No place like home
Toronto’s Big Three additions click the heels of their skates and land in Leafland, where everyone knows your name and how you played last night, by Paul Hunter
In the tumultuous confusion of the NHL’s post- lockout world, Jason Allison, Eric Lindros and Jeff O’Neill all sought refuge in the familiar.
There were new rules and new rosters league-wide but for these three, there was comfort in an old home. Returning to hometown Toronto and joining the Maple Leafs was not only a chance to rekindle careers, it was an opportunity to live out childhood reveries.
“ It’s a dream come true,” Lindros said when he arrived in August.
“ My heart’s been here for a long time.” But the NHL is more than a reallife fantasy league. The Big Three among Toronto newcomers is being counted on, by management and fans alike, to make significant contributions to a contending team. The decision to come home is fraught with pressure, heightened expectations and potential pitfalls.
In this market, the life of an NHLer is a fishbowl existence. For every friend or family member to offer comfort after a bad game, there are probably a dozen newspaper columnists and television commentators to make sure those foibles aren’t quickly forgotten. The scrutiny is intense on and off the ice, and a player needs a thick skin along with his fattened wallet.
“ Some people can play in their hometown, others have a hard time with it,” said Steve (Stumpy) Thomas, who was raised in Markham and, at age 42, was unsuccessful in his bid for a third stint with the Leafs.
“ With every step you take during the day, you have to be a model citizen. It’s not like you can go in a bar and do whatever you want to do like you could, say, in Chicago or somewhere like that. You have to watch over your shoulder all the time and be the person that people look up to.” Sometimes being a model citizen isn’t enough. Larry Murphy, as decent a person as there was in the game, got booed out of his hometown for playing the same hockey that ultimately won him four Stanley Cups elsewhere. Even when he played well, fans were blinded by the mess the Leafs had become in the late ’ 90s and directed their wrath at the Scarborough native. Hockey is so engrained in this city that fans follow the development of good local players from a young age and, perhaps, through envy, a desire to live vicariously through them, or simply because they want them to do well, sit in constant judgment. Win them over, as Thomas did, and you are a hero for life. Disappoint, as Murphy did, and life can be hell. Whatever the reason, Toronto coach Pat Quinn feels local players are often held to higher standard.
“ Even though their own standards are quite high, some guys don’t like it,” said Quinn. “ Then it becomes a distasteful thing and it doesn’t work out.”
Quinn, the team’s former general manager, said the scrutiny in Toronto has scared some players away, but clearly the Leafs see an upside in acquiring players who grew up in the club’s immense shadow. In the decade preceding the lockout, according to research by Randy Robles at the Elias Sports Bureau, the Leafs signed more Ontario- born players than any other NHL club. Over that stretch, 57 players from this province laced up for at least one game with the Leafs. The team to use the next- highest number of Ontario-born players was the Rangers with 48; Tampa Bay was next with 45. Not surprisingly, at the bottom, sat Montreal with 16.
“ Clearly, playing at home appealed mentally to ( Allison, Lindros and O’Neill.) There’s some that don’t want to; they’re afraid of the pressure,” said Quinn. “ I know John ( Ferguson, the team’s general manager) talked to a couple of guys during the summer about coming here but they wanted to play some place where they weren’t in the same spotlight.
“ I can’t imagine why that wouldn’t be something that enhances your enjoyment of the game — having your friends and family around in your hometown,” continued Quinn, a Hamilton native who once played for the Leafs. “ Toronto has marvellous fans anyway, but for a hometown boy it would be really special.”
That’s how Allison, Lindros and O’Neill see it, even though each has already faced the daily inquisition about lingering training camp injuries. The 30- year- old Allison, who describes himself as a “ very private person” said he weighed the negative aspects that come with the open- book existence of a Leaf but decided they were more than offset by the positives. He made Toronto his top off- season destination.
“ I’m a big boy. I can handle it. I think anyone who is a competitor doesn’t mind the challenge of almost being graded every day,” he said. “ To do everyday things with your kids or friends and have people watching you, that’s not my comfort zone. But it’s all part of playing in the best hockey city in the world.” To help handle it, Allison has taken possession of a 30- acre horse farm in King City, which will act as an oasis from hockey for his family, which includes two young children.
“ I like my privacy and that was a negative of being here, but I also think ( the constant examination of the team) is a positive. By that, I mean the fact that a lot is expected of everybody every night. It creates a constant excitement, a constant accountability. You’re playing for an entire city, not just for yourself and the team.”
Lindros, under a microscope since his early teens, said he understands the scrutiny faced by the Leaf players “ can be tough, but I think we blow it out of proportion a little bit.” He already owned a home in Rosedale before he signed and he sees no reason why he can’t go on living a normal life as a Leaf. He shops at the local Loblaws, walks his boxer Freddie frequently — “ He’s got the bladder of a field mouse” — and socializes with old friends who now have children going to the schools he attended.
“ I was never one to be hanging out on the society page of the paper and that’s never going to change,” he said. “ If you want to go out and spread yourself all over the city, then you’re setting yourself up for the pros and cons of it. I’m pretty quiet so I don’t think my life will alter that much, but deep down inside you know where you come to play and you know who is cheering you on.” Beyond the family and friends that will be able to watch him in person, Lindros, 32, relishes being in a city that lives and dies with its hockey team.
“ It’s absolutely annoying when you’re not part of it,” he said. “ When I was in New York and the season was over, I always made the mistake of rushing to get here just in time to hear the horns honking on Yonge Street every time someone tucked in a goal. You never really had to watch the game to get the gist of what was going on. It’s all over everyone’s face. It’s a passion. Win one game in a playoff series and the flags are out. It’s a blast. I want to be a part of that for sure.” The downside? Players each get only two tickets to each game, the right to buy two more. The demand usually outweighs the supply. As for encounters with friends he didn’t know he had, Lindros said, “ You do tend to change your phone number quite often.” Circumstances for the 29year- old O’Neill were different. One week before he arrived in a trade and signed a deal with Toronto, he buried his older brother and mentor, Don, who died in acar accident. The King City native said he couldn’t imagine playing anywhere but close to his family this season.
But, while it was unfortunate circumstances that helped lead O’Neill to Toronto, he said it was always a dream of his to play for the Leafs, the team he revered while growing up. He said living as a Leaf will be a dramatic change after playing seven seasons for Carolina, where hockey is an afterthought.
“ In Carolina, you can go for months and months at a time without being recognized, which is fine with me. But it is pretty neat here to be recognized and see the excitement on the fans’ faces,” said O’Neill, who is building a home in Maple.
“All (that) the fans demand from you is that you play to the best of your ability. I think that’s why players like Stumpy, Mats ( Sundin) and Dougie Gilmour are so beloved, because they just played as hard as they could every night and they won over the fans. I don’t think that is too much to ask.”