The Four-Minute Miracle On Bay Street In Toronto

If you have lived in Toronto long enough and have followed the Maple Leafs, you are used to heartbreak and failure. Just reference the Boston Bruins and the memories of stunning collapses come flooding back.

Friday night looked like another one of those nights.

The Maple Leafs were down 3-0 and facing elimination against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the best-of-five Stanley Cup Qualifiers. The Leafs’ big guns couldn’t do anything right, and Twitter was lighting up.

The final nail in the coffin appeared to be driven in when defenseman Morgan Rielly was stripped of the puck in the defensive zone by captain Nick Foligno and Boone Jenner pounced on the loose puck to put Columbus up 3-0 with less than six minutes left.

Rielly hung his head and busted his stick on the bench in anger. The Leafs had a steep, if not impossible, hill to climb, and Rielly just made a desperate situation even worse.

Fans on social media were calling for the head of general manager Kyle Dubas, who had assembled a roster of what many have felt are rich, entitled kids who hadn’t proven anything yet.

They are right to some extent. The gold-dust quartet have not even won a playoff round, despite all the money they have been handed. This is an era where players are paid not for what they have done, but for what they are expected to do.

Auston Matthews ($11.6 million), John Tavares ($11 million), Mitch Marner ($10.8 million) and William Nylander ($6.9 million) had looked unimpressive in this series until the end of Game 4.

The pressure was squarely on them. Big money does that.

But with four minutes left to elimination, these high-priced Maple Leafs responded. The result was what they are calling the Miracle on Bay Street.

Less than 24 hours earlier, the Leafs had surrendered a three-goal lead to fall to Columbus, which put them on the verge of elimination.

But then the miracle happened. And it took a veteran at 37, Jason Spezza, to be the catalyst. While not a fighter, he engaged Dean Kukan in a fight midway through the third period. An old guy like Spezza, who is making a paltry $700,000, showed his teammates this game was worth fighting for, and he lit a spark under the Leafs.

Down 3-0 with four minutes left, Toronto pulled its goalie and Nylander scored to pull the Leafs to within two. Less than a minute later, Tavares scored to make this a one-goal game. Very interesting, but a comeback still appeared highly improbable.

Then, with 23 seconds remaining in regulation time and the goalie still out for an extra attacker, Zach Hyman scored the tying goal to force overtime and the team erupted in joy like they were kids playing on a backyard rink.

In overtime, the man who is the most important player of their franchise, Auston Matthews, scored the winner on a power play, with assists from Tavares and Marner.

In mounting this 4-3 comeback, Toronto became only the third team in NHL history to win a postseason contest after overcoming a three-goal deficit in the final four minutes of regulation. The others were Edmonton in Game 3 of the 1997 conference quarterfinals and Anaheim in Game 5 of the 2017 second-round series.

The Maple Leafs’ victory marked the first instance in NHL history of a club overcoming a three-goal deficit when facing elimination.

Toronto is now in a naturally buoyant mood. These Leafs have shaken the tag of being the laughable losers for now. They found inspiration when they could have just quit like other Toronto teams before them. And no matter what happens, will anyone remember Rielly’s terrible gaffe now?

But this celebratory mood must have a short shelf life. Columbus played the last several minutes without shutdown defender Zach Werenski, who has an undisclosed injury.

Game 5, the deciding game of the series, is set for Sunday night. The Leafs are riding a tidal wave of emotion that comes when you’ve dodged a bullet, while the Blue Jackets are miserable and angry.

Sports is full of teams and athletes who have pulled off the impossible only to crash and burn in the next round because it’s hard to rise to such high levels twice in a short time span. How the Maple Leafs come out on Sunday night will be so interesting to watch.

You know the Blue Jackets were angry after blowing a chance to advance into the main playoff round. You could see it in the press conference with coach John Tortorella after. There was tension with every brisk word.

Torts sets the tone for these Blue Jackets. That’s why we will likely see anger and determination in every stride from Columbus on Sunday.

Nick Foligno will be the most angry. He was called for a questionable penalty that led to the overtime goal, and he was heated when the call was made.

Foligno and the rest of the players will want to prove they want this victory more than the Maple Leafs. That was not the case in the closing minutes on Friday.

Said Blue Jackets’ Cam Atkinson after the game. “They clearly wanted it more than us.”

Atkinson is the Blue Jackets’ highest-paid player with a cap hit $5.8 million, which, of course, is much less than any of the big four on the Maple Leafs.

One of the best players for Columbus this series has been Pierre-Luc Dubois, who was taken only a couple of picks after Auston Matthews in the 2016 NHL draft at No. 3 overall.

Dubois scored a hat trick in the Blue Jackets’ previous 4-3 victory. His salary is a paltry $894,166.

The salary disparity between the Maple Leafs and the Blue Jackets is reflected in how each of the teams is built. Toronto has the skill, Columbus has the grit. In most leagues, skill is valued more.

But it’s often the opposite effect when the NHL playoffs come around. The grittier players are often the ones who shine.

Which aspect will prevail when the chips are down on Sunday? Toronto’s skill or Columbus’ grit? Hard to tell. But if Toronto brings both skill and grit to Game 5, they should be favored.

No matter who wins Game 5, it’s unlikely either team has any more rabbits to pull out of the hat. Miracles don’t happen every day.

This Game 5 will no doubt be one of the most watched hockey games in quite some time, especially in Canada.

This game will surely be a test of who wants to win more. Columbus embraces the underdog role. Remember, they swept the first-place Tampa Bay Lightning in last year’s biggest playoff shocker. They know how to take down a soft, skilled team.

The Leafs showed heart in their comeback, but they shouldn’t allow themselves to feel too good about themselves. The fact remains, this high-priced club hasn’t won anything yet.