The story behind Lanny McDonald's remarkable season, 40 years on SIMMONS: Game 3 is everything for the Maple Leafs. Really, only Auston Matthews, with points in every playoff game, and goals in four of eight, has performed at a consistent level needed for stars in the playoffs. Since then, he has one goal in six games. Through eight games of the playoffs - six against Tampa, two against Florida - Mitch Marner has scored in one of the Leafs’ post-season games, while William Nylander scored in the first two games but has no goals since captain John Tavares had a hat trick in Game 2 against Tampa. This is what great players like Shanahan did when it mattered most: Which makes you wonder, why aren’t the Maple Leafs more like their team president? Why aren’t they tough like he was tough? Why can’t they score playoff-wise the way he could score? Why can’t they battle the way Shanahan battled? This was a Detroit team that featured Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Luc Robitaille and five other Hall of Fame players, while head coach Scotty Bowman is the 10th member enshrined at the Hall. When he won his third Cup, he was second in Wings playoff goal-scoring behind Brett Hull. When Brendan Shanahan won his first Stanley Cup, he led the Detroit Red Wings in playoff goal-scoring.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |