Reality bites as Leafs pack up and head home
Brutal finish to the season ensures this team won’t look the same come training camp
The gravity of the situation has set in for the Maple Leafs.
On a day when the franchise looked forward to changes under new president Brendan Shanahan, the reality of the situation hit home even harder than it did last week when the season was officially lost.
Winger Phil Kessel said on Monday he won’t play for the American side at the world championship next month in Belarus. Linemate Tyler Bozak said he will play for Team Canada, but Kessel felt the need for rest after a long and trying season.
“I think I’m going to take the chance to rest, go home and rest and come back ready,” Kessel said.
When asked if playing for Team USA in Sochi affected him and linemate James Van Riemsdyk, Kessel said both players were “tired.”
“I’d say we were tired, but no excuses,” Kessel said. “It was a long year, a lot of games. I had a lot of chances, I just couldn’t get them to go in. I’ve never seen a stretch like that. I have had my (slumps) but at the end of this one it was crazy. Obviously it sucks, we have a good group of guys, we had our chances.
“Fifteen games ago, you wouldn’t predict this . . . it’s unheard of. It was fun last year, we made the playoffs and the city was great in the playoffs. This year we were good for 60 games, we were in there by quite a margin. To miss it now is tough. To go through a stretch like that, I haven’t seen it. It wasn’t pretty. It’s disappointing for us and for the fans.” Goalie James Reimer said he has “no clue” as to whether he will be dealt in the off-season, ending a mercurial four years with the Leafs. Reimer, abandoned far too often by his defence, was in goal for most of the Leafs collapse after starter Jonathan Bernier got hurt. Much of his time with the Leafs the past three weeks has been dealing with several distractions, including Twitter attacks on his wife, and constant speculation about his future in Toronto. Overall, Reimer feels positive about his season. “This may sound crazy, but I honestly feel I’m 10 times the goalie I was last year,” he said. Forward Dave Bolland is also wondering about his future in Toronto, and it is an outcome that will be dictated by his continuing recovery from a major ankle injury and his ongoing contract talks with the Leafs. “It’s weak,” Bolland said of the ankle tendon he tore early in the season. “I maybe returned earlier than ex- pected, but you just want to help your team.”
Bolland expects to fully heal in the off-season, but his future with the Leafs remains up in the air.
Bolland and agent Anton Thun exchanged salary figures with Leafs management prior to the Sochi Olympics but were “significantly apart,” according to Thun.
Toronto has at least 11 players heading into free agency, Bolland included, and speculation has Bolland, Reimer, Cody Franson, Paul Ranger and Mason Raymond not returning to the club next season.
“This is between the agents and the GMs,” Bolland said. “But this is where I want to be, this (Toronto) is the mecca of the hockey world. Our fans are the best . . . this is where I want to be.”
Some talk on Monday had the Leafs entertaining the thought of trading Joffrey Lupul as part of a further “culture” change.
Less than a year ago, Lupul was being hailed as one of the team’s best players and a potential future captain. He also received very little credit for playing on a second line that frequently changed personnel.