Trafford Publishing: Heart and Spirit - The Toronto Maple Leafs of 2001-2002

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Heart and Spirit - The Toronto Maple Leafs of 2001-2002 - A Fan's Journal

by Doug Magwood; Foreword by Ron Ellis

285 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); If the author can succeed in having his work published and distributed, he wan; catalogue #02-0709; ISBN 1-55369-896-7; US$24.50, C$29.90, EUR19.50, £13.50

This is a great gift for any hockey fan. Follow the Leafs as they strive for the Stanley Cup. ALL author proceeds from sales will be donated directly to the Renal Department at the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario

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about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book

As the title suggests, this book, Doug Magwood's first, relates the story of the Toronto Maple Leafs as they progress through the 2001-2002 NHL season towards their ultimate objective, returning the Stanley Cup to Toronto. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
This book takes the form of a journal. It begins in early September 2001, as the players assemble for training camp, and concludes in the Spring of 2002, when the Leaf season comes to an end. Whether the players succeed, or fall short of their main objective, the book depicts a day-by-day chronicle of the struggle to attain professional hockey supremacy.
The author has been a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs since the 1950s. His book is written from a fan's perspective. He does not profess to have any means of acquiring "inside information" about the team. The opinions that are expressed in the book are his own. He also brings to this journal more than 40 years of devotion to the Maple Leafs. This work started out as a mere retirement pastime, but as it developed, the author began to envision a more ambitious and potentially useful outcome.
For more than a year, the author has been a dialysis patient at this fine hospital. He has come to admire the skill and dedication of the doctors, nurses, and technicians who provide more than 700 life-sustaining treatments each week to people like himself who require kidney dialysis. He wants to help them.
ALL author proceeds from sales will be donated directly to the Renal Department at the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario
In its final form, Heart and Spirit - The Toronto Maple Leafs of 2001-2002 - A Fan's Journal contains:

a prologue written and contributed by a former Toronto Maple Leaf player
testimonials contributed by personalities from the world of NHL hockey
player profiles
role descriptions of team management and support staff personnel
team and individual player objective setting and evaluations
recognition of the "Top 25 Leafs of All Time"
game-by-Game progress charts and summaries
2002 Winter Olympic Games Achievements
triumphs and trials of an NHL season
the drama of playoff action
glimpses of Leaf opponents throughout the NHL
This book is an accurate account of the regular season and playoffs as experienced by the Toronto Maple Leafs. It is an historical document, embellished by the views and opinions of a long-time fan. The author does not claim to be any kind of an expert in the game of hockey, but he tries to portray an appreciation of both the game and the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey organization... one of the 'original six' in the NHL.
It was the author's hope that, in the final analysis, the Leafs would win the Stanley Cup in 2002, thereby returning it to Toronto for the first time in 35 years. Though the hope wasn't filled, this book tells the story of the successes and disappointments which invariably have to be dealt with by every professional sports franchise on the planet... not just the Leafs.
Doug Magwood has tried to make this book easy to read, interesting, and a volume that will be a keepsake for Maple Leaf fans everywhere.

About the Author

Doug Magwood was born in Fergus, Ontario, and attended school at Fergus Public School and Fergus District High School. A graduate of the Stratford Teachers' College in 1960, he was employed by school boards in Halton for over 31 years as teacher, vice-principal and principal. He has volunteered in the community as an ambulance attendant, library board member, community policing committee member, board member of Crime Stoppers of Halton, and on the St. Andrew's United Church church board (Georgetown, Ontario). Retired since 1991, Doug is currently a haemodialysis patient at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario.

Excerpts

November 5
"The Slot" - Is It Being Ignored?
     have been a hockey fan for many years... decades, in fact. In the recent past, the game has changed in many ways. One change that I don't particularly like or agree with is the emphasis that seems to have elevated the importance of playing along the sideboards and behind the net. To me, it is a style of play that is unexciting and largely unproductive. "The slot" is being ignored.
    There are no markings on the playing surface of a hockey rink, which designate the slot. It is a quadrilateral which angles outward from each goalpost towards the face-off circles to the right and left of the net. It can extend outward as far as the blue line, but the most dangerous area is closer to the net, somewhere between 20 and 25 feet from the goal line.
    There is a scientific reason for saying that the slot is the most dangerous part of the ice. Dangerous for whom? The answer to that question is easy. The goalie of the defending team! A well-executed wrist shot from the slot will travel the distance from the stick to the back of the net faster than the human body can react. A goal can be scored by an accurate shooter before the goalie can move. These are facts that can be easily measured, and scientifically proven.
    The best example of a player who made use of the slot was Phil Esposito, back in the seventies. Phil is a big guy, and he was very strong and determined. He made the slot his favourite part of the ice, and his size and physical strength made it very difficult for defenders to move him out of there. He ruled the slot, and his statistics are there to prove it. In his eighteen years in the NHL, Phil played 1282 games. He scored 717 goals, fourth highest in history. Many of these goals were scored from the slot.
    It was Wayne Gretzky who took the focus away from the slot. A much slighter player, physically, he was unable to take the punishment that play in the slot entailed. He was gifted with great peripheral vision, and was able to set up and score goals from outside the slot. He was uncanny in setting up goals from behind the net. It was his style of play that obliged the NHL to move the net forward a bit just a few years ago.
    I think that more attention needs to be paid to the slot. Plays can be designed to take advantage of this rich, productive part of the ice surface. The level of excitement would rise as well, and open-ice body checking as a hockey skill would undergo a revival. The slot should be ignored no more!

January 21
Message #1... Delivered!
    As the Leafs depart for their weeklong road trip to the great Canadian West, there are probably a few foreboding thoughts preoccupying several of their minds. One of their buddies is missing. And he ain't coming back!
    Anders Eriksson's days with the Toronto Maple Leafs are over. Management, yesterday, told him to stay at home by the telephone to await a further assignment. The first thing that the Leafs will try to do is trade him to another NHL club. Even if they are successful, they will probably wind up paying a good part of his contract, a nice fat one he signed with Toronto last summer.
    If a trade cannot be worked out, Anders will be assigned to the Leafs' minor league club in St. John's Newfoundland. Since his contract is a one-way pact, he will toil on the Rock for what is probably the fattest contract in the minors. If I am not mistaken, he signed for three years, and the total amount of money at stake is in the neighbourhood of three million dollars. The Leafs really took it on the chin with this deal.
    This could well be the end of Eriksson's career in the NHL. Toronto was the fourth club he played with. He had already been written off by Detroit, Chicago, and the Florida Panthers. How he ever managed to get such a lucrative contract with Toronto is a mystery to me. He was a relatively high draft pick of Detroit in 1993, but he never stuck with that club, or any other since becoming a major-leaguer.
    As a Leaf, Eriksson was a "healthy scratch" in thirty-one of the first forty-nine games, and when he played; he was guilty of some glaring defensive errors. Two of those came last week, against Nashville. That game probably sealed his fate with Toronto. He is still young, though; just 27, and I hope that he gets a shot with another club. At the same time, he has a lot to prove, and if he can't pull it off, he will be a wealthy write-off as a player in the world's most elite hockey league.
    One of the bubbles I referred to last week has been burst. There are several others still wafting about. Eriksson is only the first change to be made, and this move by Management was relatively predictable. Other changes are in the planning stage, and this week's swing out west will go a long way toward solidifying some other alterations to the roster. A few of the other "bubble-riders" had better pick up their games quickly, or, like their buddy Anders, will sail right out the door, into the vast beyond.
    Hockey is a game, but at this level it is also a business. It can be cruel. The bottom line is "production" . When that doesn't happen, harsh decisions have to be made. Anders Eriksson is the unfortunate casualty this time. He is lucky that his finances are obviously in order. Some of his buddies cannot say the same.

May 29 Series #3 - Game #6 Leafs 1 Carolina 2 (OT)
Heartbreak! The Season Ends
    To say that I'm feeling a little "down" this morning would be an understatement. I feel lousy! When it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs, I wear my heart on my sleeve. I have never felt the same way about any other NHL team for the past four decades or more. I know, too, that I'm not the only one feeling poorly today. There are millions of others from coast to coast to coast, who share my disappointment that the Leafs were eliminated from playoff competition at the ACC last night.
    As usual, I watched Game #6 while on dialysis at the Credit Valley Hospital. When there had been no scoring in the first two periods, I said to my nurse that I had an ominous feeling that the "bad guys" (Carolina) were going to get that all-important first goal, and, that it might hold up for a victory. I was partly right. The Hurricanes DID score first, but, thanks to a last-minute marker by Mats Sundin, the game went into overtime.
    At that point in the evening, I had to be taken off my machine. It was time to go home. I knew that I'd miss the overtime action. (Thank God for the miracle of videotape) As we drove northward on Winston Churchill Boulevard, heading for Georgetown, an ominous feeling of gloom crept over me. I realized that, if the Leafs had won, people would be outdoors, shouting and shrieking at the intersections as we drove by. Car horns would be blaring! Flags would be waving! Headlights would be blinking! For the entire half-hour drive, nothing of the sort was happening. When we pulled into the driveway, my wife met us to convey the sad news... the season was over.
    This morning, I have given my journal a different title. Return of the Stanley Cup no longer applies. That was my original title, which I chose to keep the main objective of this year's team constantly in the forefront. My new title, Heart and Spirit, attempts to reflect a couple of the team's more admirable qualities. Who knows, I may change it again. It is my plan to bring this project to a conclusion soon, but that will be a measured process, and will take a few more days.
    Why did the Leafs lose? Quite simply, their scoring dried up. They played six games in this series. Three of them went into overtime. They only scored a total of six goals. You don't have to examine too many record books concerning past Stanley Cup champions to realize that more than a half-dozen goals are needed to win a professional hockey championship. Numbers on a scoresheet form the foundations of sporting titles. Goals are "the bottom line".
    In the days ahead, I will take a final look at this year's version of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I will look back, and I will look forward. I will assess players. I will render opinions. I will make suggestions about what I think should now be done to get that darn Cup back in the hands of the Leafs. I* ve been cheering for this team since the fifties. Why would I quit now?

Catalogue Information