HOME | CONTACT | ABOUT US | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | AUDIO FEATURES |  HTTV  |  DUCK CALLS RADIO

Leafs, Lupul continue ascent vs. familiar foe in Anaheim

By Brian Kennedy | Hockeytalk.biz

NOVEMBER 28, 2011 -- ANAHEIM -- The Toronto Maple Leafs had the good fortune to come to Anaheim after having done the southern US road trip of Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Dallas. You pretty much can’t get any further from Toronto than Orange County, CA and still be in the NHL. But then again, playing a defeated and nearly hopeless Ducks team, perhaps the Leafs felt a bit like they were taking on an other-than-NHL squad. (They beat the home squad 5-2, with the last goal an empty netter, but that’s not the point here.)

The faces were somewhat familiar from one side of the red line to the other. Beauchemin was in Toronto after his first stint with the Ducks and before his current one. Phaneuf played in Calgary and saw a lot of the Ducks over the years. Joffrey Lupul was a fan favorite of Ducks’ watchers in the two stints, injury plagued though they were, that he had on the West Coast. Devante Smith-Pelly of the Ducks grew up in Toronto watching the Leafs.  Anaheim's Jason Blake, currently on IR, once scored 40 goals for the  Leafs. Above they fray, of course, was Brian Burke, in his familiar role as eye-in-the-sky GM, except for the visitors this time, rather than the home team.

So what did they think about the visit? It can’t help but make you feel good to win, and the Leafs did that despite the Ducks having some great chances and nearly taking advantage when Dion Phaneuf took a penalty with 5:21 left in period three. Actually, a goal at that point would have done no more than make it 4-3, but with the Anaheim team’s propensity to put pressure on late and tie (before, it seems, always ultimately losing), who knows what might have happened? The Leafs shut it down, to Anaheim’s chagrin, and ended up adding an empty netter to make it 5-2. 

Their goalie, Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson, said of his win: “I think this might be one of the best games on this road trip. We made it tough for them, especially in the third period. A two-goal lead can be tough sometimes, but we really played well, and I think we deserved to win.”

On a night like that, a night like ones that the Ducks have had all too often of late, it’s not really fun to rehash the game. More significant, maybe, are the personalities who made up the rosters, and their history with one another.

Joffrey Lupul (left) picked up on the theme of the interplay between his past and present, Anaheim and Toronto. But his real concern was to talk about the team’s performance in winning three games on their road trip. He got two assists on the night, but he wouldn’t code it as revenge. “We were pretty solid tonight. It’s been a lot of travel, the whole south coast swing, but we were really strong all the way through the third period,” he said. “It’s just nice to get the win,” he said when someone tried to goad him into talking further about the matter.

He is tied with Jonathan Toews right now for having scored the most points in November, and his comments on the matter were telling: “It surprises me quite a bit. Obviously, I don’t think about myself in that category with the top scorers in the league. I am confident in my ability and my skill, but I’ve got to do most other things to have success—go to the net hard, win puck battles, but when I get in open ice, I can make some plays too.”

In fact, he stayed on script almost until the end of his interview. He said that his team scoring the first goal was big. “I know having played here with Getzlaf and Perry that when they get some confidence and get rolling they are going to be a tough line to contain. They scored, then we came right back on the power play and scored, and that kind of settled everything down a little bit.”

He said that he didn’t get a chance to hang out with his old friends, because the team had just come in the day before, and he and the others were resting from so much travel. His ties to SoCal are deeper than you might think, however. He was asked whether he still has a house in Southern Orange County, and with a sheepish grin, he said, “Yes, and in fact, I’m on my way there right now.”

Ah to be a hockey player. Scratch that. Ah, to be a millionaire.

And the real truth was told after the interview stuff was all done, when he and Bobby Ryan were in the hallway outside the Leafs’ room, standing close together and talking, old buddies. Funny, then, that when he was asked about coming back and playing against his former teammates, he said, “It’s good. It’s always fun to play against some of those guys, especially Getzlaf and Perry, that I kind of came up with. It’s fun to compete against those guys.” No mention of Ryan, and no ranging into the personal. Sometimes, you’ve got to read between the lines, it seems, to get the truth.

Brian Kennedy is a columnist for Inside Hockey and is the author of "Growing Up Hockey"
and "Living the Hockey Dream."   Brian has appeared on Hockeytalk Audio Features and is a regular guest on Duck Calls.  Check out this audio from HT Audio Features:

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO
BRIAN KENNEDY (21:23)