Home crowd would be no advantage
Well, sure, it would be nice to have fans in the stands at Scotiabank Arena for Game 7. Any glimpse of normalcy these days is more than welcome.
But would it make a difference? And did it make a difference for the Montreal Canadiens against the Maple Leafs on Saturday night to have 2,500 fans — mostly cheering for les bleu, blanc et rouge — inside the Bell Centre?
Interesting questions, and when this is all over the entire relationship among fans and athletes and teams is going to be examined in a way it has never been examined before.
Like it or not, new barriers have been erected between the players, the media that cover them and the fans who pay their salaries over the past 16 months, and it will be interesting to see if they become permanent in a post-pandemic world.
That said, given the thousands of dollars many were willing to pay to attend Game 6, has the pandemic separated us even more from the glitterati of professional sports, or has it made us even more desperate to be anywhere near them?
In terms of the impact of the tiny crowd in Montreal, you might have thought listening to the always over-the-top Ron MacLean on “Hockey Night in Canada” that this was a seminal moment in Canadian history, akin to Paul Henderson scoring in ’72 or the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982. Everybody on television had their marching orders to hype the moment, and they did. At least analyst Kevin Bieksa was honest enough to point out afterwards that it really was a small gathering.
That said, it was nice to see fans again. It was encouraging. It was an optimistic moment after months and months of depressing restarts and stops. Just the sound of live voices cheering was in and of itself such a welcome departure from the canned sound we’ve been used to.
So all good. Just not the moment for the ages some were selling.
Did those fans motivate and inspire the Habs? Well, maybe in the early going, but Jack Campbell’s terrific goalkeeping kept Montreal off the board.
Did the presence of paying customers influence the sequence of goal/replay review/ confirmed goal/minor penalty/five-on-three power play/ goal that created a 2-0 lead for the Habs? Well, it’s difficult to say what influences NHL officiating these days. It’s been so bad since Tim Peel exposed to the hockey world the way things are actually done that suggesting this or that motivates referees to call this or that is really just a guess.
And what about in overtime? After the Canadiens had blown a multi-goal lead for the second consecutive game, did the fans in the stands push them to victory in overtime? No, not really. Instead, the Canadiens looked to be running on fumes and were dominated by the Leafs until a Travis Dermott turnover ended up on Jesper Kotkaniemi’s stick and a second later behind Campbell in the Toronto net.
The fans didn’t help Montreal win Game 6. Carey Price was terrific, Tyler Toffoli was absolved for obviously interfering with Campbell at a crucial moment, and the steady pounding of Leaf bodies continued to take its toll. When smallish defencemen such as Dermott and Rasmus Sandin are coughing up the puck while either avoiding collisions or getting hit hard, you know that part of the Montreal strategy is working.
Which brings us to Game 7. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown spent Sunday pushing for a crowd of 2,500 to be allowed into Scotiabank Arena, an audience made up of frontline workers and fully vaccinated people. It was a cute bit of politicking. But Lord knows the Ontario government has struggled badly enough, in policy and messaging, without changing its recently announced staged plans for reopening the province just because of an NHL playoff game.
Folks, the Leafs and Ottawa Senators have already been getting all the preferential treatment they could possibly deserve for months, while the CFL stays dark, the Toronto Raptors have been banished to Florida, the Blue Jays are now calling Buffalo home and Ontario residents were banned from even playing pickleball.
Moreover, the history of the Leafs and their fans doesn’t suggest such a move would automatically help the club. Toronto hockey crowds have for decades been regarded as dominated by suits who can’t be bothered to be in their swishy seats at the start of periods, and when they are seated tend to sit on their hands. Toronto has never been known for its boisterous home audiences, and this century Leafs patrons have made more of a statement by throwing jerseys or even waffles on the ice to express their displeasure with the home team than for creating an intimidating atmosphere for visiting clubs.
When the Leafs had a chance to go to the Stanley Cup final in 1993 against Los Angeles, Game 7 was at Maple Leaf Gardens, but the Kings still won. In 2004, when the Leafs last won a playoff series, they beat Ottawa in Game 7 at the Air Canada Centre. But in the very next round, they succumbed to Philadelphia in six games, with the decisive defeat again on home ice.
So while it might be nice, changing government policy to “help” the Leafs is both unnecessary and likely wouldn’t help the blue and white at all.
For this one, the Leafs are truly on their own. And should be.