‘It’s just the way it is,’ Murphy says of boos

Larry Murphy knows what it’s like to hear the boos raining down from Maple Leafs fans.

The hall of fame defenceman was mercilessly jeered by Toronto crowds during the lost 1996-97 season — a scapegoat as the team stumbled its way through the schedule before he was eventually traded.

“When you’re losing, that’s just the way it works,” Murphy said Tuesday. “When things aren’t going well, fans aren’t happy. “It’s just the way it is.” While things aren’t nearly as bad as they were in the mid-1990s — Toronto remains second in the Atlantic Division and has hopes for a long playoff run despite losses in five of its last seven games — Jake Gardiner got a taste of that treatment Monday.

The Leafs blueliner made the crucial mistake on a shorthanded goal in a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, leading some pockets of Scotiabank Arena to voice their displeasure with the polarizing and sometimes-frustrating player every time he touched the puck. The sequence came on the heels of another goal-creating giveaway in Saturday’s 3-2 setback to Boston, one that had fans cringing at the memory of last spring’s Game 7 loss to the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs when Gardiner finished minus-5.

“Hasn’t happened before, that’s for sure,” an emotional Gardiner said of the boos Monday. “Not something you want to hear … fans are passionate and they want to win.”

Murphy, who played151games in Toronto prior to waiving his no-trade clause to finalize the deal that shipped him to the Detroit Red Wings, said it’s important to block out the noise in difficult times.

“You just focus on how you play,” Murphy said in a phone interview with The Canadian Press. “You have to look at yourself.”

Born in Whitby, Ont., and raised in Toronto’s east end, Murphy registered 100 points with his hometown team as part of a career that spanned 21 seasons. “Just because somebody spews and dumps on you, it doesn’t really mean it’s an accurate evaluation of how you’re playing,” said Murphy, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s 2004 class. “(Gardiner) just has to answer to his teammates and the coach, and, of course, to himself.”