Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. One of my favorite types of highlights is when a college baseball player makes an unbelievable defensive play.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏈 Ultimate NFL Mock Draft
🪄 The Cavs’ version of Magic
📸 Masters photo gallery
Another drought snapped
The Toronto Maple Leafs just did something they hadn’t done in 25 years.
The Leafs have been the most frustrating team in the NHL over the past three decades. The largest city in the most hockey-crazed nation on Earth has to root for a team that didn’t win a playoff series between 2004 and ’23. They’re like hockey’s version of the Dallas Cowboys. But now they can celebrate the end of one ignominious streak.
With Tuesday night’s win over the Buffalo Sabres, the Leafs clinched first place in the Atlantic Division and second place in the Eastern Conference. It’s the first time since the 1999–2000 season that Toronto has won its division in a full-length season. The Leafs had previously won the North Division in the 2020–21 season, when the COVID-19 pandemic restricted cross-border travel and required the NHL’s seven Canadian teams to play a 56-game regular season against only each other.
No matter how long the wait was, Leafs fans won’t be too thrilled with just winning the division. They’re still anxiously awaiting the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1967. But winning the division is evidence that Toronto could be more ready to end that Cup drought than it has in years. A high-powered offense remains the main reason for the team’s success, led by superstar Auston Matthews and an excellent supporting cast that includes Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander and Matthew Knies. But the biggest difference between this year’s Leafs team and last year’s has been the goaltending.
The Leafs had a solid year last season, finishing with 102 points (fifth-best in the NHL and the same as they have this season with one game left to play), but they let too many pucks get behind them to be a true contender. Toronto ranked 21st in goals allowed and 23rd in save percentage. So the Leafs let starting goalie Ilya Samsonov leave in free agency, and signed Anthony Stolarz to replace him and pair with Joseph Woll. Woll has been steady, with a .909 save percentage (14th among NHL goalies with at least 20 games played this season), while Stolarz leads the league with a .926 save percentage. As a team, the Leafs rank 11th in goals allowed and fourth in save percentage.
Stolarz, 31, has been a revelation. He’s a career backup who, before last season, had played just 81 games over six seasons. But as the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky for the Florida Panthers last season, Stolarz led the NHL with a .925 save percentage and 2.03 goals-against average in 27 games. He signed a modest two-year, $5 million contract with the Leafs last summer, but Toronto also offered him his first opportunity as a pro to be a team’s primary goalkeeper. It’s proven to be an excellent signing. Stolarz missed nearly two months earlier this season with a knee injury, but Woll held down the fort in his absence and Stolarz has picked up right where he left off since he returned from injury. The Leafs are 12-3-1 in games he has started since he got back between the pipes on Feb. 6.
The Leafs clinching the division has one other very important wrinkle for Canadian hockey fans. It means Toronto will get to renew its playoff rivalry against the Ottawa Senators. The last time the Battle of Ontario took place in the postseason was 2004, when the Leafs won a thrilling seven-game series that featured a double-overtime game in Game 6. Ottawa and Toronto faced off in the playoffs three times in a four-year span between 2000 and ’04. But then the Leafs entered a down period in which they missed the playoffs in 10 of 11 years. Right as they got back on track, the Senators began their own period of misfortune, missing the postseason for seven straight years. Regardless of how this postseason ends for the Leafs, a first-round series against the rival Senators is a fun way to start it.
“It’s gonna be a bloodbath. Gonna be a little bit of a war. So, we’ll be ready,” Stolarz said of the pending matchup. “They’re a hungry team. They haven’t made the playoffs in (eight) years here. I just think we have to continue to do what we’re doing right now. I think we feel good about our game.”
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The top five…
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | The Maple Leafs Finally Won Something.
