Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.31

www.afootinthecrease.com

Wow, what a ride that was. All that work, all that effort, all that tension, all for not. For those disappointed to not see the Maple Leafs competing in a playoff situation for what is now three calendar years, take solace in the fact really since the all star game, it has been playoff hockey for this team. Every game down the stretch was a playoff game, in an effort to prove everyone wrong. In the end, the naysayers and the pessimists again had the last laugh but you certainly can’t say this team didn’t give it all they had left.

If the Leafs had of snuck into the playoffs to meet the Buffalo Sabres, who knows what would have happened. In the last week or two, it became quite clear the Maple Leafs were running low in the gas tank when they came up flat twice in New York. Having to fight tooth and nail for two months for your playoff lives will do that to you. Unlikely they would have found a way to knock of the Presidents Trophy winners but I think there are many who would have liked to see them get the chance.

Coming into this season, the Maple Leafs were predicted to a team that would have to scrap and claw all year long for a shot at the playoffs. Eighty two games later, that prediction could not have been anymore accurate. Perhaps the fact that they even were in the fight until the bitter end is a credit to the personnel that constituted this year’s team. An already very average roster decimated by injuries to key players, several of those of the long term variety, should have been enough to finish this team off long ago. But somehow they hung around, outlasting Carolina, outlasting Boston, outlasting Montreal, the passion that does unite us all continuing to show through. To be frank, it was their own fault, their destiny was out of their control but let me ask you this. As a Leaf fan, have you ever cheered louder than when John Madden scored to keep this going just a little bit longer. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.