Proud Again : The Rebuilt Maple Leafs Stress Defense as They Seek to Regain Stanley Cup Glory

The Air Canada jumbo jet had landed at Lester B. Pearson International Airport and the captain’s voice came over the loudspeaker.

“Welcome to Toronto, home of the amazing Blue Jays and the amazing Maple Leafs.”

Until this year, the Maple Leafs didn’t belong in the same same sentence as the World Series champion Blue Jays.

While the Blue Jays were winning three American League pennants and setting attendance records at the SkyDome, the once proud Maple Leafs, who had won 11 Stanley Cup titles, had deteriorated into one of the NHL’s worst teams under the 20-year ownership of the late Harold Ballard.

“When things went well before, Harold would do something stupid,” said former Maple Leaf general manager Gord Stellick, now a Maple Leaf radio announcer. “I don’t knock Harold personally because he gave me an excellent opportunity, but when things were going well he’d do something to screw it up. It was a lot like (Cincinnati Red owner) Marge Schott.”

Columnist Jay Greenberg of the Toronto Sun agreed.

“It was the worst run organization in sports,” Greenberg said. “(Ballard) was cheap and stupid, and in the last few years he was senile. He had no concept of what to do.”

Because of Ballard, the Leafs were unable to sign the talent they needed to be competitive. When Maple Leaf captain Wendel Clark, the NHL rookie of the year in 1986, sought a raise at the end of his first contract, Ballard balked.

“He was making $110,000 and Harold’s first line in contract negotiations was, ‘He’s not expecting a raise, is he?’ ” Stellick said. “Harold was in his 80s and everyone did things for him. He had no idea what it cost to buy a loaf of bread or a quart of milk.”

Ballard also refused to market the Maple Leafs, who once sold out Maple Leaf Gardens as soon as they announced their season schedule, and the Blue Jays replaced them as the city’s most popular team.

But new General Manager Cliff Fletcher, who isn’t afraid to spend the money of new Maple Leaf board chairman Steve Stavro, has revitalized the team that will play the Kings tonight in the opening game of the Campbell Conference finals at Maple Leaf Gardens.

“Fletcher has been the difference,” Stellick said. “But Cliff has a mandate, which under Harold Ballard nobody had.”

Fletcher, the former general manager of the Calgary Flames, brought instant credibility to a franchise that was in disarray for the last 20 years. In two years, Fletcher, who built the Flames into one of the NHL’s best teams, has rebuilt the Maple Leafs through shrewd trading and last year’s hiring of former Montreal Canadien coach Pat Burns, who has compiled the NHL’s best record over the last four seasons.

And the resurgent Maple Leafs, seeking to reach the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 26 years, have captured the hearts and minds of Canada’s largest city.

“The Blue Jays winning (the World Series) was great,” Stellick said. “They love baseball, but hockey is coming back with a passion because it’s our sport.”

After the Maple Leafs defeated the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of the Norris Division finals Saturday night to reach the conference finals for the first time in 15 years, an estimated 60,000 revelers jammed downtown streets. Police were forced to close Yonge Street, the city’s main drag, because of gridlock.

“All of a sudden (Maple Leaf fans) have come out of the closet all over Canada,” Burns said. “For a long time they were ashamed to say that they were Maple Leaf fans. More Maple Leaf jerseys have been sold this year than in any other year in the history of the franchise. You used to never go to another city and see somebody wearing a Maple Leaf jersey. Now you see them all over Canada.”

The Canadian Home Shopping Club began selling Maple Leaf merchandise, such as autographed pucks, T-shirts and trading cards, to cable TV watchers throughout Canada last weekend.

Signed to a contract that pays him a reported $800,000, which makes him one of the NHL’s best-paid executives, Fletcher’s first move was engineering a 10-player deal with the Flames for center Doug Gilmour on Jan. 2, 1992. Gilmour, who had walked out on the Flames because of a contract dispute, has developed into one of the NHL’s most productive scorers since signing a long-term deal that pays him a reported $1.1 million per season.

The Maple Leafs are 68-49-12 since the arrival of Gilmour, who set a team scoring record with 127 points this season.

“He fleeced Calgary,” Toronto Sun sports editor Scott Morrison said. “Toronto didn’t have a bona fide star before Gilmour got here. Gilmour and (Toronto Blue Jay star) Roberto Alomar own the city.”

Burns, voted NHL coach of the year after leading the Canadiens to the NHL’s best record in 1988-89 as a rookie coach, was contacted by the Kings, who were reportedly set to make him general manager and head coach after firing Tom Webster last year. But Burns didn’t even return their calls before taking Maple Leaf job, perhaps the most prestigious in the NHL.

“It turned out well for both clubs,” Burns said. “(King Coach) Barry (Melrose) and (General Manager) Nick Beverley have done a good job in L.A., and we’ve done a good job here.”

The Canadiens had the NHL’s best or second-best defensive record during Burns’ four-year tenure and the Maple Leafs were the NHL’s second-best defensive club this season after they mastered Burns’ tight-checking defense.

“Defense is hard work and nobody likes hard work,” Burns said. “Offense is fun because it’s creativity. It’s tough to teach a player the things that Wayne (Gretzky) does. I could sit here with a player for two years and try to teach him what Wayne does and I wouldn’t be able to do it. That’s a God-given gift. But defense can be taught.”

The Maple Leaf defense is built around rookie goalie Felix Potvin, who posted the NHL’s lowest goals-against average (2.50) and had the second-best save percentage (.910) this season.

The Maple Leafs have so much confidence in Potvin that Fletcher traded away goalie Grant Fuhr, a six-time all-star who helped the Edmonton Oilers win five Stanley Cups, to the Buffalo Sabres last February for left wing Dave Andreychuk.

“Grant Fuhr is one of the greatest goalies this game has ever had,” Fletcher said. “But we desperately needed a goal-scorer. We wouldn’t be (in the conference finals) if we hadn’t gotten Andreychuk.”

Although Andreychuk is one of the NHL’s most productive centers, he was criticized in Buffalo because the Sabres never advanced past the first round in Andreychuk’s nine seasons.

“He was the whipping boy for the Sabres,” Burns said.

But Andreychuk has flourished since the trade, scoring a career-high 99 points this season and leading the NHL with 32 power-play goals, two shy of the NHL single-season record. He became the third player in Maple Leaf history to score 50 or more goals during a season, getting 54, one shy of the team record.

Fletcher, the only general manager the Flames had had since their inception in Atlanta in 1972, left Calgary because he said there was nothing left to accomplish. Besides spearheading the construction of a state-of-the-art arena, Fletcher put together a team that posted the NHL’s best record for two seasons.

“I had a contract in Calgary that took me through retirement,” Fletcher said. “But I saw myself sliding into semi-retirement. I was 55 and I felt I needed a new challenge to get the juices going because Calgary was running smoothly. I thought not only would I be doing myself a favor, but I’d be doing Calgary a favor.”

So he jumped when he was offered the chance to run the Maple Leafs by the late Don Giffin, who succeeded Ballard. However, Giffin was forced out by Stavro after signing Fletcher, and there was speculation that Stavro planned to replace Fletcher with his own man because he thought Fletcher’s contract was outrageous.

“When the board of directors that hired me was replaced by the new board, there was speculation that I was going to go from having the longest tenure as a general manager and president with one team to having the shortest tenure,” Fletcher said. “But were were able to resolve it.”

And Maple Leaf fans, who maintain that only Chicago Cub fans have suffered more than they, are reaping the benefits.