Legendary hockey writer Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Known as "The Hockey Maven," Fischler combines his insight and humor here each Wednesday. This week looks at the chances of the Florida Panthers making a late Stanley Cup Playoff push and links to a pair of startling comebacks by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1949 and 1967.
Can the defending champion Florida Panthers make a late run to clinch a Stanley Cup Playoff berth? It appears to be an incredible challenge, but you never know.
Granted, their chances are slim. The two-time Stanley Cup champions are 12 points behind the Boston Bruins entering Tuesday for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They've been without captain Aleksander Barkov all season because of surgery on the ACL and MCL in his right knee Sept. 26, one day after the 30-year-old forward had to be helped off the ice following a collision with defenseman Niko Mikkola.
"Even if it's not our year, we still have to keep (playing our game) and carry it over for next year," Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen said after a 6-2 loss at the Seattle Kraken on Sunday.
The Panthers appear to be out of it, but not quite, because Yogi Berra and NHL history has taught us, "It ain't over 'til it's over."
The Toronto Maple Leafs surprisingly proved that point in two different Original Six eras. The first time was 1948-49, when the under-.500 Maple Leafs sneaked into the playoffs at the 11th hour and went on to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup championship.
Just as unlikely, the 1966-67 Maple Leafs survived a late-season 10-game losing streak, followed by the hospitalization of coach Punch Imlach for more than three weeks. Yet with the unexpected help of a venerable Hockey Hall of Famer, they got their act together to become the last Toronto team to capture hockey's definitive trophy.
"What made the 1949 comeback so unlikely," said then-Maple Leafs publicist and author Ed Fitkin, "was that our club previously had lost our captain and Hall of Fame center Syl Apps to retirement after we had won our second straight Cup in 1948. Then our best defensive center, Nick Metz, also called it a career. They were irreplaceable and it showed."
Try as they might in 1948-49, the struggling Maple Leafs were unable to reach .500 and were being outhustled by the Chicago Black Hawks in the neck-and-neck battle for fourth place, the final playoff berth.
"We were getting fat -- we started thinking we were some shakes as hockey players," Maple Leafs right wing Howie Meeker told author Jack Batten in "The Leafs in Autumn."
Neither the fans, management nor the writers thought Toronto had a chance. What finally stopped the bleeding was a defensive blueprint devised by coach Hap Day, who had won Cup titles in 1942, 1945, 1947 and 1948.
"Hap believed your opponent should score a goal a game against you on their own merits," Meeker said. Then you give them one more goal through your own dumb mistakes or refereeing or something that would give them 2 1/2 goals-against per game. He drilled us to keep the other guys to that number, figuring we'd get our own three and win."
Although the Maple Leafs (22-25 with 13 ties) made the playoffs, they were pitted against the Boston Bruins (29-23, eight ties) in NHL Semifinals. Boston captain Milt Schmidt considered it a mismatch.
"We should win," Schmidt said, "because we have the better club."
They did not. Toronto defeated Boston in five games, but then played the League-leading Detroit Red Wings in the 1949 Stanley Cup Final. The Red Wings finished with 18 more points than the Maple Leafs and their "Production Line" of Sid Abel, Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay was the best in the NHL.
To the astonishment of everyone, Day's defensive system worked again.
"I don't think the Red Wings got more than 10 shots on goal a game," Meeker said.
The Toronto Daily Star's Red Burnett explained it another way: "The Leafs regained their 'win complex.'"
Toronto swept the best-of-7 Final in four games and became the first team in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup three times in a row.
By contrast, the 1966-67 team endured different obstacles including a team rebellion against Imlach. That season was especially hard on forward Frank Mahovlich, its top player. "The Big M" missed a month of the season because of fatigue and depression.
"Imlach was constantly on Frank," wrote historian Eric Zweig in his. book "The Toronto Maple Leafs, The Complete Oral History."
A 4-4 tie with the Black Hawks on Feb. 11 ended the Maple Leafs' 10-game skid. One week later, Imlach complained of chest pain and was hospitalized.
"All things considered. that should have been the coup de grace," defenseman Allan Stanley said. "Management didn't have an assistant to replace Punch, so they drafted old King Clancy, who had been on staff as Imlach's sidekick. It was a desperate move."
Clancy didn't think so. The Maple Leafs went 7-1 with two ties in their next 10 games.
" It was easy. I told every guy he'd get a chance to play, and I asked for a 100 percent effort," he recalled in his autobiography. "I wasn't afraid to make a mistake, and I gave a little pat on the back to the players who were down."
The Old Guy's sweet talk, distilled with Irish humor, provided the solution.
"Clancy was the spark that led us back into contention." Stanley said.
After Imlach returned, the Maple Leafs (32-27, 11 ties) clinched a playoff berth, finishing two points behind the second-place Montreal Canadiens, and would face League-leading Chicago, which finished 19 points ahead of Toronto, in the opening round. The Maple Leafs eliminated the Black Hawks in the semifinals and defeated the Canadiens in six games for the Stanley Cup.
The victory ended the NHL's six-team epoch and was followed by the historic six-team expansion the following autumn. The question today is whether Panthers coach Paul Maurice has the deft touch that worked for Day and Imlach with the Maple Leafs.
