As a smiling Pat Quinn looked around the Air Canada Centre Saturday morning, he made a prediction Maple Leafs fans pray will come to reality down the road.
“One day, they will hoist a Stanley Cup in this building,” Quinn said.
How about starting with a playoff appearance first? Hey, you have to crawl before you walk, don’t you?
The Leafs have not been in the post-season since 2004, a six-year dry spell. Ironically, the Leafs coach at the time was Quinn, who now finds himself behind the bench of the Edmonton Oilers.
The Leafs won’t make the playoffs this season. That’s a given.
But for the first time in a long time, at least there seems to be some youthful optimism in the building, a feeling that was fuelled by the Leafs 6-4 victory over Quinn’s Oilers Saturday night.
Since general manager Brian Burke cleaned house at the trade deadline, these Baby Leafs have pieced together an impressive 4-1-1 record, showing some real spring in their collective steps in the process.
Before the fans get too sucked in, however, keep in mind that we’ve seen these late season surges in recent years by Toronto teams that, in reality, had no pressure on them down the stretch.
Also remember that many of the kids on the Toronto roster, baby-faced players such as Viktor Stalberg and Tyler Bozak, created a buzz with their outstanding play during the 2009 pre-season only to fall off the pace once the regular campaign started.
Still, with Burke wanting to use the final month of the season as auditions for the 2010-11 campaign, some of these youngsters are snatching the opportunity and running with it.
No one more than Bozak.
While he still looks like a stringbean once he sheds his equipment, Bozak, the highly regarded prospect out of the University of Denver, continues to display the types of moves that can wow the capacity crowds at the ACC at any given moment.
Just like the one he displayed at 18:05 of the first period that gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead.
After assisting on Nikolai Kulemin’s opener at 13:34, Bozak grabbed the puck in the neutral zone, pulled away with relative ease from the Oilers defenders, then practically deked goalie Jeff Deslauriers out of his jock strap to put the Leafs up by two.
You don’t teach a guy to do something like that. It comes naturally.
Bozak, who notched three points on the night, needs to put on some beef this off-season if he is to withstand the rigours of the NHL wars. But the upside, should he work on bulking up, is potentially scary.
The same could be said for his entire line, which also includes the enigmatic Phil Kessel and the suddenly-blossoming Kulemin.
Whenever a line begins to have success like this one is, there is the tendency of those in the press box to label the unit with a nickname.
The most popular one to come out for the Kulemin-Bozak-Kessel line Saturday night?
Kule And The Gang.
Hey, we never said it would stick.
Whatever you want to call them, they have been good. Just like most of the Leafs Kiddy Corps the past 11 days.
Here’s an idea how young this team is.
When Quinn first took over as the Leafs coach in 1998, Bozak and Stalberg were 12 years old.
Phil Kessel, who scored twice against the Oilers, was 10.
Luca Caputi, acquired March 3 from Pittsburgh for Alexei Ponikarovsky, was nine.
Maybe they won’t form the core of a Leafs team that one day wins the Cup.
If they win the Cup.
But a potential playoff team as early as next season? It doesn’t sound as ludicrous as it might have several weeks ago.
mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca
