HockeyLeafs, Blackhawks in the midst of big playoff charges

Beginning of Story Content

(Al Bello/Getty Images)

Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada's play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into Saturday's featured game.

This Week's Work: Chicago Blackhawks at Toronto Maple Leafs (March 5, CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. PT)

The Script

The top of the West and bottom of the East got a lot more interesting over the last month thanks, in part, to an Original Six resurgence by the Chicago Blackhawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Chicago has rattled off seven straight wins, and while they're still closer to ninth place than first, the Hawks look like they'll get a chance to defend their title in the playoffs, when a few weeks ago a spot seemed like a lofty goal.

The Leafs, meantime, got younger and improbably better through the deadline frenzy, and a 10-2-4 streak since the all-star break has put them into a race that also seemed out of reach not long ago.

In Chicago, the massive cap turnover took away the Hawks' depth and identity. That, coupled with a Hunter S. Thompson-like Stanley Cup hangover, left them staggering for three quarters of the season.

Veteran stars weren't playing well, and newcomers didn't fit in. Valuable practice time was in short supply, and goaltending was spotty at best.

Then, Jonathan Toews put the team on his back.

The 22-year-old captain has been Chicago's only truly consistent star all season, and he finally dragged the rest of the group kicking and screaming back into the playoff race with a Hart trophy run since early February.

Toews was reunited with the Patricks -- Kane and Sharp -- in Edmonton on Feb. 9. The team has gone 9-1-2 since then, and the line has 44 points between them.

Over in Leafville, the kids have the run of the circus, and it looks like they're having the time of their lives. Phil Kessel is filling the net, Dion Phaneuf is leading a 20-something defence that's defying its inexperience, and goalie James Reimer is holding the fort long enough for different players to provide heroics every night.

When Darryl Boyce got the late game-winner to beat Philadelphia on Thursday, he became the ninth-different Leaf to have the game-winning goal in the last ten victories.

So it's more than a bit like old times, real old times, as the Leafs and Hawks clash on a Saturday night in Toronto, with both teams playing well and plenty at stake.

In the spotlight

You are either a hockey psychic or a goalie geek if you predicated the netminders carrying the Leafs and the Hawks in March would be James Reimer and Corey Crawford.

Reimer was down the depth chart beside Ben Scrivens before injuries allowed him to climb the ladder and take over the No. 1 job in Toronto at just 22 years of age, and with just 57 games in pro hockey.

The road for Crawford has been a much longer one. Drafted in 2003 from Moncton in the QMJHL, Crawford has been in the minors for five years, getting the occasional call-up while the Blackhawks spent a fortune bringing in goalies who moved ahead of him.

From Nikolai Khabibulin to Antti Niemi, a total of nine different goalies played for the Hawks while Crawford toiled patiently in the minors. Now he's taken the net from the latest goalie-for-hire, Marty Turco, and doesn't look like he's going to give it back.

Crawford hasn't garnered the attention of Jeff Skinner, Logan Couture, Taylor Hall or even Sergei Bobrovsky but you can build a pretty good case for him being a rookie-of-the-year candidate (25 wins, 920 save percentage, 2.37 goals-against average).

If the Hawks continue this late-season push and happen to catch the Red Wings, look at his numbers and invite him to Vegas.

On the Hotstove

Tomas Kaberle may be one of the nicest guys in hockey, and Francois Beauchemin is a pro through and through, but since they've been traded the Leafs' defence has been better.

Phaneuf is playing his best hockey as a Leaf. He's a physical force who's joining the rush at the right time and showing a poise with the puck that hasn't been an attribute until recently. Phaneuf engineered the game-winner against Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and scored a big goal against Philadelphia the next night. In both cases if you saw his celebration, you can tell he cares and is genuinely excited to play and win.

Perhaps it's simply a case of room to grow and lead that wasn't in the dressing room before.  

The other young defenders, Luke Schenn, Keith Aulie and Carl Gunnarsson, somehow look smarter and less timid. Even veterans Mike Komisarek and Brett Lebda have been avoiding the turnovers which stapled them to the bench earlier in the season.

The challenge in this game is formidable, though, and it will likely fall on Phaneuf and Aulie to play against the Toews line that is currently the best in the league, and somebody else, likely Schenn and Gunnarsson, will have to handle Marian Hossa.

Outtakes

The Hawks' visit to the Air Canada Centre is one of the hottest tickets of the season, in part because Toronto is host to a huge conference whose attendees can pay any price brokers ask. Around 25,000 people (mostly men) are in the city for a mining convention over the next week, in all likelihood leading to shortages of hockey tickets, red meat and Shiraz!

The Leafs paid a steep price to hire Colby Armstrong, and would probably like more than eight goals for $3 million US, but stats aside, they are a better team when he's in the lineup.

The Leafs don't have much of a third line without Armstrong to lead the grinding and cycling, their penalty killing is better when he's part of it, and opponents are always a little wary of the big hit that might happen when he's on the ice.

From the stat pack

Toews and Kane have lead the Blackhawks' climb up the NHL standings. Here's a look at the league's top point-scorers since the calendar turned to 2011.

Top scorers since Jan 1

Daniel Sedin (VAN), 32 points

Jonathan Toews (CHI), 30

Jarome Iginla (CGY), 29

John Tavares (NYI), 29

Patrice Bergeron (BOS), 27

Michael Grabner (NYI), 27

Patrick Kane (CHI), 27

Thomas Vanek (BUF), 27

Keith Yandle (PHX), 27

End of Story Content

Back to accessibility links