On a night when the Maple Leafs feted Doug (Killer) Gilmour and in a season when Wendel Clark was accorded the same honour, it was not difficult to imagine rookie Luke Schenn one day earning fan adoration similar to what those Toronto icons enjoyed here.
Perhaps he'll even follow in their skate strides as the eventual captain in Toronto.
No one is yet reserving a spot in the grey girders of the Air Canada Centre for the defenceman, nor sewing a "C" on his sweater, but he continues to show poise, leadership and grit - the kind of heart to which Toronto fans always respond - beyond what you'd expect from a 19-year-old.
In a 5-4 win over Pittsburgh last night, Schenn laid a thunderous, momentum-grabbing hit on Evgeni Malkin, defended himself in a subsequent fight and made an impressive dash in from the blue line to set up a key goal.
It was more than 23 minutes of dominant, the-future-is-now hockey from what one radio voice called "The Human Eraser" as Schenn was matched up against the NHL's two top scorers in Malkin and Sidney Crosby most of the game.
"I thought in the second and third period, he ended up being the difference in the game," said coach Ron Wilson.
"The play he made put us ahead again, the hit, the fight, just the overall physicality ... for a 19-year-old kid to dominate a game physically like that was unbelievable."
The fans in this city tend to get ahead of themselves, always yearning for the next name to chant as they did when "Luuuuuuke" skated out as the game's first star. The media too is often anxious to anoint the next big star. Whatever happened to Eric Fichaud and Alexei Kudashov anyway?
But Schenn, at a time when many rookies taper off, is coming of age and his teammates are openly touting his leadership capabilities. Heady stuff for the prairie kid with an awe-shucks attitude.
"He definitely doesn't play like a rookie at all," said frequent blueline partner Mike Van Ryn. "Something you guys don't even know is how vocal he is in the room. He's definitely got the makings of a leader, he's got the makings of a future captain. He definitely does."
On the ice, it was Schenn's actions that spoke the loudest as the Leafs dispatched the Penguins to earn their second win in a row. He absolutely hammered Malkin midway through the second, almost putting him through the boards into the Pittsburgh bench.
Tyler Kennedy came off the bench on a supposed line change and challenged Schenn - a move that the league is reviewing for potential supplemental discipline.
"He pretty much said, `You don't touch our players like that,'" recounted Schenn. "One thing led to another and we just kind of dropped the mitts. Sometimes it needs to be done. I don't go looking for it but if the opportunity presents itself like it did there, you don't want to back down."
Early in the third, Schenn made a smart play carrying the puck down from the blue line and driving the net. The rebound popped out to Matt Stajan for a key goal that made it 4-2 for the Leafs.
Schenn says his NHL initiation has been "a big learning curve" but his confidence is blossoming.
And that's left the sense among his teammates that, as good as Schenn was last night, it's only a hint of what he is going to become.
"I'm not going to say he's been a big surprise but he's been awesome back there. He does it all," said teammate Jason Blake, who potted the winner in the third after Pittsburgh rallied to knot the game up.
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