Even if the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t find a way to lose this year, Leafs Nation is in a no-win situation.
The Leafs face the Montreal Canadians in the first round of the NHL playoffs for the first time since 1979, and hockey fans are salivating at the series.
The last time this happened, The Deer Hunter was number one at the box office.
What A Fool Believes by The Doobie Brothers was on top of the Billboard 100. That’s ominous.
The world was still a year away from hearing the phrase “Who shot J.R.?” and Trudeau was prime minister... daddy, not junior.
It should be an exciting start to a playoffs season that had to be adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Leafs won the North Division by being the best of the Canadian teams and have grabbed the top seed for that group.
Each team played 56 games instead of their regular 82-game season.
The playoffs are the same in that a team has to win 16 games total to claim the Stanley Cup.
The Buds have shown streaks of brilliance this season and have a Hart Trophy candidate in Auston Matthews.
In case you haven't heard, Toronto hasn’t won the Cup since 1967 and every year since, fans have proclaimed “this is our year.”
But it is a very simple and tragic situation the Maple Leafs find themselves in.
If they lose, it's yet another season wasted.
And if they win? We’ll never live it down.
Imagine the Leafs win Lord Stanley’s mug in a season where they played 26 games less than normal... a season where they only played other Canadian squads and not been tested by the rest of the league.
All in all, there are too many “yeah buts” for me.
As a Leafs fan and someone born and raised in the Toronto area, I understand that the opinion of Ottawa Senators fans don’t matter. But imagine winning our first Cup in 54 years and one of them being able to say, “yeah but...”
And how non-gratifying would it be to win the Cup in an empty arena? To win it and not rush Yonge Street? To not hug tipsy strangers in a bar and say, “I love you, man!”
Nah, not this year. Give it to me next year.
Give me the Leafs in an 82-game season, after having travelled North America and faced off with the best in every city.
Give me the Leafs when the Toronto media is hounding them to their faces and they have to keep cool, day in and day out.
Give me the Leafs after a ceremony honouring someone who couldn’t win a Cup for us, but we’ll drop a banner and play a song for him anyway. And then the guys have to go out and play their hearts out despite the long delay.
Give me the Leafs when these players aren’t in a bubble and have to play a game after slamming their fist off the steering wheel coming into downtown from the 401 or the Don Valley Parkway.
Give me the Leafs when the only talk of an empty arena is in Ottawa’s barn every time we’re not the visiting team.
Give me my Leafs when there are no excuses from anyone who celebrates our playoff exits.
Give me the 55th year.
All I want for this year is to win the first round. (They were swept in four games by Montreal in '79).
Then give me the Leafs and Bruins next year, first round.
Because next year? That's our year.
Next year: no excuses, no asterisks, no empty arenas.
Just win, flood downtown and hug... every... single… person.
