Simply Marl-velous

BY HIERONYMOUS MACMILLAN

Divison titles. Regular season leaders. Back-to-back conference final appearances. And now the Toronto Marlies have earned a berth in the Calder Cup Finals. So how did they get here? In order to answer that question you'd have to go back to where most of Toronto's success, both on the RHL and AHL levels, started. When LedTasso took over and began his blueprint.

While for most GMs, their farm team is much of an afterthought, GMLT has always done his best to enhance and improve the Marlies whenever possible. It isn't quite the prospect factory that some teams have with only one of LedTasso's draft picks currently on the roster (Brandt Clarke). This is mostly due to the fact that any of the higher end prospects that have been drafted during this present regime have been moved in deals to help improve the Maple Leafs. This will change as early as next season with players like Rory Kerins and Logan Morrison set to graduate and fill the holes left by UFAs such as Gabriel Dumont and Seth Griffith. But that's next year. Let's focus on the here and now. 

Leading the way has been captain Jayson Megna. Now in his third season with the team (238 games), he is the career leader in most categories. He hasn't been a slouch in this year's playoffs either, doing his part by chipping in 3 goals to go along with 10 assists for 13 points. Jake Christiansen (218 GP) has been a stalwart on the backend as well, another player that has been with the Marlies for parts of 3 seasons (brought in via trade with San Jose for Ty Gallagher and Jacob Middleton). Mitchell Chaffee (170 GP) and Max Martin (188 GP) are the other two that have been with the Marlies for 3 seasons as well.

All of this leads us to this season, which has been a huge success. Coming off back-to-back division titles and a heartbreaking loss (and reverse sweep) to the eventual Calder Cup champion Utica Comets, the Marlies were eager to get over the hump and prove to everyone they have what it takes to go all the way. Mission accomplished. They hardly took their foot off the pedal, posting a record of 60-14-8 (after having posted 60 wins the year prior), good for 128 points and top spot in the league. This included a fantastic battle with division rival Charlotte who were in hot pursuit for most of the season, finishing only 4 points back (57-15-10). 

Of course, we all know that it doesn't matter what you do in the regular season. When all is said and done it's your perfomance in the playoffs, or lack thereof, that people ultimately remember. Thus far, Toronto has held back it's competition. With each round going 6 games, it hasn't been a cake walk either. Twice they've trailed in a series, once after dropping the first game of the playoffs against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and again in the second round when Cleveland won game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead. Round 3 saw them take defeat reigning champion Utica which now sees them take on a battle tested Bakersfield team. 

This will be the Condor's second trip to the final in as many years. They were swept out of the final by the Comets last season. The old adage "you can't win unless you learn how to lose" definitely applies here. With the experience they possess, does this give Bakersfield the upper hand or can Toronto prove the theory wrong and go the distance in their first crack? Only time will tell.