
in the face of the Maple.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Leaves Old sun all mind himself in.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
The give it a bonk. He winds up the reps
car bomb fires a high shot and Joseph putting nut.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Boom fast enough.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Alcolmson again fires a shot around the goal is center
score born up in alperson winds up the shot, scores
alperson hard shot, one timer on the set up in
this five nothing, not a loll and they'll remain on.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
The power play.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
All on a law. They're ready. Well, they certainly were
better prepared tonight than the Leafs were when all the Leafs.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Are coming off a seven game tough.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Physical series, the motto up coming up huge success against
the favorite Philly and it's been a very one side
of the fair this game.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
I remember the Game seven against the Islanders quite well,
and I remember thinking it it was a four to
two final, the fourth goal was an empty netter. Was
not a like easy home game seven win by any means,
if there is such a thing. But like, I remember
going into this series thinking, you know, they're exhausted, they
(13:10):
have no Sundean centers are good. This was I know,
like there's multiple game seven game Toronto Ottawa series. I
remember being I would never say it out loud, but
I remember at the time being like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I don't know about no.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I think this was the one where you could sort
of see the writing on the wall and say, especially
with how fired up they would be when Toronto was
clearly a better team. Now that Ottawa has taken some
steps forward and then they became a really strong regular
season team, you remember this, This sort of battle of
Ontario really fueled them to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
This was one where I.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Came into this assuming they were probably gonna lose this series.
The no Sundean everything that went on against the Islanders.
It wasn't just the Sundeen injury. Forget Tucker got himself
in hot water with a low hit on Mike Pekka.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Which is cannot state.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
We will get into this and it comes up over
and over again how much Ottawa I hated Darcy Tucker,
like he was public enemy number one.
Speaker 6 (14:16):
I feel like history has been like I'm sure, if
you look at it, I actually have no idea. I'm
sure if you look at his play stylent numbers from
a modern analytics view, he's terrible, But actually don't know
if that's true. What I was gonna say is that
I feel like history has been unkind to Tucker actually
being a pretty decent player at this time. Like when
you think of Tucker, you think of the hit on Pekka,
(14:37):
you think of him getting run by Alfredson, you think
of him destroying Sammy Kapnan before the Flyers knocked us out,
And I feel like he doesn't come up a lot
in the like great Like I feel like even Domie
gets more praise than him, and Domy was a significantly
worse hockey player than Darcy Tucker. I feel like Darcy
(15:00):
Tucker's sort of legacy as a Leaf is really interesting
to me.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Maybe I'm wrong in this.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
And maybe it's just sort of the hockey circles that
I follow or read, but I feel like I don't read,
hear or read a lot about Darcy Tucker and a
how much other teams hated him and be how popular
he was in Toronto.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
I think it's sort of the pendulum sort of swings
where at the time he was so popular and so
probably overrated because he was a maple Leaf that I
think a counter swing came to like step down some
of that excitement, and now it's gone so far that
he's probably underrated in the grand scheme of things, because
(15:43):
as I said, you know, he was the second leading.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Scorer on the team.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
He did score twenty four goals, and he comes up
big in a lot of the moments the Maple Leafs
need him in this little run here, this five year span,
six seven year span.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
And I think because like a lot of these guys
sort of the team was so bad immediately after the lockout.
Now like a lot of these guys have sort of
not fallen by the wayside, but the like the idea
of a lot of these players. I think the luster
was lost pretty uh, pretty quickly.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It got ugly.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
That's part of the reason why I think the lockout
and the salary cap coming in, and I think some
inner locker room stuff. I mean, we look at the
veterans on this roster, that Roberts, Course and DOMEI you know,
as you mentioned those guys that they're sort of they
get lumped together as very representative of that era of
(16:44):
lease teams that were you know, they were good for
maple leafs teams. Considering how bad the team has been
in stressed.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
The thing that I think is funny about this team
of this era, and you could sort of alluded to
it a second ago by bringing up like the installment
the stalary cap and all that, is this is the
team that arguably got the closest to the goal, and
this is kind of the one team from that era
that didn't make a silly, slash insanely fun deadline deal.
(17:17):
The only addition to the deadline were it was Tom Barrasso,
which and in my brain I think because they're all
lumped together, I remember watching is this the Owen Nolan year?
Is this the Brian la year like, which which crazy
move was this? But in retrospect you wonder.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
That was a fun year. Let me tell you, yo,
it really was.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
But in respect you wonder if they had done a
dumb Leafs trade before this run?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Who knows?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Who knows? So we pick it up. We get into.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Where the episode two will start, which is an absolute
must win game at the Air Canada Center, some funny,
weird like you're talking about weird sort of postseason ads.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
There's a Bob Wren. There's a guy named Bob Wren.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Plays one regular season game and then he plays one
playoff game and it's game two.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Like I remember a lot about this season, I do
not remember Bob Wren. Do you remember Bob Wren?
Speaker 6 (18:21):
I remember Bob Wren only because he was acquired on
the same day as Paul Healy in that trade. But
if you were to ask me to remember Bob Wren's too,
what he did on the ice in the two hockey
games he played, I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
He played five career NHL games over three seasons and
one playoff game. He played nine minutes in this game,
and he almost scores like a minute in anyway.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
Can you imagine if there was a player like that today,
with like analytics and social media, there was just like
a must win playoff game and you're dressing Bob Wren.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Leading him nine minutes ridiculous, be a nightmare.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
So your lineups, your game one lineups, the lay Peliefs,
go b lac Berg, Corson, Domie Andres Erickson. Listen, remember
a guy Travis Green, Paul Heally, Jonas Hogland, Thomas Covlet,
you're k Loome.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
God I hated, I hated Jonas.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Hogland, Brian McCabe, Alan McCauley, Alexander mcgilney, Carol p Lash,
Robert Reichel, Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Bob Wren and Kujo
in net Man my flashbacks of watching Kujo What a Goaltender?
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Yeah, man, just I've I kind of missed, I know,
like I like to make fun of sort of old hockey. Yep,
goaltending a lot, but like there was the early two thousands,
Like Kujo Hashik chaos style is so fun.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He was really something to watch.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
He has a couple saves of this game where it's
like you probably could have saved that far easier by
just standing still.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
What an experience it was to have Craig's grosp in
that because he loved him. Yeah, well he would, he
would make the incredible save and you were just waiting
for him to get beat on a regular risk shot.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
It would happen fairly regularly. But we will get into
what this game.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Becomes and how it goes and one of the all
time overtime games in Maple Lea's history. We will get
into that in episode two coming up.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
What's the
Z shot missed the gold and that's fairnesss A Mars
handing out the embarrassing w cos tanasus turn of US's
gonna Paris, don't have that hockey game.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We want to finish. Tones come up the.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Defenseman joining that rush, but he's carried back down Thomas.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Game it the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
They go up and deck Sunday. That's Sunday bone shot
and the germanto etnames when.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The first game man that us that's seven one hic
he's cutting up over the autum.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Nine are at the pub, shot up clim.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Us.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Where's the day?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
It is? Sports Fellows story time. This month, we are
going back to the ice. We are looking back to
thus and two playoffs maple Leafs versus Senators, a rich
sort of mini history here of the Battle of Ontario,
where both being teams were sort of competitive. The Maple
Leafs had owned the Senators up to this point, but
(02:14):
this sort of felt like maybe this was the year
the Sens breakthrough. We'll get into this a secretly pretty
good Senators team with a lot of players that would
become like important parts of that generation of players, and
the Maple Leafs against all odds some injury, bad luck.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Some bounces get into this series.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
It's a good series, and it all swings on a
triple overtime game, and that is what we're focusing on
on this Sports Felt storytime. Game two of the two
thousand and two NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals the Maple Leafs
and Senators. Jake, how were you as a Mayple Leafe
fan in two thousand and two?
Speaker 6 (02:57):
I would say this year was probably the peak of
my Maple Leafs fandom. I think this was the year
that like I I when I was very young, like
like we're going like zero to I don't know, eight
or nine, I obviously liked the Maple Leafs and cheered
for them, but hockey was not a sport that I
(03:22):
really paid a lot of attention to. I have very
vague memories of mid nineties hockey, and the team also
wasn't very good like post ninety whatever you're that was
ninety three, So I think that probably played into it.
I guess it was not coincidentally, as the team started
to become competitive, and as I got a little older
and started watching more of the games, I think, like
(03:43):
when I think of like Maple Leaf time and like
what made me like I was as passionate a Leafs fan.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I think this year than I was about any team,
Blue Jays included.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
And I remember. I think it's also because I was
I was thirteen at the time, so it's like the
right time for watching sports all the time, and games
like this that go to three overtimes, like you have
the endurance of a thirteen year old that it was
like to not be completely drained by it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
But I remember this.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
I think this year's playoffs, of the pre lockout playoff runs,
I think this is the year that I remember the best,
and this is the year that I remember carrying the most.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
This team one hundred points season. They were forty three,
twenty five and ten. They were second in the division
behind Boston. Which that's life as.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
A may please fan for the more time things change.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Yeah, Sundeans had forty one goals eighty points. Mcgilney had
twenty four. He only played sixty six games. Your old
reliables Kabra, Layne McCabe on defense. Some of the veteran
guys that classic of that era. There was Roberts and
Corson and Domie and Tucker, who was actually second on
the team in points twenty four goals as well. Some
(05:09):
funny veteran guys your k Loomey played a bunch for
this team, Dmitri Yuskvich, Reichel and Renberg and Travis Green.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Renberg was my guy.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
I love you guy, I liked I liked Rednburg too.
He was he had that nice chemistry with Reichel and
he wasn't like a brand name guy.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Mcgilney was my rider die guy on this team, like
my I have had the same map Least jersey since
ninth grade, which is a Alexander mcgilney jersey.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So he was my like, he was my guy on
this team. But Renberg was sort of.
Speaker 6 (05:43):
The you know, you always have those like the underappreciated
quote unquotes that you just like fall in love with.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Rendburg was my guy on that team for that purpose.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
That's funny you mentioned that mcgilney, which I think we'll
get into during the game, but you sort of it's
hard to play. He was both there at exactly the
right time in the league and also maybe ahead of
his time, if that makes sense. Mm hmm, yeah, because
he had the high scoring years as a rookie and
he had some great years, but you have to figure
if he played now, he would be even better.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
I think he's I feel like he's kind of the
midpoint between like a Pavel Burret and an Ovechkin, where
like he doesn't have the pure scoring ability that Ovechkin does,
but he still had that like speed and skill, but
he had the like he had his like spot on
the ice where if like he got the puck there,
(06:37):
he was probably gonna score. But he also had that, yeah,
that speed and skill think of I don't. I don't
think he was as good as either of those guys,
but I do think that he had an interesting mix
of their skill sets. And I remember the I think
it was the year before this, when he was still
(06:57):
in New Jersey. He just murdered us in the playoffs.
I remember when we got him.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I was excited because it meant he couldn't do that again.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Totally.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
The playoffs broke interestingly for the Maple Leaves here. And
I remember because I was sixteen and I could drive,
and life was cool, and I had a girlfriend and
things were good. It was crazy because on the other
side of this, like the Maple Leafs played the Islanders
in the first round and it was tougher than it
(07:28):
needed to be because Sundean got hurt right away. In
Game one, he took a shot to the wrist and
fractured his wrist, and he played the next two games.
He played Game two and Game three, but missed the
rest of that series, in all of the Ottawa series,
So the guy that had been driving them all year
(07:49):
long is suddenly not there. But on the other side
of it, you get the Senators, who Maple Leafs had
absolutely owned in the playoffs as we went over, and
the other the other thing is Montreal beat the Bruins,
who was the team ahead of the Mainple Leafs, as
we said, in the division. So things were looking like
(08:12):
there was a there was a chance. I know, we'll
get into this a little later on, but boy, I
was rubbing my hands together at yeah, prospects of that
Carolina series that.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
This this one. Really I think of all the good
pre lockout playoff years, of which there were quite a few,
this one at the time and in retrospect, and especially
how that Carolina series sort of shook out, this one
feels like the one year where I was like, man,
(08:45):
I will preface this by saying they would more than
likely if they had beaten Carolina, I believe that they
would have more than likely been absolutely spanked by the
Red Wings because no one was beating the two thousand
and two Detroit Red Wings.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
But the Red Wings had it figured out. They were
in there, like having it really figured out.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, but this does sort of feel like the year
of like maybe they could have got back to the
final and then obviously that has not happened since.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
And for Ottawa fans, they were feeling very good.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Actually, you're right, this is a good Senator's team.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
Like Alfredson obviously their leader, but they had Marian Hosa,
who I think watching this game is probably the scariest
player on the ice other than man. Mike Fisher has
some stretches where he's dangerous, but.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Josas like a three minute stretch and I think it's
the second overtime where I don't know how he didn't
win the game four separate times.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Martin Halett, who was also like he went on to
have a very good career, and my favorite thing the Senators.
I mean, you can see Jara like the beginning of
him being the dominant defenseman in the game.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
Yeah, and I feel like from a senator's perspective, as
you just as we just laid out this sort of
blessed path for the Maple Leafs to make a run
in the playoffs with Montreal beating Boston and everything following
the way it did. You're a Sentence fan, You look
at the Leafs just played a tough, tough seven game
series against the Islanders and they don't have Sundean and
(10:31):
you just pace them in game one. Like, if you're
a Sentence fan, this game has to stick as like
a huge what if in just like history for your team.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Absolutely, And I mean they had worked the Flyers ridiculously
and Lalim's numbers like we get into it as we
come into game two, but he has a zero two
point three to two goals against and an eighty eight,
say percentage. He was letting nothing in ridiculous.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
I feel like Patrick o'leim because he has sort of
the at least in retrospect, like when you think of
at least from a Toronto perspective, when you think of
Patrick leem, you think of him letting in the softies
in game seven, like that's the sort of the defining
image of the lem. But like Patrick o'leeam had a
pretty solid run there for a few years.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Oh absolutely absolutely, and then he leads that leads to
them thinking they need to change their goaltender.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
If I'm not mistaken, that's right.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
But as we were saying, if you're an Ottawa fan,
and I knew Ottawa fans at this at this point
in my life, especially after the series starts, they are
convinced this is the year that it switches and this
Ottawa becomes the dominant Ontario team. They win five nothing
in Game one in Toronto and just like absolute slap
in the face of the Maple.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Leaves Old sun all mind himself in.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
The give it a bonk. He winds up the reps
car bomb fires a high shot and Joseph putting nut.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Boom fast enough.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Alcolmson again fires a shot around the goal is center
score born up in alperson winds up the shot, scores
alperson hard shot, one timer on the set up in
this five nothing, not a loll and they'll remain on.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
The power play.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
All on a law. They're ready. Well, they certainly were
better prepared tonight than the Leafs were when all the Leafs.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Are coming off a seven game tough.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Physical series, the motto up coming up huge success against
the favorite Philly and it's been a very one side
of the fair this game.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
I remember the Game seven against the Islanders quite well,
and I remember thinking it it was a four to
two final, the fourth goal was an empty netter. Was
not a like easy home game seven win by any means,
if there is such a thing. But like, I remember
going into this series thinking, you know, they're exhausted, they
(13:10):
have no Sundean centers are good. This was I know,
like there's multiple game seven game Toronto Ottawa series. I
remember being I would never say it out loud, but
I remember at the time being like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I don't know about no.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I think this was the one where you could sort
of see the writing on the wall and say, especially
with how fired up they would be when Toronto was
clearly a better team. Now that Ottawa has taken some
steps forward and then they became a really strong regular
season team, you remember this, This sort of battle of
Ontario really fueled them to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
This was one where I.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Came into this assuming they were probably gonna lose this series.
The no Sundean everything that went on against the Islanders.
It wasn't just the Sundeen injury. Forget Tucker got himself
in hot water with a low hit on Mike Pekka.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Which is cannot state.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
We will get into this and it comes up over
and over again how much Ottawa I hated Darcy Tucker,
like he was public enemy number one.
Speaker 6 (14:16):
I feel like history has been like I'm sure, if
you look at it, I actually have no idea. I'm
sure if you look at his play stylent numbers from
a modern analytics view, he's terrible, But actually don't know
if that's true. What I was gonna say is that
I feel like history has been unkind to Tucker actually
being a pretty decent player at this time. Like when
you think of Tucker, you think of the hit on Pekka,
(14:37):
you think of him getting run by Alfredson, you think
of him destroying Sammy Kapnan before the Flyers knocked us out,
And I feel like he doesn't come up a lot
in the like great Like I feel like even Domie
gets more praise than him, and Domy was a significantly
worse hockey player than Darcy Tucker. I feel like Darcy
(15:00):
Tucker's sort of legacy as a Leaf is really interesting
to me.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Maybe I'm wrong in this.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
And maybe it's just sort of the hockey circles that
I follow or read, but I feel like I don't read,
hear or read a lot about Darcy Tucker and a
how much other teams hated him and be how popular
he was in Toronto.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
I think it's sort of the pendulum sort of swings
where at the time he was so popular and so
probably overrated because he was a maple Leaf that I
think a counter swing came to like step down some
of that excitement, and now it's gone so far that
he's probably underrated in the grand scheme of things, because
(15:43):
as I said, you know, he was the second leading.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Scorer on the team.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
He did score twenty four goals, and he comes up
big in a lot of the moments the Maple Leafs
need him in this little run here, this five year span,
six seven year span.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
And I think because like a lot of these guys
sort of the team was so bad immediately after the lockout.
Now like a lot of these guys have sort of
not fallen by the wayside, but the like the idea
of a lot of these players. I think the luster
was lost pretty uh, pretty quickly.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It got ugly.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
That's part of the reason why I think the lockout
and the salary cap coming in, and I think some
inner locker room stuff. I mean, we look at the
veterans on this roster, that Roberts, Course and DOMEI you know,
as you mentioned those guys that they're sort of they
get lumped together as very representative of that era of
(16:44):
lease teams that were you know, they were good for
maple leafs teams. Considering how bad the team has been
in stressed.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
The thing that I think is funny about this team
of this era, and you could sort of alluded to
it a second ago by bringing up like the installment
the stalary cap and all that, is this is the
team that arguably got the closest to the goal, and
this is kind of the one team from that era
that didn't make a silly, slash insanely fun deadline deal.
(17:17):
The only addition to the deadline were it was Tom Barrasso,
which and in my brain I think because they're all
lumped together, I remember watching is this the Owen Nolan year?
Is this the Brian la year like, which which crazy
move was this? But in retrospect you wonder.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
That was a fun year. Let me tell you, yo,
it really was.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
But in respect you wonder if they had done a
dumb Leafs trade before this run?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Who knows?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Who knows? So we pick it up. We get into.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Where the episode two will start, which is an absolute
must win game at the Air Canada Center, some funny,
weird like you're talking about weird sort of postseason ads.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
There's a Bob Wren. There's a guy named Bob Wren.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Plays one regular season game and then he plays one
playoff game and it's game two.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Like I remember a lot about this season, I do
not remember Bob Wren. Do you remember Bob Wren?
Speaker 6 (18:21):
I remember Bob Wren only because he was acquired on
the same day as Paul Healy in that trade. But
if you were to ask me to remember Bob Wren's too,
what he did on the ice in the two hockey
games he played, I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
He played five career NHL games over three seasons and
one playoff game. He played nine minutes in this game,
and he almost scores like a minute in anyway.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
Can you imagine if there was a player like that today,
with like analytics and social media, there was just like
a must win playoff game and you're dressing Bob Wren.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Leading him nine minutes ridiculous, be a nightmare.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
So your lineups, your game one lineups, the lay Peliefs,
go b lac Berg, Corson, Domie Andres Erickson. Listen, remember
a guy Travis Green, Paul Heally, Jonas Hogland, Thomas Covlet,
you're k Loome.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
God I hated, I hated Jonas.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Hogland, Brian McCabe, Alan McCauley, Alexander mcgilney, Carol p Lash,
Robert Reichel, Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Bob Wren and Kujo
in net Man my flashbacks of watching Kujo What a Goaltender?
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Yeah, man, just I've I kind of missed, I know,
like I like to make fun of sort of old hockey. Yep,
goaltending a lot, but like there was the early two thousands,
Like Kujo Hashik chaos style is so fun.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He was really something to watch.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
He has a couple saves of this game where it's
like you probably could have saved that far easier by
just standing still.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
What an experience it was to have Craig's grosp in
that because he loved him. Yeah, well he would, he
would make the incredible save and you were just waiting
for him to get beat on a regular risk shot.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
It would happen fairly regularly. But we will get into
what this game.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Becomes and how it goes and one of the all
time overtime games in Maple Lea's history. We will get
into that in episode two coming up.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
What's the
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