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BOSTON — The return of captain Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov to the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup was not enough to rescue their tiny playoff hopes.
Sundin and Antropov were back after recovering from groin and knee injuries, respectively, and played strong games. But the Boston Bruins still completed a sweep of the Leafs in their home-and-home series with a 4-2 win last night.
The loss mathematically eliminated the Leafs from the NHL playoff race. It is the first time the Leafs have missed the playoffs in three consecutive seasons in 80 years. From 1926 through 1928, the Leafs, known as the Toronto St. Patricks in the first two years, finished out of the running.
"There's always next year, but at three years in a row, it gets on your nerves," Antropov said. "It's not a fun feeling, I'm telling you that."
Jiri Tlusty, left, gave the Leafs hope with a second-period equalizer, but it was not to be. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
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Sundin was last seen futilely yelling at referees Rob Schick and Chris Lee about a key Bruins goal by Phil Kessel in the third period that the Leafs thought was offside. Sundin left the arena without speaking to reporters.
With only four games left in the regular season, the Leafs are eight points behind the Bruins, who are tied in points at 88 with the Philadelphia Flyers for the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. But even if they win all four games and the Bruins lose all five of their remaining games, the Leafs would not get the playoff spot because the Bruins won the season series between the teams with a 5-1-2 record. The Leafs would also lose the tiebreaker with the Flyers.
Once the Leafs' chase of a playoff spot officially ended, the players were ready to admit they left themselves an impossible task in their late run because too many wins were allowed to slip away earlier in the season.
"Obviously, you look back to January and February, when we only won six or seven games," defenceman Bryan McCabe said. "When the crunch came down the stretch, it was tough to pick up points.
"We battled hard, but it was too little, too late."
The Leafs' season effectively ended at 10:54 of the third period when Glen Murray scored a power-play goal for a 3-1 Bruins lead.
Pavel Kubina injected hope into the Leafs at 15:01 when he scored a power-play goal to cut the Bruins lead to 3-2. But 23 seconds later, Bruins forward Peter Schaefer bounced a shot off Leafs winger Jason Blake and into the net to restore Boston's two-goal lead.
The Leafs played much better than they did in the first game of this series, but were undone by a couple of defensive lapses.
Antropov unwisely left a drop pass for Sundin at the Bruins blueline in the first period that was scooped up by Bruins centre David Krejci. He set up a goal by Marco Sturm for a 1-0 lead for the Bruins.
Sundin and Antropov set up rookie Jiri Tlusty for the tying goal in the second period, but the Leafs fell apart in the third. Defenceman Staffan Kronwall let Kessel get behind him for a breakaway goal that restored the Bruins lead. The Leafs were convinced Kessel was offside, but the referees and the replay officials disagreed.
"We don't have much on video, so I can't confirm it," Leafs head coach Paul Maurice said.
With the Leafs looking for a new general manager, Maurice does not have a good chance to keep his job, although he has one year left on his contract. He was hoping desperately the Leafs' late charge would result in a playoff spot and was not prepared to discuss how disappointing it was to fall short or how proud he was of the players' belated effort, during which the Leafs ran up a 12-4-1 record before crashing against the Bruins this week.
"It's too early to feel good about anything," Maurice said. "I don't know. I can't explain it 10 minutes after a hockey game."
The priorities now for interim GM Cliff Fletcher are to decide which players will go and which will stay, plus get ready for the NHL entry draft in June. He said after the game he did see some positive aspects to the Leafs despite their poor season, but did not go into detail.
"I definitely saw things I liked," he said. "Then there are other things that are disappointing. We're committed to bringing this team up to the next level and the process will start when the season ends."
