Felix Potvin
Wendel Clark
The very next day Toronto hit the ice in Philadelphia against the Flyers. They fell behind 2-0 before they caught fire and goals by Nolan Baumgartner, Pearson and a pair by Andreychuk in under seven minutes gave the Maple Leafs a temporary two goal advantage. The Flyers fought back to tie the game in the third, but John Cullen beat Flyers goaltender Tommy Soderstrom with less than two minutes remaining to give Toronto their first road win of the season.
John Cullen
Three days later, on October 13th, the Washington Capitals traveled to Maple Leaf Gardens, where they were rudely greeted by the host Maple Leafs, who led by 2 after the first period thanks to Pearson's third and fourth goals of the season. After Washington got on the board to make it 2-1 early in the second, Peter Zezel, Clark and then Andreychuk made the score 5-1 for Toronto and chased Don Beaupre from the Capitals goal before Clark's second of the game and Borschevsky made the final score 7-1 for the Maple Leafs. Potvin made 27 saves on 28 shots for his fourth win of the young season.
Rob Pearson
Two days later, the Detroit Red Wings came to Toronto to begin a home and home series with the Maple Leafs. Gill, Bob Rouse and Doug Gilmour's first two goals of the season staked the home team to a 4-0 lead and ended the night for Detroit starting goaltender Chris Osgood. The teams traded goals later in the second period to make it 5-1 after two periods. Detroit scored the first goal of the third period before Gilmour completed is hat trick at 18:18 of the third with a shorthanded, empty net goal. The Red Wings scored a meaningless goal with one second remaining in the game to make the final score 6-3.
Doug Gilmour
The teams met again the next day in Detroit with Vincent Riendeau, who came on in relief of Osgood the night before in Toronto, getting the start in goal for the Red Wings. By the end of the first period Andreychuk, with his seventh goal of the season, and Cullen gave the Maple Leafs all the goals they would need as Potvin limited Detroit to one goal on 33 shots for his second win in two days.
Three days later the Hartford Whalers would take the lead over the Maple Leafs 1:10 into the game. The high powered Toronto offense would take control of the game from there, as Andreychuk, Gilmour, Dave Ellet and Mike Krushelnyski, the latter two with their first goals of the season, would end another goaltender's night early as Frank Pietrangelo would be yanked in favor of Mario Gosselin at 5:09 of the second period. Gosselin then surrendered third period goals to Clark, twice, and Glenn Anderson, his first of the season. Hartford scored a second goal with less than two minutes remaining in the contest to bookend the seven Maple Leaf goals.
Glenn Anderson
The Maple Leafs made their first ever trip to Florida on October 21st to face the expansion Panthers, who gave Toronto all they could handle. Both teams scored in the first period, with the red hot Andreychuk scoring his ninth goal of the season. Florida opened the scoring in the second before Pearson and Kent Manderville countered for the Maple Leafs, who led 3-2 after two. Florida tied the game at 13:16 of the third and regulation ended deadlocked. Facing overtime for the first time, Toronto pulled out the victory when Pearson's 6th goal of the season won it for the Maple Leafs at 2:17 which allowed Toronto to tie the NHL record for the most consecutive wins from the start of a season with eight. Getting his first start of he year, Damian Rhodes got the win after making 26 saves for the Maple Leafs.
Damian Rhodes
October 23rd saw Toronto remaining in the state of Florida, having made the trip up to St. Petersburg to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Mark Osborne was the hero of the night for the Maple Leafs as he scored his first goal of the season at the 10:49 mark of the second period and added his second goal of the game at 6:55 of the third for an insurance goal as Toronto blanked Tampa Bay 2-0 behind 25 saves by Potvin to claim the record for most consecutive wins to start a season with nine.
Mark Osborne
The Maple Leafs then had four days off to before having to travel to Chicago to face the Blackhawks for the second time on this date in 1993. The first period passed with no scoring as Potvin made 12 saves and Belfour only faced 6 shots. After Chicago scored early in the second period, Toronto responded just over a minute later when Borschevsky tied the game with his 3rd goal of the season. Clark scored his 7th of the year at 12:22 and added his 8th at 18:48 on a power play. At the 5:55 mark of the third period Manderville extended the Maple Leafs lead to 4-1. A goal by Chicago midway through the final period made the final score 5-2 for Toronto despite the Blackhawks holding a whopping 48-24 edge in shots on goal.
Nikolai Borschevsky
The win extended the Pat Burns coached Maple Leafs NHL record for Most Wins From the Start of a Season to 10, a record which still stands today. It was equalled by the 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres, who required three shootout wins.
Head Coach Pat Burns
The streak would end two days later with a 5-2 loss in Montreal, but was followed by a five game unbeaten run of 2 wins and 3 ties to put them at 12-1-3.
The streak of ten straight wins put the Maple Leafs on top of the Central Division with 20 points, 6 clear of the Dallas Stars (6-3-2) at 14 points. Toronto outscored their opponents 45-20 with goaltender Potvin getting 9 of the wins with Rhodes having the remaining one. During the record setting streak, Andreychuk led the team in goals with 9, followed by Clark with 8 and Pearson with 6 and one hat trick, that belonging to Gilmour.
Dave Andreychuk
A 1-7-1 stretch in late December and finishing the season 5-8-1 allowed the Red Wings to catch them for the Central Division title. The Maple Leafs were seeded third in the Western Conference Playoffs behind Detroit and Pacific Division champion Calgary Flames, despite the Maple Leafs having 98 points in the standings vs. 97 for the Flames.
Toronto was paired with Chicago in the conference quarterfinals and defeated the Blackhawks in six games before outlasting the San Jose Sharks in seven. Their season then came to an end in the conference finals when they were defeated by the seventh seeded Vancouver Canucks. The teams split the first two games in Toronto and then the Canucks won the next three on home ice in Vancouver before the series could return to Maple Leaf Gardens.
Today's featured jersey is a 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs Felix Potvin jersey. as worn by Potvin as the Maple Leafs set the record for Most Consecutive Wins From the Start of a Season with ten. This style of Maple Leafs jersey was first used in 1992-93 and was inspired by their 1991-92 Turn Back the Clock throwback style worn for the NHL's 75th Anniversary season.
So popular was the retro jersey that the Maple Leafs kept it's striping pattern (first appearing on their 1934-35 jerseys) and used the TBTC jersey's retro leaf crest (originally used in 1938) as their secondary shoulder logos. This was paired with their modern logo first used in 1970-71 for a classic look that has remained essentially unchanged since.
The retro leaf shoulder logos were replaced in 2000-01 when a "TML" monogram appeared with the addition of silver trim to the back numbers. There have been some variations in fonts for the names and numbers and a temporary loss of the waist stripes as a result of the transition to the new Reebok Edge jerseys in 2007-08, but not only did the retro leaf shoulder logos return, but so did the excellent addition of a lace up white neck collar when the waist striping returned in 2010-11, giving Toronto a beautiful timeless look, thanks in part to a return to the one color names and numbers used on today's featured jersey.
Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs Doug Gilmour jersey as worn by Gilmour during the Maple Leafs record setting streak. Gilmour would go on to lead Toronto in scoring that season with 111 points, good for fourth overall in the NHL that season and second in assists with 84.
Today's video section begins with Potvin flashing the leather and robbing everyone in sight. Rock on!
Next, Felix the Cat duking it out with Ron Hextall just because we can't resist a good goalie fight.
Here is a tribute to Gilmour on the occasion of his jersey #93 being honored by the Maple Leafs.
Great post. I remember that 10-game run well. Unfortunately, they ran out of gas by the time they faced the Canucks in the playoffs. I also own that Gilmour jersey from '93-'94. What a great player.
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