Good times for Leafs fans, players
Leafs head West as one of several strong Toronto teams
Anyone who grew up a teen in Toronto in the 1970s has to be jealous of Mitch Marner.
The generation that watched the Argos keep fumbling in front of 40,000 fans at CNE, the Maple Leafs suffer under Harold Ballard, the expansion Blue Jays get crushed, without an NBA presence or a soccer team a multicultural city could love, all made for lean times.
But Marner, barely 20, is part of a spry Leaf team set to contend for years, which plays in the same building as the Raptors, in search of a fifth straight playoff appearance. The Jays hit a speed bump after consecutive playoff trips of their own, but down the Gardiner, Marner’s favourite football Argos were in Sunday’s Grey Cup final, co-tenant TFC is a couple of wins from the MLS Cup and the Leafs’ popular farm team is leading its division.
“It’s very cool now,” Marner said before the Leafs shipped out to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver this week. “I haven’t been to a TFC game yet, definitely one thing I want to do because it looks like a lot of fun. But it’s great to see Toronto doing so well in all the sports.”
The Leafs have a curious lovehate history in Western Canada. Despite Edmonton and Calgary winning Stanley Cups and Vancouver getting to the final twice, the Leafs still enjoy a strong measure of support in those cities.
A lot of it has to do with Foster Hewitt, called the Father Of Leaf Nation on Twitter the other day. Hewitt’s pioneer coast-to-coast broadcasts in the 1930s and 40s, when Depression, wartime and winter drew families closer, truly made the Leafs English Canada’s team, with a string of Cups to back it up. The grandsons and grandaughters of that era passed that loyalty along, part of the reason blue and white will populate large swaths of the Scotiabank Saddeldome, Rogers Place and Vancouver’s Rogers Arena in coming days.
After taking great pleasure in booing the likes Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf and Nazem Kadri in the early part of this decade, it seems the Leafs are winning some new fans on modern merit. It’s a given there’ll be lots of No. 34 Auston Matthews sweaters, as well as Marner’s 16. William Nylander, Zach Hyman, Morgan Rielly and Frederik Andersen are also giving a bang for the entertainment dollar as the Leafs slowly pull up from a 30th place finish a couple of years ago.
The players certainly get a charge out of going West, getting three of six points last year after two of a possible 10 in a couple of previous treks.
“I enjoy going back to where I grew up in B.C., but I’m always taken aback by the amount of support we get,” Rielly said. “The amount of blue jerseys, the number of fans, it’s nice to go out there and feel we have that support.”
Rielly said friends and Leaf fans of his from junior hockey days in Moose Jaw, Sask., will even make the six and a half hour drive to Calgary. Others will make a similar commitment. Patrick Marleau’s folks came from little Aneroid, Sask., to Winnipeg for the Leafs season opening night win earlier this year.
“No one’s ever questioned the willingness to travel of people from the Prairies,” Rielly laughed. “The people in Moose Jaw are very supportive and I’ll be keeping in touch with a lot of guys from there and Notre Dame College (when he played midget in Wilcox, Sask.). I have a lot of connections.”
Arizona-raised Matthews had never properly seen Western Canada, but starting with a vocal exhibition game in Saskatoon last season, quickly got up to speed.
“We travel pretty well anywhere we go, but any time you go play another Canadian team it’s fun,” said the team’s leading scorer.
Other Westerners on the Leafs include Regina’s Tyler Bozak, Saskatchewan-raised head coach Mike Babcock and Nylander, who was born in Calgary during father Michael’s time as a Flame.
As for Toronto-born players on Western teams wanting to stick the needle in at the Air Canada Centre, that hasn’t happened lately. The Leafs defeated the visiting Jets, Oilers, Flames and Canucks last season and are on a combined run of 7-0 at home against the four clubs since Winnpeg won on Nov. 4, 2015.