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OTTAWA — Well, to paraphrase Huey Lewis: They say the heart of the Leafs is still beating, and from what I've seen I believe 'em.
Now the old boy may be barely breathing, but the heart of the Leafs is still beating.
Almost everyone, according to Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Paul Maurice, has had a hand in this long-shot resuscitation effort, which stayed on track with an enormous display of character in a 5-4 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, 24 hours after the Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres.
This was accomplished with their best player, captain Mats Sundin, out with a groin injury along with their second best forward, Nik Antropov (knee). Another two regulars, forward Boyd Devereaux and defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo, were also out.
Since Sundin was lost on March 15, the Leafs have a 3-1 record, which sets up this week's home-and-home series against the Boston Bruins as the key to their NHL season. Since they are four points behind the eighth-place Bruins with six games to play, the Leafs have to win both games in regulation time to have any hope of making the playoffs. It is still the longest of long shots.
But it's a shot, which is good enough for this group. They might even get Sundin back for tomorrow's opener against the Bruins. Sundin plans to test his injured groin in practice today, and if the improvement he felt on the weekend continues, he might play.
Ask Maurice who is responsible for holding the team together in Sundin's absence, and he says he can name just about everyone on the team. From goaltender Vesa Toskala, who made his 27th consecutive start to beat the Senators, to defenceman Pavel Kubina, who seems to have a hand in every winning goal lately, to young centres Matt Stajan and Alex Steen, who both have picked up the scoring slack. The coach even adds, demurely, that he cannot claim a share of the credit.
"When things are going well, sometimes as a coach you want to make yourself as small as possible and not be a part of it," Maurice said. "They've got something going on in the room. We had a tough year in Toronto, we heard about it, but we've played pretty well for two months now.
"There's some confidence in there, a sense of team that maybe we hadn't had earlier in the year. Everybody's pulling for each other, they're making jokes on the bench. It's not loose hockey or a lack of pressure, it's the opposite. They've banded together."
The Senators came out hitting hard because they knew the Leafs played the night before. The visitors were reeling by the second period, but bounced back with a key goal in the final minute and two quick ones early in the third to win.
There were plenty of examples of the banding together. Darcy Tucker, so quiet earlier this season, was in full Tasmanian devil mode, throwing himself at the Senators and scoring that big goal in the final minute of the second period. Defenceman Staffan Kronwall, called up from the farm team last week, laid out Senators centre Dean McAmmond with a bodycheck early in the third period and then held his own in a fight with Shean Donovan. Centre Kyle Wellwood, a defensive liability most nights, broke up a Sens attack late in the game by picking off a pass.
And then there is Steen and Stajan, the 24-year-olds who were supposed to be the next generation of leaders on the Leafs. They made slow progress during their first seasons and doubts were setting in, but in the four games Sundin missed, Steen had a goal and five assists. Stajan's numbers are not as gaudy — two goals and an assist — but his line produced some key goals, and Stajan scored the winner against the Senators, working a give-and-go perfectly with Jason Blake.
"You're waiting for that secondary leadership and you don't always expect it from 24-year-old guys," Maurice said. "But Stajan and Steen, those guys have really come through in our time of need, especially at centre ice. You need to develop that leadership and you do it in games like [Saturday night]."
If Sundin comes back tomorrow, Stajan said, he and his teammates have to keep playing the same way. Otherwise it's all been for nothing.
"I don't think you can replace what Mats does," Stajan said. "What I do think is when he is in the lineup, we've got to do a little more. I think guys sit back and try and wait for him to do something, when we should take it on ourselves to do something."
