MAPLE LEAFS FOREVER
As club hits the century mark, we ask five former Star hockey writers to share the highs and lows of covering the Buds,
WHAT WAS THE HIGH POINT OF COVERING THE LEAFS? Orr: Darryl Sittler’s wonderful 1976 year: the 10-point game, five goals in a playoff game against the Flyers and the winner in the first Canada Cup. I had covered Sittler from the time he burst on the junior hockey scene in 1967 and always found him accessible, a good quote, just a nice guy. Matsumoto: It’s not even an on-ice thing. When Wendel Clark was drafted No. 1, the Star sent me to Kelvington, Sask., to interview Wendel and it was very interesting, because I interviewed his father and he just showed me what kind of a solid guy Wendel would be. His father was a very friendly man, but a no-nonsense guy and that’s how Wendel was as a player. The town of Kelvington typified what Canada was. Kids from small towns playing on borrowed equipment . . . the rink was just a barn. McKenzie: The 1993 playoff run, culminating, of course, with the famous Wayne Gretzky Game 7 performance after I wrote he was skating with a “piano on his back” after Game 5 . . . Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark were fantastic, inspirational really. That (Toronto-Los Angeles) series had fights and hits and so much drama. Final outcome aside, the 1993 playoff was a great time for Maple Leaf fans and the city of Toronto. Hunter: The Nikolai Borschevsky goal (against the Red Wings) in 1993. And I think that’s kind of sad. I covered the team for 20 years, and that was one of the first years. The fact you cling to an opening round victory as your greatest moment — it speaks volumes . . . Detroit just crushed the Leafs in the first two games. There was a real sense that Toronto was outmatched and wasn’t going to be able to compete. The Leafs got themselves back in the series, and even then there was this apprehension that it was smoke and mirrors and they weren’t really as good as Detroit and were only prolonging the inevitable. When they actually won the thing and went on to the next round, it was really quite spectacular. Campbell: Pat Quinn’s first year (1998-99) because nobody expected anything from that team. It was Quinn’s first year, Curtis Joseph’s first year. Mats (Sundin) was coming into his own. And Quinn had them play the way you want to see hockey played, up and down, a lot of mistakes, but Curtis was ridiculous. They ended up doing really well. They overachieved and it kind of set the template for the Quinn years. They were always pretty good.
WHAT WAS THE LOW POINT?
Orr: The Harold Ballard years, a time of such total stupidity and nonsense that seemed to last forever. Everything the men he hired did — notably the very able Jim Gregory — was undone by Ballard’s mouth and his ridiculous idea that he was a hockey and promotional genius. He was a bigoted, crude, coarse dunce. Matsumoto: Having anything to do with Ballard. He was an ornery son of a gun. I remember going to his office to interview him and his secretary told him I was there and he said: “Tell him to go back to Japan.” I had to laugh it off, Harold being Harold. Like Donald Trump in some ways. That whole era, he wouldn’t go that one step further to have a winning team. There was something cheesy about the whole organization. Even the sandwiches in the press room. If you didn’t get there before George Armstrong, you knew all the meat was gone. McKenzie: Probably when I charged Phil Esposito with assault after a Tampa Bay Lightning-Maple Leaf game. It wasn’t a fun experience for anyone — me or him. It all worked out in the end, but it wasn’t something I’d want to experience again. Hunter: The Leafs got hammered in Quebec, a low point. Hitting rock bottom. There was one year (1985), it was before I covered the Leafs regularly, they started 1-10-0 and they had a Meet the Maple Leafs luncheon. (Comic actor) John Candy came out in character as a goalie for the Melonville hockey team. And he said: “Okay guys, I remember one year we started 1 and 10. I only have one bit of advice for you: Don’t get overconfident.” Campbell: When Mike Smith got fired. There was so much infighting in the organization. There was backstabbing. I always thought Smith was a good man who did a good job, and I thought he got run out of here. And his wife was really sick at the time. It was a downer. They had a good thing going, but it seemed like egos got in the way: Quinn’s and Ken Dryden’s.
WHO WAS YOUR FAVOURITE LEAF TO DEAL WITH?
Orr: Lynn Patrick once said it best about Johnny Bower: “If you don’t like Johnny Bower, there ain’t much hope for you.” Bower was a genial, “always available in good times or bad,” warm and kind man and, also, one helluva great goalie. I think he worked harder that any athlete I saw in my 45 years in the business. If my team had one big game to win, he’s the guy I would want in goal. Great to see him as sharp as ever at 93. Matsumoto: Darryl Sittler. He was the captain, and he’d answer your questions and be polite. McKenzie: Wendel Clark was as good a guy as you could want. He never said anything, of course, prided himself on that, but he was and still is a really genuine fellow. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Leaf GM Cliff Fletcher and, of course, head coach Pat Burns. Cliff is a gentleman, one of the NHL’s class acts and he was tremendous to deal with . . . As for Burnsie, he could be hell on wheels with a lot of media but we hit it off and he was truly a character. Hunter: Mats Sundin. He was as gracious off the ice as he was elegant on the ice. I always thought he was kind of our Jean Beliveau, a kind of a statesman, a guy who carried the mantle of the captaincy with great honour and was always an amazing gentleman . . . Even when he was going through the departure at the end, he still stayed incredibly classy. He was taking a lot of heat, people wanted to trade him, move him for assets. He just maintained that gentlemanly air, and he seemed above it all. He was above the fray. And on the ice, he was beautiful to watch. Campbell: Dmitri Yushkevich. I loved the guy. Even after he left and went to Florida, we would chat all the time. One of the first stories I did was a piece on his twins going through surgery. He spoke from the heart. He was so genuine. We just seemed to have a connection. We’d always chat — hockey, kids, whatever. I remember his blood clot. He couldn’t play and he was distraught.
WHO WAS YOUR FAVOURITE OPPOSING PLAYER?
Orr: Bob Plager is very likely the funniest human I’ve ever known. I started covering him when he was 16, a first-round draft pick by the old Guelph Biltmores and he remains a superb original humourist after his long career with the Blues. He and brothers Barclay and Bill were just dandy guys, always fun and interesting to be around. Bob’s specialty was stories about another favourite of mine, Scotty Bowman, who I first met in 1957 when I was a month into my first newspaper job in Cornwall. “Scotty once told me that the higher up you sit to watch, the slower the game appears,” Plager said. “And when I watch you play, Plager, I figure I’m on the Starship Enterprise.” Matsumoto: Jean Beliveau. By that time he was in the front office. He always treated everybody well, whether you were a rookie reporter, a veteran reporter, he treated you with respect. McKenzie: Outside of Wayne Gretzky, who was in a class of his own for dealing with the media, I probably had two favourites. Teemu Selanne just had so much joy for the game of hockey and it spilled out of him in any conversation you had with him. My other favourite was Brett Hull, who could be the life of the party but was often at his best when he was being a straight-shooting wiseguy. I always tell the story of walking into the visitors’ room at MLG after a St. Louis game day skate. It was at the time when Brett was really feuding with Mike Keenan. I walked into the room, Brett saw me and said in his trademark raspy voice: “Hey Bob, how’s it going?” I replied, “Great, Brett, no complaints.” Without missing a beat, he shouted across the room, “You want some?” Hunter: Brett Hull . . . He was one of those guys that, if he was talking, you had to be there. You just never knew what he was going to say. And you also knew he was going to do something special on the ice . . . He was fun, a fun guy at a time when people seemed a little more able to be fun people in the league. There wasn’t social media and all that stuff that caused people to have second thoughts about what they were going to say. He just let loose all the time. Campbell: Chris Pronger. He’d say anything. One time, he was in Philly, I asked, “Why do you bust guys’ balls all the time.” He said, “Because it’s so easy.” . . . He was a guy you could say anything to. He just was an outgoing, gregarious guy.