HOGTOWN RIDING HIGH, LED BY TORONTO FC
BULLS OF THE WEEK
When you’re coming off two straight appearances in the MLS Cup Final, you’re the reigning league champions and you’ve made it to the final of the CONCACAF Champions League for the first time, you know you’ve had a great week.
That’s the lofty scenario Toronto FC finds itself in, helping to make this — at least in terms of games that matter — among the most bullish two weeks in Toronto sports history.
Toronto FC will play Guadalajara of Mexico in the two-game CONCACAF championship series — one step removed from qualifying for the FIFA Club World Cup — while the Toronto Maple Leafs have their hands full with the Boston Bruins in an Original Six opening-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff series and the top-seeded Toronto Raptors take on the Washington Wizards in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Yet in a week of unspeakable tragedy, there is nothing more impressive than the strength and resiliency of Humboldt in the face of the loss of 16 lives in the April 6 collision between a 16-wheel truck and the team bus of the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
We’re of course reminded of how precious life is, but also of how important small-town Saskatchewan is to hockey and the NHL in Canada and how sports can galvanize communities in the wake of emergency, crisis and tragedy.
The way the sports community has come together this week in support of the Broncos speaks to the special place hockey has in the Canadian psyche. The GoFundMe campaign for the families of the Broncos will be the third largest in history by the weekend, having crossed the $10-million Canadian threshold on Thursday.
Social media tributes such as Sticks Out For Humboldt and Jersey Day have made sure that the grieving families are not feeling alone.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
No matter how tough it is for Canadians in five of seven NHL markets to be on the outside looking in during these 2018 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, it is nothing compared to the poor start that team president Derek Jeter and the Miami Marlins have endured.
The stripped-down Marlins go into the weekend 3-9, already 71/2 games behind the divisionleading New York Mets. Yet the most bearish embarrassment for them this week is the fact their Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp Double-A affiliate outdrew them on Wednesday night.