Toronto Maple Leafs Should Cheer For Lightning Comeback

The Toronto Maple Leafs have an interesting relationship to these finals.

There are ex-members of the Toronto Maple Leafs on both teams (Kadri, Bogosian) but the ties run deeper:

Corey Perry was famously spurned by the Leafs, then went on to appear in another two straight Cups.

The Avalanche are rumored to have forced the Leafs hand in hiring Kyle Dubas, supposedly wanting him as their GM.

The Leafs had a 3-2 lead on the Lightning in the first round of these playoffs, lost in game six due to a series of bad calls by the game officials, then all-but dominated game seven, and somehow lost 2-1.

And finally there is the Nazem Kadri trade, which is really the key factor in why I will be cheering for a Lightning comeback.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Nazem Kadri

Though Kadri’s improbable late-career turn into an elite player (likely just for this one year, but still, what a year!) makes the trade of Kadri for Kerfoot look really bad, it’s actually not even close to being the blunder people make it out to be.

First of all, let’s acknowledger that Alex Kerfoot also had a career year this season, and was in fact a very good player for the Leafs, who outperformed their goaltending by a larger margin than any other team in the NHL this year, while finishing 4th overall.

Secondly, Kadri’s production is largely on the power-play.  At 5v5, where 80% of the game is played, Kadri scores only slightly more than Kerfoot while being a much worse defensive player.  On the power-play is where Kadri separates himself from Kerfoot, but the Leafs had the best power-play in the NHL, so they clearly didn’t miss what he brings.

I acknowledge that on paper it doesn’t sound like a good trade, but when you factor in what each player brings to the table, and include the year of Barrie (very good despite some people’s poor memories) and the cap savings between the two players, I think the Leafs did much better on the trade than they get credit for.

But the major thing to remember is that the Leafs shouldn’t have traded Kadri, didn’t want to trade Kadri, and likely wouldn’t have traded Kadri if Kadri himself didn’t make that absolutely essential. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

There is not one player on one team in all of the world’s professional sports who would stay with his team after getting suspended in consecutive playoff seasons.

It just wouldn’t happen.

Kadri wrote his own ticket out of town with his own stupidity and lack of maturity.  The Leafs lost in game 7 both years Kadri was suspended.  I think if he plays both games there’s a massive probability that the Leafs win at least one of them, and at least some chance the Leafs win the Cup. Therefore I think it’s fair to blame Kadri at least in part (a major part) for those losses.

So as much as Nazem Kadri is actually one of my favorite all-time Leafs players, I am very much cheering against him right now. I just do not want to see the guy who is as responsible as anyone else for the  Leafs not winning a single playoff series over the last six years win a Stanley Cup, especially against the team that the Leafs beat four times despite losing.