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Tomas Kaberle’s return to Toronto to be an awkward one

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When Toronto traded Tomas Kaberle to Boston for Joe Colborne, a first round pick, and a conditional pick all future matchups between the Bruins and Leafs were circled on the calendar by fans of both teams. Leafs fans had tonight picked out in particular because it would be Kaberle’s first game back in Toronto. What many Leafs fans may not have thought at the time was that the Leafs would be hanging onto the possibility of making the playoffs with just ten games left to play.

With Kaberle making his return to Toronto tonight and the Leafs just four points behind Buffalo for the eighth spot in the East, tonight’s game is huge for the Leafs and their chance at the playoffs. For Tomas Kaberle, his first time back in front of the fans that cheered him on his entire career (for the most part anyhow) brings a lot of mixed emotions for him as CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty shares.

“Its mixed feelings,” said Kaberle. “Being here for so long and being in that position that [the Leafs] are in right now is difficult. Obviously everybody has done it before and been traded, so hopefully it’s going to be a fit [in Boston].

“Tonight I’ll do my best for Boston and hopefully we’ll get the two points,” said Kaberle. “We’re just focusing on the game, and not looking at the long run of what we do or what [Toronto] will do. We just want to win a hockey game and play smart. We have 12 games left and we want to play a good hockey going into the playoffs.”

Claude Julien understood that returning to Toronto would be a big deal for a lifelong Leafs player like Kaberle, and also revealed that the B’s are beginning to see some of the defensemen’s personality behind the scenes.

“I think he’s excited to be back here. I haven’t heard him say anything bad about the organization. He was treated well by Toronto, has a lot of respect for the organization and I think he’s excited,” said Julien. “We feel our transition game has improved [with Kaberle] and we feel like he’s made the players around him better. The one thing about Tomas is that he spent close to a dozen years [in Toronto] and it’s his first time with another organization. He’s trying to fit in. He wants to fit in, and we’re going to give him time to do that.

“When you see him playing you can tell that he wants to be part of the solution. I like his attitude and I like his approach. I have a feeling that he’ll only get better as we move on here.”


The fact that Kaberle hasn’t done so hot since joining Boston could be wearing on his mind (just three assists and a +5 rating in 12 games with Boston) but the motivation of playing in front of the old fans with the added juice of potentially being able to deliver the playoff-dream-killing shot to the Leafs has to serve as motivation.

Working against the Bruins is how well the Leafs played against them the last time they faced off in Boston. Phil Kessel scored twice while Mikhail Grabovski scored the game winner with just over a minute to play. If those two can bring the same kind of intensity again while James Reimer stands tall in goal, Leafs hopes live strong for another day. If not, the sadness that sweeps over Toronto seeing one of their favorites go on to help them deliver the punch to the gut will make it sting a little more.