1994 Leafs Canucks series

[Ace36758]

I was thinking back to the playoffs of the early to mid 90s and this series is, for whatever reason, one that I know very little about. It was the first, (and is the only) meeting of these two teams according to wiki.

In 1993, the leafs went on a run to game 7 of the conference finals, ultimately losing to the kings in a series that we all remember (Gretzky high stick, Gilmour/Gretzky heroics). The leafs also beat the wings and blues in 7 that year. So, heading into 1994, hopes were high for the leafs and they delivered, with a 98 point regular season.

1994 is the Canucks’ famous run, as they went all the way to the finals and lost to the Rangers in 7. Along the way, they beat the flames in a memorable, wild 7 game series with several overtime games, and then took down the stars in a 5 game series which is often remembered for physical play and the “mother of all elbows” delivered by Bure on Churla. The leafs, meanwhile, defeated the hawks and sharks both in 6 games.

What was the general feeling going into that 1994 leafs Canucks series in round 3? Was Toronto considered the favourite? (they did out-point Vancouver by 13 in the regular season) How did the Canucks manage to get out in 5 games, with the leafs winning game 1? Did Potvin play poorly?

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[The Panther]

I also feel that this series is curiously under-hyped and seldom remembered. You would think a Toronto-Vancouver playoff showdown would be the ultimate Canadian NHL moment, but somehow this series falls under the radar.

 

[sr edler]

Vancouver out-depthed and out-muscled Toronto with guys like Momesso, T. Hunter, McIntyre. Odjick also played this series.

Toronto couldn’t muster much offensively. They scored 0 even strength goals games 2–4. Out of their 9 goals in the series 5 were on the power play.

 

[VanIslander]

I was in grad school at the time... I remember KNOWING that my Canucks were going to breeze past the Leafs after we beat Dallas because our SPEED was so much greater. It really was like night and day and there was no doubt in my mind of the result to come: hence my excitement after round 2!

 

[sr edler]

Was Toronto considered the favourite? (they did out-point Vancouver by 13 in the regular season)

Vancouver had under-achieved in the regular season. Linden had 61 points in 84 games. Greg Adams 37 points (13 goals) in 68 games. Gelinas 16 points in 33 games. When those players (and the rest of the team) woke up and got rolling in the playoffs it was a whole different story. Also swap Jiri Slegr on defense during the regular season for Brown and Hedican in the playoffs.

 

[double5son10]

I was in grad school at the time... I remember KNOWING that my Canucks were going to breeze past the Leafs after we beat Dallas because our SPEED was so much greater. It really was like night and day and there was no doubt in my mind of the result to come: hence my excitement after round 2!

Yep, that’s my memory of the series. In spite of the Leafs addition of Gartner, who was never a playoff hero, the Leafs were a team stuck in 4th gear and the Canucks simply killed them with their speed.

 

[sr edler]

Had forgotten Gartner was even on that team. He had one secondary assist in the series.

 

[Thenameless]

Don Cherry is an unabashed Boston and Toronto fan, and before the series started he had a funny commentary with his buddy Ron Maclean. He was wearing a hat and shades to make it more comical. Ron asked Cherry who he thought was gonna win the series, and Cherry pretended to look around nervously with his hat and shades on (like he was a spy or doing a street deal or something). He said something to the effect that "those Canucks (defensemen) sure do look pretty big out there, ", kinda whispering it nervously. It was pretty funny actually.

Vancouver was the bigger, faster, better, meaner team during the '94 playoffs. Guys had career playoffs that year as everyone seemed to be peaking at the same/right time. Not to mention the very obvious chemistry that the team had. Pat Quinn really had them firing on all cylinders. Imagine being a massive underdog to those Messier/Leetch/Richter Rangers, and giving them all they could handle over an awesome seven game series. That's part of why the team is remembered so fondly.

 

[Tarantula]

Don Cherry is an unabashed Boston and Toronto fan, and before the series started he had a funny commentary with his buddy Ron Maclean. He was wearing a hat and shades to make it more comical. Ron asked Cherry who he thought was gonna win the series, and Cherry pretended to look around nervously with his hat and shades on (like he was a spy or doing a street deal or something). He said something to the effect that "those Canucks (defensemen) sure do look pretty big out there, ", kinda whispering it nervously. It was pretty funny actually.

Vancouver was the bigger, faster, better, meaner team during the '94 playoffs. Guys had career playoffs that year as everyone seemed to be peaking at the same/right time. Not to mention the very obvious chemistry that the team had. Pat Quinn really had them firing on all cylinders. Imagine being a massive underdog to those Messier/Leetch/Richter Rangers, and giving them all they could handle over an awesome seven game series. That's part of why the team is remembered so fondly.

Bang on about Cherry. He is a homer for the Leafs and I remember him saying that he could not promise a win against van like he could aginst San Jose, the Leafs prior opponent. I remember him mentioning the size of the Van D as well, it seemed very clear that to him Van was a clear favourite. Not that I put too much faith in Grapes, but he clearly saw the Leafs as underdogs.

Vancouver did really dominate that series, never thought the Leafs had a chance once the series started to get rolling, especially when the series headed west.

 

[Thenameless]

Bang on about Cherry. He is a homer for the Leafs and I remember him saying that he could not promise a win against van like he could aginst San Jose, the Leafs prior opponent. I remember him mentioning the size of the Van D as well, it seemed very clear that to him Van was a clear favourite. Not that I put too much faith in Grapes, but he clearly saw the Leafs as underdogs.

Vancouver did really dominate that series, never thought the Leafs had a chance once the series started to get rolling, especially when the series headed west.

Thank you. I'm glad I'm not losing my mind in my old age. Some of the things that I remember so vividly from 20, 30, even 40 years ago, I can't find on YouTube.

 

[Tarantula]

Thank you. I'm glad I'm not losing my mind in my old age. Some of the things that I remember so vividly from 20, 30, even 40 years ago, I can't find on YouTube.

I hear you on that! Can't remember what I had for lunch! I don't really care a lot what Don says but I remember he was clearly concerned about Vancouver being too much for the Leafs.

Remember Don getting worked up as the Vancouver fans jeered Wendall with Wendy chants?

 

[Thenameless]

I hear you on that! Can't remember what I had for lunch! I don't really care a lot what Don says but I remember he was clearly concerned about Vancouver being too much for the Leafs.

Remember Don getting worked up as the Vancouver fans jeered Wendall with Wendy chants?

I had forgotten about the Wen-dy, Wen-dy chants until you reminded me just now. But, yes, now I do.

 

[sr edler]

This is after the series was already done, but he's talking about Van being bigger here.

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Go to the 50:30 mark for the Canucks perspective on this series.

One thing to keep in mind was the odd 2-3-2 format of this series.

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

I lived in Vancouver at the time, & even with the momentum coming out of the Dallas series, as a long-suffering Canucks fan I wasn't convinced they could take the Leafs. Arguably, the Leafs had a better lineup than the year before when Doug Gilmour played the hockey of his career & led them to the Conference final: Wendel Clark *finally* had lived up to the years of hype & was having the best year of his career, with 46 goals, & Dave Andreychuk put up 53 goals & 99 points.

The Canucks had really limped through the year with lots of drama & underacheiving, as usual. But some magic really clicked in when the guys came in from St. Louis at the deadline, Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican & Nathan Lafayette. There was a noticeable change in the team chemistry immediately; a couple of months earlier, they also had a little chemistry shot when Martin Gelinas came in. They were seriously in danger of being knocked out by the Flames in the first round, they really struggled, but you could see the spark there like they had in 82. After the Flames, they just sort of came on like a freight train, I couldn't believe they handled the Leafs so easily, the Leafs looked absolutely spent by the third game & the Canucks just dominated them with speed & strength. Clark & Andreychuk scored 99 goals between them in the regular season but were shut down by McLean & the Canucks clutch & bang defence. The Canucks really exposed all the holes in the Leafs, showed Clark to be much weaker than he was always hyped to be, & Gilmour was never really the same after that series.

 

[EpochLink]

Canucks during that series were bigger, faster, physical than the Leafs that series. The Leafs went with the 2-3-2 format because of the travel, meaning if things didn't go their way in Vancouver they would have game 6 and 7 at home.

When Vancouver tied the series in game 2, Toronto couldn't score on Mclean in games 3 and 4. Also, game 3 had the infamous Bure goal where he just speeds towards to puck and shoots it by Potvin.

 

[Jim MacDonald]

Go to the 50:30 mark for the Canucks perspective on this series.

One thing to keep in mind was the odd 2-3-2 format of this series.

Great OP Ace and thanks for the video Marc (very awesome/educational stuff for this series). This series piqued my interest too here so watching this video was awesome....wow...back-to-back shutouts by Kirk McLean! McLean outplays Potvin...one key....interesting to learn too that Toronto actually "dictated/picked" the 2-3-2 format. Being the higher seed game them this privilege I take it? hmmmm

 

[c9777666]

I also feel that this series is curiously under-hyped and seldom remembered. You would think a Toronto-Vancouver playoff showdown would be the ultimate Canadian NHL moment, but somehow this series falls under the radar.

It didn't help that the other conference final that year was iconic (NYR-NJD East Finals)

 

[Stephen]

The Pat Burns era hit a peak during the spring of 1993 and the 10 game winning streak in October of 1993 and ran out of gas in Vancouver in the spring of 1994.

The Canucks were deeper, bigger, faster and their goaltending was air tight. After Game 1, it seemed like Bure, Adams, Linden just laid waste to the Leafs, with McLean shutting the door quite definitively.

 

[EpochLink]

Great OP Ace and thanks for the video Marc (very awesome/educational stuff for this series). This series piqued my interest too here so watching this video was awesome....wow...back-to-back shutouts by Kirk McLean! McLean outplays Potvin...one key....interesting to learn too that Toronto actually "dictated/picked" the 2-3-2 format. Being the higher seed game them this privilege I take it? hmmmm

The Leafs had the higher seed so they get to chose how the format would play out. In their minds, going 2-2-1-1-1 would wear down on them for travel purposes. I get it coming from their perspective.

 

[c9777666]

The 2-3-2 format..... you think Toronto would rather have gone back home for a game 5?

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

The Canucks entered that series only 3-3 at home and were 5-1 on the road in the playoffs, so I can see why Toronto did it. You can't enter a series thinking you are going 0-3 on the road when you are the higher seed.

 

[Big Phil]

Remember too, the Canucks had very good years in 1992 and 1993 but not much in the playoffs to show for it. 1994 they were about the best .500 team I've ever seen in my life. So it wasn't as if it wasn't fresh in people's minds for them to have been good so recently. So I really take that 85 point season with a grain of salt. They were much better than that.

 

[EpochLink]

Remember too, the Canucks had very good years in 1992 and 1993 but not much in the playoffs to show for it. 1994 they were about the best .500 team I've ever seen in my life. So it wasn't as if it wasn't fresh in people's minds for them to have been good so recently. So I really take that 85 point season with a grain of salt. They were much better than that.

They upgraded near/at the trade deadline too:

We sent Petr Nedved to St.Louis for Craig Janney.

Then Janney refused to report so we sent his ass back to St.Louis for Jeff Brown, Brett Hedican and Nathan LaFayette.

We also picked up Martin Gelinas on waivers after Quebec placed him there, he played really well down the stretch and playoffs.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

For some reason my main memory of this series is a buddy of mine calling Kent Manderville “Neanderville” after seeing a closeup of him in the penalty box.