“The Passion That Unites Us All: Why Leafs Nation Has Caused The Longest Stanley Cup Drought In The NHL”.

THE PASSION THAT UNITES US ALL

Why Leafs Nation has caused the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL

BY: THOMAS CRAMAROSSA 0594571

SOC*4880*01 (6064) Special Projects in Sociology – Prof. Turner

April 2011

(In-text references removed for ease of reading)

INTRODUCTION

“The Leafs are life in Toronto. People care about their kids, going to church and the Toronto Maple Leafs.” - Wayne Gretzky

Number of Stanley Cups won by the Montreal Canadiens: 24

Number of Stanley Cups won by the Montreal Canadiens since 1967: 10

FRANCHISE record for consecutive seasons of missed playoffs by Montreal: 3

Number of Stanley Cups won by Toronto since it became the Maple Leafs in 1927: 11

Number of Stanley Cups won by the Toronto Maple Leafs since 1967: 0

CURRENT streak of consecutive seasons of missed playoffs by Toronto: 5

It is no secret that Canada’s favourite past time involves skates, a stick and a small black puck. It is played everywhere from major arenas to ponds and backyards. The sport is called hockey, and there is not a single country that does it like us. As Canadians, our passion and dedication to the sport goes unrivaled. From the 6 A.M. practices as a seven year old, to the NHL player with 10,000 hours of training, the commitment to the game is displayed on many levels; from parents who sacrifice their time, job, sleep and money, to players who sacrifice their bodies and the fans who gamble their emotions. This sport is intrinsically linked to the national spirit and character of Canada. It’s because even being at the rink for a pee wee game can relay the same aura that is sensed at the Air Canada Centre on a Saturday night. It’s because anyone can feel like the NHL’s next star in a thirty-six person game of shinny on the slushy ice at the local pond. This is how we know hockey lives in our cold bones. This is how we know it’s a Canadian game. And at the heart of it all, whether loved or despised, is Canada’s team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Leafs Nation

The Toronto Maple Leafs, more synonymous with its city than any sports team in the world, the team in the centre of the hockey universe with the iconic sweaters and the all-weather fan base. The team with seventy-two Hall of Fame inductees, eleven Stanley Cup championships and worth the most in the NHL at $470 million. While that all sounds satisfying enough, the only number that matters to Leaf supporters is 1967, a year which every Leaf fan has heard more than any other. Whether the voice is heard out loud from heckling supporters of other teams or in our panicking heads, 1967 is a number that symbolizes this entire paper. It represents the last time the Maple Leafs raised Lord Stanley of Preston’s chalice. The question remains, why can’t this mighty franchise return to championship glory?

The city of Toronto and its beloved hockey team are in their fourty-fourth season of cup-free hockey as well as their sixth season of playoff-free hockey. No one in the city, province or country needs to be made aware that the Leafs shoulder the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL. To say the least, it is not the greatest time to be a Leaf fan. It is at times like these that most teams, regardless of the sport, lose supporters and ultimately money. Teams of this regard may even elect to move the team to a different city and gain a new market in hopes of producing wins and ultimately, profits. Examples of team relocation occurred in Hartford, Kansas City and even in Canadian cities of Winnipeg and Quebec. The situation in Toronto is described as the exact opposite to those previously listed. Although the times for fans are tougher than they have ever been, Toronto Maple Leaf supporters are growing in both size and passion. As former Leaf player Steve Thomas said “there is no fan like a Toronto Maple Leaf fan.”  It is almost indescribable through words to express the passion, excitement, obsession and loyalty of “true-blue” Leaf fans. They bleed the blue and white of the Maple Leaf jersey and have an opinion, good or bad, on every detail of the team. They discuss it daily, and for most hourly, with similar supporters. It is this obsession that drives the real Leaf fan to watch pre-game predictions, the game itself, and post-game analysis followed by highlights eighty-two times per season, with their mood being influenced by the result. These people believe down to their very core that as long as the Leafs are playing hockey while wearing the sacred blue and white crest, there is hope. These people are referred to as a member of the cult-like society known simply as Leafs Nation.

As the greatest player to every play the game, Wayne Gretzky, said “The Leafs are life in Toronto. People care about their kids, going to church and the Toronto Maple Leafs” (Rosen 2001).  There is an invincible bond which is shared between every single member of Leafs Nation. Its collective identity is incomparable to anything else in professional sports, and is of more resemblance to a religion than a common interest. Though it is unable to be measured, it is believed by many that the failure of their beloved team is the reason for the incredibly strong bond between those of Leafs Nation. The common feeling of hope followed by disappointment year after year is a relatable and shared emotion among all members.

When approaching fourty-four years of failure, theories of supernatural explanations begin to sound believable. “The Leafs are cursed” is the belief which binds together the people of Leafs Nation. Across the country; in sports bars, arenas, chat rooms and call-in radio shows, Leafs Nation shares the misery of providing the most passionate and loyal love available to a team which shows nothing in return. In fact, most of Leafs Nation would probably take comfort in the idea that the Leafs are cursed, therefore, relieving all of their past heroes of any wrongdoing. The common struggle against forces beyond their control is what emphasizes the bond of Leafs Nation. While members have been impatiently waiting to celebrate the clubs twelfth cup, what has been celebrated is the knowledge that rival supporters of Montreal, Ottawa and Philadelphia possess a feeling of envy towards the unity of Leafs Nation, as well as a hatred towards the Maple Leaf organization.

In the world’s most multicultural cities, a common outlet or interest is needed to integrate and assimilate the variety of religions, races, cultures and nationalities which exist in the social environment. In Toronto and the surrounding area, there is a common obsession which connects residents; the obsession of the Toronto Maple Leafs. With the most diverse fan base of any sports team in the world, members of Leafs Nation come from thousands of unique backgrounds. The obsession among minorities has grown at an incredible pace, resulting in enough of a market for Hockey Night in Canada games featuring Toronto to be broadcasted in Punjabi and played all over Southeast Asia. Many minorities and those for whom English is not a primary language may learn and improve their speech through Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts and associating with other supporters. For example, an exchange student, although barely understandable, is able to give his opinion on tomorrow night’s starting goaltender and how the Leafs can generate more power-plays. The fact that he cares enough to invest his energy into creating bonds and becoming part of something in an unfamiliar environment is quite remarkable. The Toronto Maple Leafs provide that outlet to anyone and its one of the reasons for the growth in both passion and size of Leafs Nation. Assuming a role in Leafs Nation has become part of the Canadian experience in Toronto.

Leafs Nation, and the interest in the team, has grown progressively over time due to the increased frequency of being associated through anything from advertisements to peers. The passion has been spreading since 1927 but has picked up major steam through the internet and advancements in technology. In arenas all over the league, Leaf fans frequently out number the amount of home team fans when playing an away game.

The most traditional and heartwarming form of growth in Leafs Nation comes within the institution of family. The passion and commitment to the Leafs of the younger generation can certainly be attributed to a brother, grandfather, guardian and especially a father. Again similar to that of a religion, to many, passing down the love for the Leafs to each generation, from father to son, is a tradition. Many members of Leafs Nation could tell similar stories of watching the famous blue and white on a school night with Dad; it’s almost 10 P.M. and Mom is yelling “its time for bed!”, but Dad gives the okay to stay up and watch the last five minutes. It’s because he enjoys watching the Leafs with his boy just as much as they were thrilled to be up late, hanging out with Dad, the invincible. Leafs fans will explain that no matter where they are, even hundreds of kilometers away at university, years later, they still discuss and argue about the team which they were both guided to love by their fathers. It’s a tradition that one will always remember to carry on, for its influence and importance is unforgettable. Sean McIndoe, a Leafs writer for website Down Goes Brown, best exemplifies this tradition: “Last month my wife and I welcomed our first son to the world. Like any proud father, I didn't want to waste any time teaching him the important values that I hope he'll carry with him throughout his life. So a few days ago, I sat him down for a very important discussion. Do you see this friendly looking blue thing right here? That's a Toronto Maple Leafs logo. It probably looks familiar, since there's at least one on every item of clothing you own right now. And that's because you're going to be a Maple Leafs fan, just like your dad.”

This is what Leafs Nation is all about. It’s about the bond between a father and son, the unity of a group of unknown strangers, the outlet for an exchange student to become part of something special, it’s the passion that unites us all. Leaf fans cherish Leafs Nation, but they wouldn’t mind if the team won something once in a while either.

History

To thoroughly grasp the concept of Leafs Nation and the passion behind it, one must be made aware of the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the unequal ratio of hardships to successes.

When describing the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, one is forced to start with the man who created the iconic sweaters, the unforgettable memories and the general passion which represent the Toronto Maple Leafs. The son of a failed vegetarian businessman and an alcoholic who drank herself to death at the age of 38, a veteran of both World Wars, was the man who brought Toronto its single greatest treasure. On February 14^th, 1927, Conn Smythe bought the Toronto St. Patrick’s from a group of four businessmen for $160,000. An immediate change of name and colours followed, as Smythe began his mark on Toronto by implementing the now universally recognizable name and logo of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Smythe grew up just a few blocks from where the Air Canada Centre currently sits, in a rough neighbourhood opposite to the luxuries of the area’s current surroundings. He grew up tough, and that’s exactly how he built his teams. His famous trademark “if you can’t beat ‘em in the alley, you can’t beat ‘em on the ice” is one which has Leaf fans wishing for the “good old days” every time they hear it. Smythe had far greater dreams and aspirations for the Leafs then just building powerful, tough teams. A few years into his tenure as the owner of the Maple Leafs, Smythe undertook the project of building Maple Leaf Gardens in the midst of the Great Depression. Like all Leaf owners and management, Smythe had his critics. Unlike all Leaf owners and management, Smythe came through. Foster Hewitt, the voice who brought the Leafs to the original Leafs Nation, said it best: “When Maple Leaf Gardens was only an idea the critics said, ‘you can’t finance it.’ When the plans were drawn the doubters declared, ‘you can’t have it ready for opening night.’ When the building was completed the pessimists prophesied, ‘you can’t fill it.’ But every prediction was false, for on November 12, 1931, the largest crowd in Toronto’s history to witness an indoor event of any kind packed into the ice palace.” Well said by the great Hewitt, but an ice palace is simply an understatement when referring to Maple Leaf Gardens. The Gardens would become a sanctuary. A hockey shrine of memories and dreams, symbolizing everything Leafs Nation stands for. To Leafs Nation, Maple Leaf Gardens is not just a building, hockey is not just a game, and watching the Leafs every single Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada is not just a hobby, it’s a religion. Maple Leaf Gardens would become, for a couple of generations, Canada’s best-known building. However, the story of Smythe was not done. He coveted a star defensemen named King Clancy to build his team around but did not have the funds required to purchase the defensemen’s services. As the legend goes, Smythe, a racehorse owner on the side, happened to have a filly named Rare Jewel running in the Coronation Futurity at Woodbine racetrack which was going off at 100-1 odds to win. While some say it was the “luck of the Leafs”, most believe Smythe had managed to guarantee his filly the victory with the help of some connections. Either way, Smythe bet heavily on his horse and landed almost $15,000, enough for Clancy to become a Leaf. Smythe, Torontonians, and the Leafs never looked back. Led by the “King”, the Leafs rolled to the Stanley Cup in their first year at the Gardens and their second with Clancy. Furthermore, the Leafs would win six of the possible ten Stanley Cups from 1942-1951 and the first Maple Leaf dynasty was built. Toronto was abuzz and Leafs Nation was overloaded with confidence. However, the triumphant times of the Toronto Maple Leafs would not last long, and its downward slide began in 1961 when Smythe sold the majority stake in Maple Leaf Gardens to his son, Stafford. This essentially meant Stafford Smythe’s eventual takeover of the club and subsequently the demise of the Toronto Maple Leafs for decades to come. Stafford Smythe quickly became co-owners of the club with businessman Harold Ballard. From the moment Ballard’s name appeared, everything changed. The fact remains that Conn Smythe’s Leafs, or Leafs teams which consisted of players he brought in, won eleven Stanley Cups, and the post-Conn Smythe Leafs have won none.

            “The Ballard Years” are remembered as a time of misery and deceit. A time when maximizing profits was the top and seemingly only priority. It is also remembered as the time when the mighty Leafs began their descent toward the laughingstock which they are today. Rumour has it that Ballard took full ownership of the Maple Leafs by tricking a drunken Stafford Smythe into signing an altered will. This followed by a landslide of actions with nothing but profits as intended consequences. Ballard quickly tripled profits and had the famous Gardens fully decked in advertisements. He even managed to add new seats to areas in the Gardens which his predecessor had requested be left open to “give everyone a chance to have a look at the play.” Scott Young, co-author of Conn Smythe’s autobiography, describes the Ballard era as “removing the sentiment from the operation” and having “no regard for a sacred trust and only interested in making money.” Ballard’s obsession with money drove him to sell the Stanley Cup banners from the past championship teams, something that is unheard of in professional sports. At one point, Ballard even found himself running the Leafs from a security prison in Kingston after being convicted of forty-eight counts of fraud and theft after trading the Gardens’ money as if it were his. To go along with his greed, Ballard was known for the disrespect he showed for anyone and everyone. He commonly referred to Soviet’s as “savages”, and had them banned from the building at one point. He pointed out on CBC radio his belief that women “belonged on their back”; he had his own son arrested for breaking and entering at his own house and he also promised to trade the entire Maple Leaf team.  Ballard then began systematically stripping the Leafs of their greatest assets including captain Darryl Sittler and fan favourite Lanny McDonald. He followed these trades up by blocking Dave Keon, ranked the sixty-ninth best player all-time, from not just playing with Toronto, but anywhere in the league. After finishing last in the division eight times from 1980-1990, Leafs Nation gained hope when Ballard fell ill and passed on in 1990.  This sounds harsh, but the stock of Maple Leaf Gardens actually fluctuated depending on Ballard’s health. When the legal disputes over ownership were finally settled, longtime friend of Ballard’s Steve Stavro was in charge of the world famous Maple Leafs. However, his tenure was short and relatively uneventful in comparison to his two predecessors. The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan became a primary investor in 1994 along with Larry Tanenbaum, a wealthy CEO of a construction company, purchasing a minority stake in 1996. In 2003, Stavro sold his remaining shares to the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, making the fund the majority shareholder. This has remained the ownership structure of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and its parent company known as Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, since the 2003.

THESIS STATEMENT

The year of 1967 remains the last year that the Toronto Maple Leafs, with the legendary sweaters and the grandest following in the NHL, raised the Stanley Cup. When franchises from ice-adverse states such as North Carolina, California and Florida have been able to do it in the last five years, something must be wrong if it cannot be done in the hockey capital of the world. Leafs Nation asks continually: “why can’t this team win?” The answer: It's not bad luck. It's not bad karma. It’s Leafs Nation.

Though its passion is second to none and its influence in both the micro and macro levels of the city is unparalleled, it is the root cause of its own question. Why Leafs Nation has caused the Toronto Maple Leafs to become a chronic loser will be explained in this essay.

To prove that Leafs Nation is the cause for the longest Stanley cup drought in the NHL, I will discuss blue and white disease, the pressure of performing in hockey’s toughest market and ownership’s immoral practices, while providing a solution to each problem.

LITERATURE REVIEW

It’s a question which has been asked day after day, week after week, and season after season. While Leafs Nation verbally discusses what they believe to be the root problem of their beloved team, there have been many fans, analysts, sportswriters, bloggers and experts who have conveyed their theory’s in written text.            

In a Maclean’s article from 2008, sportswriter Steve Maich discusses his belief that the Toronto Maple Leafs “stink” as a result of their monopolistic market power, a feature of this essays argument of management’s immoral practices. However, Maich goes further by equating the organization to that of Microsoft. He suggests that with the kind of monopolistic power in which each company has, an inability to innovate and to develop internally occurs. With no internal development, companies are forced to acquire smaller organizations to keep up with the market and its competitors. He uses examples of Microsoft paying $6 billion to purchase a company called aQuantive to attempt to rival Google. Then again when it fell behind due to Mapquest and Google Maps, it purchased Vexcel and GeoTango to maintain market share. Neither of these attempted short term fixes was successful. Maich relates this to the Leafs in terms of signing veteran free agents, instead of drafting young players, in an attempt to keep up to the youthful teams developing around them. He supports his argument with statistical evidence of the Leafs draft pick history in comparison to that of the rival Montreal Canadiens. Maich displays the team’s core at the time of the article as older players who had been signed, while Montreal had drafted seventeen of its current twenty-five players. Maich’s primary argument for the incompetence of the Leafs is that the team fails to draft players and develop them from a young age, instead opting for short-term fixes such as Owen Nolan or Brian Leetch.

            Maich makes a sufficient argument and supports it with evidence. His comparison of the Leafs to that of Microsoft communicates relevant similarities. Though written in 2008, his theory has proved true for all Stanley Cup winners in recent years, as all were heavily developed internally. However, Maich’s argument fails to take into account the city as to which the Leafs play in. None of the recent cup winning cities place similar pressure on their team to perform on a nightly basis. In general, other supporters are more content with a losing team. While in Toronto, Leafs Nation forces management’s hand in certain situations and always chooses to try and “win now” rather than sacrificing a few seasons and gaining relevant prospects. This idea will be discussed in detail this essay.

Written in 2009 by Dave Feschuk and Michael Grange, Leafs AbomiNation argues that a combination of factors is responsible for cup drought, with talent absence at the base of them all. Feschuk and Grange argue that it is the fault of the general managers and scouts for botching the few draft picks which the team actually had. They provide statistics which underlie the main fact that between 1992 and 2006, the teams thirteen first round picks averaged only eighty-two career points, placing the Leafs in the bottom third in this regard. This leads them into their blame of the players themselves, and how their responsibility for this matter is highlighted by fact that no Leaf player since the infamous 1967 has won a major individual player trophy. Finally, Feschuk and Grange place blame on the coaching; “of the sixteen men who’ve come and gone as head coach of the Leafs since the team’s last championship, more than half of them, ten to be exact, never coached again in the NHL.” A picture is painted of Toronto as the anti-New York, “if you can’t make it here, you can’t make it anywhere.”

Feschuk and Grange profoundly displayed and supported with statistical evidence the fact that coaches, management and players alike simply have not excelled in any facet. However, they fail to discuss the reasons why each sector of the organization can’t seem to thrive. Did every sector of every generation in the Leafs organization since 1967 really have no talent? In Nashville, it’s possible. In the hockey capital of the world, it’s unlikely. The laws of probability indicate that at some point in 43 years, the Leafs would be good at something. Therefore, this must not be due to pure chance and an underlying reason must be present. This essay will dig deeper into this idea and communicate how this issue may be attributed to Leafs Nation.

Al Strachan, former Hockey Night in Canada anchor and author of Why the Leafs Suck and How They Can Be Fixed, gives his expert opinion as to the major issues which have resulted in the nightmare which haunts the Leafs. Strachan’s book generally gives a run through of the main general manager eras and points out the mistakes made by each, ranging from the Ballard years, the beginning of the downfall, to the current situation. In essence, it is his belief that the cause of Toronto’s cup drought is due to improper management decisions regarding trades and draft picks.

While Strachan is arguably an expert in the field, most of his statements are based on personal opinion rather than relevant evidence. Similarly to Maich, he makes note of flawed trades by previous general managers while discussing owner negligence and malpractice. Strachan makes conclusions which are not specific to the situation in Toronto and therefore can not be seen as relevant for fixing the mismanagement he describes.

Rebuttal

While each piece of work discussed the problem of mismanagement and poor decision making as a central component to the problem, this essay will disprove those theories through an explanation of how outside forces compromise incoming players, managers and coaches. It will demonstrate the idea that the fate of many of these people could have been vastly different if not for particular variables imposed by Leafs Nation. In short, performances by players, coaches and managers, who are deemed failures by Leaf fans, could have been exceptionally more productive if placed in a different environment, with a different fan base. To compare trades simply by the career points of each player traded, the method used by Strachan, Feschuk and Grange, is completely irrelevant without examining the implications of outside variables. Even these writers must have believed something wasn’t quite right when listing off an unbelievable number of awful draft picks and poor trades by a variety of different managers. Could an organization really make that many horrible decisions? Or are the incoming players affected in some way by their environment? While it’s becoming easier with every advancement in modern communicative technology, judging a person’s character and from that, analyzing their ability to succeed in the toughest market in hockey is task which could take years, especially when the character under analysis is a pre-pubescent seventeen year old. With limited time regarding decision making, acquiring a player with the inner strength to succeed in Toronto is a crap shoot with unfavourable odds. All in all, excuse Cliff Fletcher for drafting Luca Cereda in the 1999 NHL entry draft, because management, while it may play a role, is not the primary reason for a player or coach’s inability to succeed or even match expectations. Cereda was a huge prospect in the draft, but proved to be a bust because he had difficulty developing in Leaf Nation’s environment.  Management can not be blamed for the longest Stanley Cup drought in the league. Leafs Nation deserves the greatest blame for that feat.

ARGUMENTS

The second a person slides on the sacred, iconic and classic blue and white jersey of the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs, the city of Toronto becomes an unorthodox mix of a place too easy to live in but too hard to play in. In combination with a face-less owner called the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, who disguise their money making machine as a hockey team, Toronto is destined to produce a persistent loser. Leafs Nation is the root cause of each of these three factors due to the incessant obsession in which they have for the players, the team and the sport.

Blue and White Disease

“Being a Leaf is probably the easiest job in the world; mediocrity is rewarded with stardom.” – Luigi Trentadue

For a Leaf player, how can the city of Toronto being an easy place to live cause failure on the ice? And why are the Leaf supporters responsible for this?

The Leafs Stanley Cup drought has no sign of ending anytime soon. There is no light at the end of the tunnel and, season after season, another year is tacked on to the humiliating statistic. In fact, if there is a tunnel with a light at the end, symbolizing completion, success and freedom, the Leafs organization, after a team record of five consecutive missed playoffs, would currently be at it’s furthest point from that light since 1967.

            When the light seems to become dimmer each year for an approaching fourty-fourth year, one must come to the conclusion that the relevant party is suffering from an infection of some sort. In Toronto, that infection is called “Blue and White” disease and its catalyst is Leafs Nation.

            The general concept of Blue and White disease is made up of two stages: the first of which is based on Maple Leaf players developing the belief that they need not train hard and perform at their peak level, ultimately becoming satisfied with losing, because the people of Toronto will treat them like gods regardless of whether they win or lose. Secondly, the celebrity-like attention from Leafs Nation results in an ultra development of the player’s ego which may spawn partying habits in the case of some, or the belief that they are “too good” to backcheck and play defense in the case of others. The two stages of Blue and White disease create a disastrous cycle which always begins with Leaf Nation’s adoration and ends with a championship-less summer.

           

Suppose a player has just been drafted to the NHL to play for the Panthers in Florida, not exactly a hockey hotbed to say the least. The money is fresh and so are the cars and houses that come with it. The player is a bigwig on game nights to the 5000 fans in attendance but when picking up milk from the grocery store on a Tuesday afternoon they’re as invisible as anyone else. The phone rings and they are told they have been traded to Toronto to become a Maple Leaf. From the moment the plane touches down in the hockey capital of the world, or even before, Leafs Nation immediately transforms the player from the guy signing a few autographs for kids after the game to a celebrity who’s idolized by millions. A night out has been changed from chicken wings and a few beers with teammates to a gorgeous steak, that never costs a dime, followed by private rooms, free booze and a female of the player’s choice at the club. While the luxuries were nothing to sneeze at in Florida, suddenly the player is able to afford the bigger and better version of everything after becoming a Maple Leaf. As a young adult, that treatment is definitely something a player can get used to. The problem for the Maple Leafs is; they do.

             While the rockstar lifestyle for Maple Leaf players has always been part of the culture, its hindering of the team appears worse now then ever before. At least the Leaf teams of the early nineties used it as a builder of team unity. Before the dress code clubs and the expensive steakhouses which surround the Air Canada Centre, there was a rundown back room of a bar across the street from Maple Leaf Gardens. With nothing more than a pool table, a few benches and an unlimited supply of beer, every one of the Leafs would flock there after every Saturday game. Toronto P.M. was the name of the bar, and its back room was for Leafs players only, along with the mostly female crowd which they invited. Just a group of regular guys, throwing back cold ones as a team. However, those days are gone; gone with the move to the new millennium, gone with the move to the Air Canada Center, and gone with the move to multi-million dollar contracts. The walk from Maple Leaf Gardens to a crappy backroom bar in jeans and a t-shirt has become separate limousines of Armani suit wearing players, transporting them from the Air Canada Center to different martini bars throughout the city. The unity of the former Leafs has been eroded to the cliquey Leafs of today, which only heightens the effects of the disease that has plagued this iconic franchise.

Blue and White disease has a variety of levels of seriousness and its impact on each player will differentiate. In mild cases, the boost of ego experienced will corrupt a player from their innocent rookie mindset which has them thrilled to be a Leaf and transform it to one which results in sense of entitlement. This level of infection has symptoms of taking extra long shifts while providing a lazy backcheck. In more severe cases, the player’s celebrity status deteriorates their sense of smell, leading him to believe that his shit simply does not stink. The disease can reach this level through encounters with attractive female fans or from hearing “your money is no good here” too many times in one season. This level of seriousness can be fatal to both the Maple Leaf season and the player’s career. Nick Di Dinato, a Toronto night club owner commented on having a player at his club; “whenever we have the Leafs in our venues we take care of them and control the environment for them. They would never stand in line at one of our places. It wouldn’t reflect well on us. We’re in the city of Toronto, they’re celebrities, they need to be treated that way.” This is exactly the reason the disease is taken to a new level.

As if born to be an example of Blue and White disease, former Leaf player Kyle Wellwood is a perfect illustration of the infection and its consequences. Wellwood, an initially talented playmaker, was given a spot on the Leafs top line in the 2005 season, his first year with the team. Typical of a young adult, Wellwood could be found at any Toronto club on a Saturday night, an early warning sign of a possible Blue and White diagnosis. The more time Wellwood spent in Toronto, the more he was spotted cutting the line and being escorted to the VIP areas. As Wellwood described it: “You’d play and, especially if you won, you’d go out and the minute you show up at the club you cut the line, get a table, and get a few drinks…if you wanted attention from the girls, you could definitely get it. I just think its fun for them to hang out with an NHL player in Toronto. And if they’d had a few drinks it was even more fun.” Wellwood became a typical victim of Blue and White disease and began his free fall with a backcheck which resembled that of a pond hockey game. This was followed by a consistent pattern of keeping the puck for what seemed like an eternity and then attempting a fancy pass which almost never worked. In three years as a Maple Leaf, Wellwood went from the top line, a rarity for a first year player, to being labeled fat, out of shape and too lazy to do anything about it. Though even in his dismal third and final season in Toronto, he was adored just as he was in his rookie season. Wellwood was given no incentive to bring his game back to the level it once was because he was idolized by Leafs fans at the club no matter what. Regardless of how he played the night before, he was still eating free steaks, signing autographs and being fancied by females. For this reason, his game never became what it was expected to become and Wellwood was released by the Maple Leafs after three seasons. He was eventually signed by the Vancouver Canucks after three fails of the required fitness test and spent two years in Vancouver before being released by the Canucks as well. Wellwood could not find another job in the NHL and is now playing his hockey in Russia, proof of the deadly power which Blue and White disease possesses.

The infection and subsequent corruption of the players’ mindsets are not the full extent of Blue and White disease’s reach. The celebrity status is devastating enough to the chances of Maple Leaf wins, but when a player becomes addicted to the adoration, that’s when all hope is thrown out the window. It is at this point that players who have had a taste of the limelight will do just about anything keep it. This involves playing for individual recognition as a priority over team accomplishments. Pat Quinn, former Leafs coach of seven years, had some of the half-decent Leaf teams in recent memory, though he couldn’t rid his players of this side effect of Blue and White disease. Perhaps the most relevant of sources due to his first hand experience with the infection, Quinn describes the situation; “it definitely gets in the way of being a good team because certain players are trying to stroke their individual niche with the crowd that has nothing to do with team success. It becomes about the individual, and when the individual becomes more important than the team, you have a problem. Because at the end of the day it’s only the team that wins. That is one of the biggest problems that exists in Toronto today, those that know they have a special niche with the fans direct their performance toward that reward, not the reward of winning. Its one of the biggest reasons why the good teams we had didn’t get right over the top during the seven years I was here. They were capable, but didn’t have the team harmony to get through it.” Quinn goes on to specifically say “guys used to fight when there’s no reason to fight other than to attract the love of the crowd.” This brings up the example of Tie Domi, who made his living as an NHL fighter. It has been said that to be truly loved in Toronto, a player must be able to score a goal from time to time but fight often. Just like an injection of heroine to an addict, a fight was an injection of fame and adoration from the fans to Domi. As Quinn conveyed, many of these fights were purely based the personal reward and were a major detriment to team unity. However, Leafs Nation loved him for it just as he loved the adoration from it, even at the expense of the team’s success. To illustrate the example of Domi, one may compare his time with the club to that of Mats Sundin, one of the greatest captains and players in Toronto’s history. Both playing the same amount of seasons in Toronto, Sundin had 420 goals for the team while Domi, only having 83, punched a lot of people in the face. Even with 337 fewer goals, Domi’s jersey sales equaled those of Sundin’s, proving the city’s obsession with showering goons with uncanny adoration. Even Wendel Clark and his first-class wrist shot will be remembered most for the way he used his fists. The mutual love of Domi and the Maple Leaf faithful was a relationship which caused frustration for coaches, teammates and any member of the organization or Leafs Nation which cared about winning games more than watching fights. Just like an addict, Domi constantly needed more attention. Willing to make any personal appearance, regardless of the gig, he needed to stay in the spotlight. When reporters gathered around teammate Gary Valk after he scored the biggest goal of his career in a playoff game in Pittsburgh, Domi made comments to reporters asking “What are you talking to him for? What did he do?” Joking or not, Domi couldn’t contain himself and stay out limelight for just one night. To cap it all off, after Domi assaulted Scott Niedermeyer, one of the NHL’s most respected players, with a cheapshot in game six of the second round of the 2001 playoffs, Domi became the primary focus of the city and the team. With the attention squarely on Tie rather than on the seventh and deciding game, the team was eliminated from the playoffs. With his antics, Domi again put himself ahead of the team, and again the result was another Cup-free summer.

Domi is just one example of many Leafs, past or present, who became far too concerned with the celebrity of being a Leaf, allowing the reason they were brought to the team to be forgotten. Though it sounds cruel, and it would be extremely easy to blame the players themselves, the onus must fall on the ones who provide the drug of fame and adoration. Leafs Nation must be blamed for giving the initial taste of the drug to players like Wellwood, for continually supplying rockstar-like attention to anyone who is blessed enough to put on a Leafs jersey regardless of performance, and for fueling the addiction to celebrity treatment by applauding attempts at personal rewards which have no positive implications on the team. Leafs Nation must be unmasked as the catalyst of Blue and White Disease as well as the enabler which further promotes its symptoms, ultimately costing them what they covet most, a Stanley Cup.

Pressure

“You can watch it from the outside as a kid growing up or you can live it everyday as a fan but until you’re in that fish bowl, you’ll never understand how truly difficult at times it can be on you.” – Nick Kypreos

Leafs Nation constitutes of a group of millions which seek answers in every defeat and compare men to gods in every victory. It breathes hockey twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and without question, this obsession can begin to feel suffocating for the normal person. Unfortunately for many, this is not just another NHL franchise, it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the normal person theory simply doesn’t apply to anyone who’s a part of the blue and white. Whether it’s a segment on a two-hour radio show or a prime time discussion among analysts, anyone associated with the team must expect to be both praised and criticized as frequently as every hour. Over-analysis is standard in Toronto, an environment where nothing else matters. It is this same over-analysis on players, coaches and management that has hindered the club to the point where a chance at the team’s twelfth Stanley Cup seems bleak. The unnecessary pressure that is accompanied with the honour of wearing the prestigious colours has turned good players into average players and average players into unemployed players. The pressure of being a Toronto Maple Leaf is rendering players unconfident and unable to perform to their peak potential. At the root of it all, it’s Leafs Nation which has a constant microscope on everything and anything to do with its beloved team. The microscope has been applied too closely for over fourty-three years and has consequently burned various subjects while its heat continually risks the prosperity of the future generation. Leafs Nation is targeting players, creating unrealistic expectations, driving prospective players away and constantly endangering Maple Leaf youth.

But wait, if Toronto is so good to these people regardless of win or loss, how is there pressure? For a member of Leafs Nation, reactions to a player are much different when they are a part of collective voice as opposed to being an individual voice in a one-on-one encounter. Because let’s face it, they’re still celebrities. However, the collective voice comes from the 30,000 people in the Air Canada Centre or from the Leaf dedicated websites of a million members. Leafs Nation expresses it’s true opinions as shared entity which holds the power to destroy NHL careers. In coming to Toronto, a player, manager or coach has to expect to be put under a microscope in every practice and every game, and if that person is not performing up to snuff they will be forced to hear about it from Leafs Nation. They will hear about it not only every game from fans but everyday in every Toronto newspaper and sports radio show, along with all three of Toronto’s twenty-four hour sports television stations. Hearing the “boo’s” from the fans is not pleasant by any means but at least it’s escapable in the sense that it ends after the three hour contest. The hard part is after the game when they’re swarmed by reporters or waking up the next day to see they’re being discussed by analysts, or even driving to practice while listening to clueless radio hosts berate them. Compared to that, hearing an obnoxious noise when they touch the puck is nothing.

The media circus that follows the Toronto Maple Leafs is like nothing a player will ever experience in their hockey career. The environment more resembles that of soap opera than a hockey team, with Leafs Nation acting as both the script writer and the viewer. Every game, practice or pre-game skate is battle within itself. Twenty-six writers and eighteen television cameras jam into the dressing room, each fighting to get to the key position with most important player of day, hoping to be the one to break the big story. It’s just a regular practice and most other teams wouldn’t catch this kind of attention even if it was vying for the Cup that night. But this is Toronto, and coach Ron Wilson has decided to change up his forward lines, giving journalists, bloggers, analysts, reporters and members of Leafs Nation something to talk about for the next three days. Even one shuffling of the lines has merited entire columns, even though it happens a measly 250 times per year. That’s the power of the media in Toronto and that’s the kind of in-depth knowledge that Leafs Nation prides itself on being aware of. The shuffling of lines could be nothing more than a simple attempt at finding new chemistry among players, but it is the character of Leafs Nation, as well as the media it has spawned, to jump to every possible conclusion. Its part of the Toronto Maple Leaf culture to over-analyze everything and proceed to make assumptions about anything. Perhaps its not a typical juggling of lines at practice, maybe Player A and Player B don’t see eye to eye with Player C? Maybe Player C’s not good enough? When these topics travel from conversations amongst analysts to discussions between friends, relatives and co-workers, opinions are thrown out left, right and center. This is how ideas that a player is too slow, can’t shoot or just isn’t sufficient, are spread like a hot rumour in the schoolyard.

           

Former player Nick Kypreos describes playing for his hometown Leafs: “You can watch it from the outside as a kid growing up or you can live it everyday as a fan but until you’re in that fish bowl, you’ll never understand how truly difficult at times it can be on you.” Kypreos further discussed the mental strain of being inside the fish bowl that is the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, “whether it’s four major newspapers following you or four sports channels, they dissect your thoughts, your emotions, your play and your activity on and off the ice.” The microscopic environment has the ability to strike fear in a person of any role within the organization. Fear of turning over the puck, fear of not meeting expectations and most importantly, fear of not winning games. With each added loss or insufficient game an additional level of pressure gained, making Toronto one of the hardest cities in the world for a person or a team to snap a slump. With fourty-three years worth of mounted losses and pressure, it’s no coincidence that the Leafs can’t even secure a playoff spot.

            Around the league, there seems to be a common belief that “if I can play well in the Toronto market, I can set myself up for life.” Players such as Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark, two of the most loved captains in the team’s history, come to mind. The issue, however, is not having the ability to play well for one year or even two, three or four. The issue is that Leafs Nation lives by the phrase “what have you done for me lately?” opposed to “what have you done for me?” Exceed expectations by a goal; you’re a god in eyes of the fans. Fail to meet expectations by a goal; you’re a goat. That’s the easy part; the hard part is continuing to exceed expectations and avoiding the goat-status which may ensue after a string of poor games. The most severe problem comes when a player, especially one of youth, tremendously exceeds expectations. For in Toronto, following a mass amount of suffering through failure, any form of success is met with a great deal of enthusiasm. It’s that same amount of enthusiasm by Leafs Nation that skyrockets expectations to unattainable levels and thus placing an unrealistic amount of pressure to handle. An example of this can be seen in Luke Schenn, who in 2008, as an eighteen year old defenseman, blew everyone’s minds by not only making the team but becoming one of the team’s key players throughout the year. These feats were extremely impressive but also dangerously unexpected by Leafs Nation. Following yet another missed playoffs, Leafs Nation was still in high spirits because for the first time in recent memory, the team had one of the league’s most impressive prospects, and one that was able to steer clear of the highly contagious blue and white disease. Thoughts were already beginning to spread around the media and Leafs Nation that the still eighteen year old Schenn will be the future captain. Like any typical teenager from Saskatoon would respond to that type of unreasonable expectation, Schenn faltered to begin his sophomore season. Leafs Nation, as it always does, made Schenn the focus of non-stop criticism in the media, further adding to his already unfair level of pressure. When Schenn was eventually benched for a few games, a regular occurrence for a player still before his nineteenth birthday, it was made to seem like a disaster of epic proportions. An event such as this would not turn a single head in most cities, but in Toronto it became household news and a front page headline. Leafs Nation hurled itself into panic mode and became convinced that its once believed saviour was nothing more than a career minor league defensemen. Throughout the year, the chants of “trade Schenn” grew louder and louder and once again, Leafs Nation risked its best young asset by putting the weight of an entire city on the shoulders of a kid who could’ve still been in high school.

            The greatly exceeding expectation theory is not limited to individual players, but can be attributed to team failure just the same. To begin the 2010 season, the Maple Leafs players gave the hockey equivalent of CPR to an organization that appeared hopeless after a fifth straight season without a playoff berth. After an epic opening game win against a fierce rival in the Montreal Canadiens, a second game was won, followed by a third and finally a fourth consecutive victory. Just as the Schenn situation, Leafs Nation began to believe that the Stanley Cup drought was destined to end because this year’s version of the Leafs was unbeatable. Coach Ron Wilson tried to control and manage the newly formed expectations of Leafs Nation, for the sake of his players, by explaining to the media “not to plan the Stanley Cup parade just yet” but it was to no avail. Leafs Nation let its imagination run wild and expectations ultimately followed suit. Media reports began proclaiming the Leafs team to be better in everyway, with some going as far as ranking the team the best in the league. Again, just like Schenn, the enthusiasm which came from the 4-0 start created an unbearable amount of pressure for the young team and the Leafs followed their dream start with only one win in the next twelve games. The cries from Leafs Nation requesting trades and a firing of the coach have already begun. People within the organization have been targeted by the destructively over passionate fan base, almost a sure fire sign for a changing of the guards just twelve games after the Stanley Cup parade route was planned. 

            Toronto fans have a long history of targeting individual players and eventually having them run out of town. Leafs Nation, though it believes itself to be a massive collection of hockey experts, can be as clueless as fans of the Phoenix Coyotes. That being said, in many cases, it boo’s and exiles people without being aware of their true value. 

A prime example to illustrate this idea is Hall of Fame defenceman Larry Murphy. Murphy, who won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins before coming to Toronto, was booed by the Toronto faithful for his entire second season with the club for being too slow. Larry wasn’t the fastest player on the ice by any means, but that’s not what he was brought to Toronto for. He was brought to the Leafs to be a calm puck-moving defenceman, which was exactly what he was during his time in Toronto. The coaching had no problem with Murphy’s play, neither did the management, but the self-believed hockey experts of Leafs Nation did, and Murphy was forced to hear its opinion. “What happens in Toronto is that fans have expectations of a player, and when they don’t think the player is matching their expectations they begin to target him, and that’s what happened to Larry. We never had a problem with how Larry was playing. He gave us what we asked for. But the fans, through the media and the broadcasters, targeted him. It got to the point around the trade deadline, I was sitting with Cliff Fletcher (Leafs general manager at the time) and said if there’s a place to move Larry, we should do it for his sake” said Mike Murphy (no relation) the Maple Leafs coach during Larry’s time. Leafs Nation appears to forget that the players they exile are human beings with natural human characteristics, making it difficult for a player to want to remain in a city and play hard for a fan base which despises him. Larry Murphy, as a  human being, agreed to be sent to the Detroit Red Wings, who were happy to take the apparently too slow Murphy of Leafs Nation’s hands. Murphy went on to be an integral part of two Stanley Cups with the Red Wings, giving a total of four Stanley Cup rings and a Hall of Fame induction to a player who was dubbed by Leafs Nation as not good enough to be on its twenty-second place Maple Leafs. Leafs Nation continually forces managements hand by the way it treats players and coaches. In many cases where Leafs Nation has run players out of town, it does so without being aware of what’s best for the team. It’s not the collection of hockey experts it believes itself to be and Murphy’s resume is just one example of that.

            Larry Murphy clearly recovered from his assumedly traumatic time with the Maple Leafs, but many others have not been as fortunate. For some people, twenty-four hour attention, from a fan base which insists on knowing their daily details, is just too much to handle. As one of the only sports teams in the world with it’s own channel, members of Leafs Nation can watch LEAFS TV like its their real-life version of Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show. One of the players who fits into this category is former Maple Leafs goalie Andrew Raycroft. Raycroft was acquired by Toronto in 2006 from the Boston Bruins in exchange for Tuuka Rask, one of the best goaltending prospects of the decade. Playing the position of goalie in the NHL is stressful; playing goalie in Toronto is pressure in its ultimate form, playing goalie in Toronto with Raycroft’s price tag attached is when pressure reigns supreme. Raycroft had won the Calder Trophy in Boston, given to the league’s top rookie, but he was not programmed to handle the environment in Toronto and consequently, he failed miserably. The goalie was released by Toronto in only his second season and has struggled to find a job in the NHL as even a back-up, a long fall for a goalie once voted as the best new player. As previously stated, a full recovery to a traumatic Toronto experience is rare.

            In a second example, Bryan McCabe, a former Leafs defenceman, bit off more than he could chew after negotiating a five-year extension worth $28.75 million in 2006. McCabe seemed to be handling the pressure in Toronto as well as any player in the seasons before applying a nearly $30 million price tag to his head. The 30-year-old McCabe was coming off a breakout season with the Maple Leafs, ranking third in points among all NHL defenceman, while earning a relatively quiet $3.458 million. After being given an increase in pay, fans of the blue and white expected McCabe to increase his productivity, or at the very least, match his statistics of the previous year. While McCabe wasn’t an exact replica of the hard-hitting, hard-shooting player that landed him the increase in pay, his next season was nothing to sneeze at after posting 57 points and playing all 82 games, an impressive season for a defenceman. To Leafs Nation, this ran unacceptable. In general, 57 points was impressive at $3.5 million, but after a raise to just under $6 million a season, he was supposed to improve on the 68 point total from the previous season, spawning the process of running the once fan-favourite Bryan McCabe and his overpriced contract out of town. McCabe heard the booing every time he touched the puck in his second year of his new contract. This year would be McCabe’s final season in Toronto, but at least he capped off his time with the Leafs in style. On a night in October 2007 against the Buffalo Sabres, the boos seemed to ring particularly loud. McCabe, who did all he could to stay in Toronto, ended up unintentionally firing the puck into his own net in the dying seconds of overtime, ultimately ending any chance of restoring what was once had between McCabe and Leafs Nation. McCabe was traded at the end of the year to the Florida Panthers; creating the saying “This hockey-crazed market can either transform you to a god-like status, or eat you whole and spit you out in Florida.”

            The pressure in the Toronto market is no secret around the league. The question then becomes, why would anyone want to play there if the pressure has destroyed so many others? The answer is: many don’t want to play in Toronto. Players have turned down offers to play for the legendary Maple Leafs because of the influence of Leafs Nation, which can be related to a “pushy stage parent or an insecure lover” in that they want something so badly that they end up scaring it away. “There’s no question that some athletes don’t want to play with that scrutiny and they do perform better without having to face it, where they can get away after the game. That’s not possible in Toronto. It’s too bad because there’s nowhere better, there’s great joy to be had here” says former Leafs coach Pat Quinn. The unconditional love of Leafs Nation is repelling useful players like bug spray to mosquitoes. This deterrent includes but is not limited to star players with big money contracts. In 1999, the Leafs tried to recruit a scrappy depth player named Tom Fitzgerald to become part of the Maple Leafs organization. His final decision came down to equal money contracts with the expansion Nashville Predators and the classic Toronto Maple Leafs. An easy decision to an outside party, but Fitzgerald opted to head to Music City rather than the hockey capital of the world. Fitzgerald explains how the pressure imposed by Leafs Nation effected his decision: “It came down to Nashville and Toronto. At the time, I just felt I wasn’t ready for that pressure. You put pressure on yourself as a player, but you fly under the radar a little bit when you’re playing in Tennessee. You go to Toronto, you’d better expect to be put under a microscope. I didn’t feel like I was mature enough at the time to handle that pressure. At the time, I was scoring ten to fifteen goals a year. What if I scored four?” Fitzgerald’s thought process has become standard for players, coaches and managers when contemplating a move to Toronto. While Fitzgerald ended up signing with the Leafs in his next contract in 2002, numerous personnel scrap the idea all together. Everyone wants to be granted a god-like status that can be attained in Toronto but they are discouraged by the thought of being added to Leafs Nation’s running list of underachievers. The growing amount of players and coaches whose careers have been decided by Leafs Nation’s opinion creates a situation in Toronto where the possible negatives far outweigh the desirable positives.

With a culture shift to a more youthful NHL since the 2004 lockout, Leafs Nation’s influence is being imposed on players at progressively younger ages each season, a dangerous manipulator on young and impressionable players. Arguably Toronto’s top player, twenty-three year old Phil Kessel was only twenty-one when he was acquired by Toronto for two first-round draft picks and signed for five-years and $27 million. With an extremely high price tag and a mountain of expectations, it has yet to be seen if Kessel can prove himself worthy of the price. Leafs draft pick Nazeem Kadri, at only twenty years young, is seen as the only elite prospect the in the Leafs cupboard and was expected to be the team’s top center before succumbing to the pressure in training camp. Kadri is still innocently young, and his inability to make the team as a twenty year old in a microscopic environment can not be seen as a sign of things to come quite yet.

            Dion Phaneuf, at twenty-five years old, was named the captain of the Maple Leafs, joining legends like Kennedy, Armstrong, Sittler, Clark, and Gilmour in being granted that honour. Phaneuf, who’s not much older than Kessel and Kadri, carries the heaviest set of expectations after becoming the team’s on-ice leader. Phaneuf has taken on the responsibility to restore a winning mentality and tradition in Toronto. In leading one of the most honoured teams in sports, the hopes and dreams of Leafs Nation have been placed on his shoulders.

While the jury on these “kids” is still out, and will likely be until the latter years of their development, it must be concerning to the Maple Leafs organization to see the nasty shadow of Leafs Nation cast over it’s future generation at such a young age. Could the next wave of Bryan McCabe’s and Andrew Raycroft’s be on the horizon? It’s worth a thought. The fact that this question can not be swatted away without a doubt makes an obvious revelation that a solution to the pressure imposed by Leafs Nation is critical to success, especially in today’s youthful brand of NHL hockey.

Solution to both Blue and White Disease and Pressure

The problems of both Blue and White disease and the pressure to perform fall under the same major paradigm in Toronto. This paradigm is headed with a resulting lack of focus perpetuated by the external forces of Leafs Nation. While the lack of focus in Blue and White disease comes from being too comfortable, the lack of focus behind the issue of pressure is based on players not being comfortable enough. Both problems are fundamentally the same thing, just on two opposite sides of the scale, creating the ability to be solved by a common solution. From a simple teeter-totter explanation, it’s clear that the solution must be to find a balance of the two, allowing players, coaches and managers to perform at their peak levels. In a perfect world, players would use blue and white ego boosts in moderation to feed off the passion and become confident enough in their ability to handle the pressure, without effecting work ethic. The question then becomes a matter of how to find the desired balance.

            Rumblings among sports experts have suggested a solution that consists of Leafs Nation, as a whole, becoming less concerned with its hockey team and essentially becoming similar to the fan bases of other NHL teams. In practice, Blue and White disease would be combated by Leafs Nation taking a collective stance against glorifying the players. Pressure on the athletes would be reduced by limiting passion and restricting the insistence on being aware of every detail, consequently causing a decrease in thought-dissecting media coverage. Sure, forcing Leafs Nation to imitate the fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning would find the desired balance, and the team would probably win a few more games, but is this theory a realistic solution? Is it realistic for a person to stop caring about the pet they’ve loved and grown up with at the drop of a hat? Or even for a mother to stop loving a son at the snap of a finger? As long as the Leafs still wear blue and white, this solution is completely unrealistic. Leafs Nation will never change its values, principles and standards. It hasn’t in over four decades of losing so why would it start now? Even with the advent of Facebook and Twitter, there’s no campaign, program or petition that will successfully brainwash members to rid themselves of, or even limit, their obsession. Hypothetically speaking, if Leafs Nation followed through on its mission to extract its obsession, became NASCAR fans, and the team managed to finally win the Stanley Cup it had craved for over fourty-three years; would it be even close to as special as it would have been to a city of passion-filled hockey addicts? The champagne they’d sip from Lord Stanley’s mug would taste no different then its original form. On the contrary, if the real Leafs Nation stuck around long enough to taste it; it would probably have a flavour similar to the sweetest, most satisfying god sent mix of freedom and joy imaginable. Converting Leafs Nation to the people of Georgia to bring a cup to Toronto would remove the entire sentiment from what would be an achievement of a lifetime.

            Since Conn Smythe left his post as the team’s manager, the Maple Leafs have never regained the leadership Smythe brought. Leafs Nation can only wish for success. Leaders are the ones to make it happen, because they can't live with the alternative.

For 43 years, the Leafs have had too many fans, and not enough leaders.

The desired balance solution to the problems of Blue and White disease and unhealthy pressure must be found in the presence of a leader. This person would require the ability to limit the amount of external influences on the organization. A leader who can establish a new culture of players who are able to find the optimum balance between too comfortable and scared shitless, and further, between blue and white celebrity and the pressure of performing in the hockey center of the universe. On November 28^th, 2008, exactly 15,187 days since the last Stanley Cup was raised, the Maple Leafs organization brought the solution to Toronto when they introduced Brian Burke as the 12^th general manager in team history. Before coming to Toronto, Burke, a Harvard law school graduate, was previously the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks, where he lead the team to its first Stanley Cup victory in the 2006 season. Burke was ranked at number one by The Hockey News in the magazine’s Annual GM Rankings in March of 2008 and was also selected to build the United States hockey team that would be sent to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Burke’s resume alone conveys a person of incredible talent and competence, an important component for any general manager. This is not however, the reason Burke can be thought of as a solution. His accolades are impressive, but it’s his brash, strong personality that makes Burke the mentally-tough and talented leader that this club has lacked since Conn Smythe. It was discussed earlier that management was not the issue that has caused the extended cup drought in Toronto, and ultimately, it’s not, but it can still contribute to the solution. Not simply to the solution of the apparent drafting errors and supposed poor trades, but to the environment and influences around the Leafs that are the real culprits. Burke brings with him to Toronto the ability to redefine and reshape the entire character of the organization with nothing but his own personal mental strength. Even Burke himself admits “I really believe when I got here that the team had blue and white disease.” The culture was too weak, both mentally and physically, to succeed in Toronto, too weak to stay hungry for wins and too weak to thrive in situations of pressure. The critics of Burke or this argument may cry “he’s been at the helm for two years already and the Leafs aren’t Stanley cup champions, that’s not the solution at all.” This is a typical argument of the impatient Leafs Nation that wanted to win yesterday rather than tomorrow. It’s for this very reason that former management has always opted to take the unsuccessful short-cut approach. The response to these critics is simple, with Leafs Nation’s two extreme forms of treating its obsession subjects, mental worship and torture; it has brutally beaten the culture and character of the organization. The recovery and return to prosperity is not going to happen over night or even over two years, especially when the adoration and psychological assaulting will never stop. That’s a fact, it will never stop, because lets face it, it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs, but with the right people in place, the hindering influences of Leafs Nation can definitely be limited. With a plethora of knowledge and experience, something opposite to his rookie predecessor John Ferguson Jr., Burke knows the damage repair is not an over night job: “It’s not a case of ‘Geez, I think this’ll work, or I hope this’ll work. I know it will work. And I know it’s not a quick fix. We’re going to do it the right way here over the long term, and I either get to finish the job or I don’t. But I’m not going to change it just because people are impatient. I’m not running for office. I don’t have to be popular. I’ve just got to win.”

            The general manager of a hockey franchise, especially in Toronto, is the boss, the leader and, for better or for worse, the model the team’s character will take on. In Ferguson’s time as the club’s leader, he was extremely under trained in media skills. As senior advisor Cliff Fletcher said after the Ferguson firing, “being media savvy certainly is a big plus in Toronto, otherwise they can have you on their heels because the intensity of the media coverage is the strongest of any city in the NHL.” From Ferguson’s lack of experience, poor media relations ran down to the team and had them “on their heels” at almost all times. If the Ferguson era taught the Leafs organization anything, it was that the general manager must lead by example. Burke is the perfect character to do that; his natural mental toughness is exactly the model which the young Leafs team should, and will, look to impersonate. Burke will be more recognizable and more scrutinized than any single player, and how he handles the implications of Leafs Nation, including Blue and White and pressure, will have a direct correlation with how his players and coaches handle these same influences. In terms of media relations, Burke, unlike Ferguson, has displayed his willingness to go to bat with the media in defence of his players and coaches. The support he provides to his personnel alleviates some of their pressure and places more on him. A key attribute in a prototypical successful leader is the willingness to accept more responsibility in order to ease the burden on followers, an attribute that no Toronto general manager has had since Conn Smythe.

            Growing up with ten siblings, in a family that moved around the United States more than a few times, Burke is programmed to survive and succeed in Toronto. Gord Kirke, a Toronto lawyer who was a member of the search committee for the Maple Leafs next boss, describes why Burke was recommended over the thirty other hockey executives which they interviewed: “At the end of the day, you need the mental discipline, the toughness and the intellect to face the media every day…but you also need to deal with the whole culture that is the Toronto Maple Leafs. You narrow it down from that. There are a lot of great hockey people of talent who probably wouldn’t shine in this market. Some of them withdrew from the candidacy because they knew this wasn’t the right market for them.” Kirke is not the only one who believes Burke to be the epitome of what Toronto needs in a leader, Dave Poulion, Vice-President of Hockey Operations, says of Burke “he’s got the most important ingredient for a club operator, which is fearlessness. He’s not worried about what people are going think or what people are going to say.”

            Toronto is in desperate need of a culture change, something that is already showing evidence of occurring in Burke’s second full season at the helm. When Burke arrived in Toronto, the players under the John Ferguson regime were littered with Blue and White infections and abscess pressure depression. Much of Toronto’s roster was made up of players that had been with the team for a number of years, allowing them to grow accustom to life as a Leaf. Dave Poulin described the situation; “You don’t necessarily blame the former people,” says Poulin. “I’m a believer in assimilation. I think when you come into an environment, it is as it is and you assimilate to that environment. That was the case more than anything.” Burke made an attempt at a culture change with the players from the previous era but Leafs Nation had managed to lock in a choke hold on too many of them. “If you can’t change the tone in the room through the force of your own personality, if you can’t do that, there’s only one thing to do and that’s start putting people on airplanes. So we blew up the room. We basically dynamited the team” said Burke of his character based overhaul. Long gone are the days of Kyle Wellwood staying three years, Burke is committed to building a team that can match his work ethic, drive, and overall mental strength, the best attribute a player in Toronto can have. If a player seems to be lacking the required mental toughness, “Burke’s simply not going to accept it, he’s not. He’s going to make changes until he finds the right combination of people” says Poulin. Burke’s message to players was clear: If the desire to win is not encoded in your DNA, if you do not hit the ice desperate to win, you will be given a one-way ticket out of town. Players with the Burke mandated level of mental strength don’t just fall out of the sky or come from an endless well. The general manager has scoured the college ranks for players who come to the Leafs as more mentally and physically mature twenty-three and twenty-four year olds in contrast to the still developing nineteen year old draft picks. Burke grabbed Tyler Bozak from the University of Denver, who played a few games with Toronto’s minor league team before being called up to the big club, where he’s thrived as the undisputed number one center. Burke also landed a talent named Jonas Gustavsson, a twenty-four year old goaltender from Sweden who was widely regarded as the best goalie outside of the NHL. What impressed Burke most of all was that “The Monster”, as he is known, had been successfully playing professionally in Sweden since he was eighteen years old. Burke also brought to Toronto his former players from Anaheim, defenceman Francois Beauchemin and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The following off season, he traded to acquire Kris Versteeg from Chicago. All three of the imports were players who thrived in recent Stanley Cup finals, the stage of high pressure and intense media coverage that is most similar to the stage in Toronto.

The team was equipped with capable players, designed to thrive under the dark cloud of Leafs Nation and it had its leader to set the model example. The final question became; who was going to set the example on the ice and in the dressing room? On February 31, 2010, Burke landed the younger, more hockey talented version of himself, a perfect fit to set the tone when Burke is not around. Dion Phaneuf brought the Toronto dressing room the “adrenaline bomb” it needed. Phaneuf is a loud, abrasive, competitive and confident player that is exactly the character Burke envisioned in his overhaul of the culture. Like Burke, Phaneuf was bred to lead by example and will not shy away from getting in a teammate’s face if his performance is sub-par, making sure nobody is too comfortable and keeping Blue and White infections at bay. His hard hitting demeanor and his passion for success made him an easy choice to be named captain of a Leafs team striving for the exact identity that he represents. Dave Poulin was asked in an interview if Burke’s attempted culture change was a success, “There’s no question. He has focused so much on character.”

Ownership

“Think of all the coaches and general managers this team has had since 1967. Do you really think the problem is the coach or general manager? The problem has always been the ownership. Too bad owners can’t be fired.” – Sam Brunetti

From the post-Conn Smythe ownership of Harold Ballard and continuing into the current structure of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan majority ownership, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been viewed as an investment rather than a hockey team. The goal of Ballard was to generate profits and he flushed the team down the toilet in the process. After the passing of Ballard in 1990, the team seemed to be heading in the right direction and made an unforgettable playoff run in 1993. In 1994, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, in a revolutionary move, purchased shares in the club before becoming the majority shareholder in 2003 with the departure of Steve Stavro. The OTPP owns Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which has controlling interests in the Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Marlies and the cash-cow hockey team called the Maple Leafs.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, or OTPP, is nothing more than a faceless stash of money which represents the retirement savings of Ontario school teachers. There is no question that this fund is an important sum of cash to the deserving school teachers of the province. With the daily stress that comes with broadening the horizons of people of all age, teachers should not carry the additional worry of their retirement. That being said, Ontario’s teachers may be sleeping a little too easy when dreaming of retirement thanks to the outrageous return on investment provided by hapless Leaf fans that turn losing seasons into massive profits. To say the least, Ontario’s teachers should be contempt with their bullet-proof investment. Every once in a while, OTPP may convey the idea that its business is to bring the cup to Toronto while still generating profits, but basic economics and standard logic says otherwise. Minus the racist remarks and the nude zamboni driving, OTPP is ultimately a less obnoxious version of Harold Ballard. While one had ideas of putting cucumbers in the 30,000 gallon tank beneath the rink to make dill pickles to sell at games, the other had the mesh of the net which collected Mats Sundin’s 500^th goal cut into 2,000 pieces and then turned them into a commodities by mounting each piece next to a picture of the Leafs captain. Ballard may have been a little more ludicrous in his schemes to take advantage of the easily manipulated Leaf fans, but both ownerships have an identical agenda; anything to make a buck. With a set of priorities based around maximizing profits, there is no better sucker than the Toronto Maple Leafs and their overly loyal fans. It wouldn’t have taken a Wall Street investor to recognize Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment as a recession proof source of immediate revenue. It didn’t take a genius effort on the part of Harold Ballard to trick a drunken Stafford Smythe into signing away the most treasured of treasures, and it didn’t take more than a second of thought for OTPP to up its stake in the team and become the majority owner. While Ballard had a personal duty to himself, OTPP has a fiduciary duty to the people it represents to maximize profits. But what neither appears to have is moral duty to the people who supply their endless sum of profits with their extremely loyal, proud and generous obsession.

In 1994, OTPP threw its hat in the hockey rink as if it had just witnessed Darryl Sittler’s record breaking hat trick, or maybe it was out of excitement for the incredible opportunity it had landed. Either way, with OTPP’s total value of $34 billion, the Leafs instantly became the best-capitalized ownership group in hockey. With its $88 billion dollar worth in 2010, OTPP is the wealthiest majority owner in the entire sports world. Even in the salary cap world, there is no limit to what a team can spend on coaches, scouts or any position in the organization who doesn’t actually lace up. An owner, with that extent of financial backing, of an organization which has struggled so mightily at drafting, must be outspending its economically inferior competitors in terms of scouting right? “No” admits Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Richard Peddie. “We haven’t to date.” In a city which is more desperate than any other in the NHL, this statistic is downright sickening. It’s no wonder Leaf fans have been forced to watch prospect after prospect fade out and succumb to the celebrity spotlight or pressure which comes with being a Maple Leaf. In a hockey market with the ability to eat players whole, scouting and character analysis is absolutely critical. Any advantage that can be gained through increased funding including scouting time and methods must be capitalized on in an attempt to level out the disadvantages which come from playing for Leafs Nation. This fact further proves the notion that ownership in Toronto really has no great incentive to win as long as Leaf fans keep buying jerseys, watching games on television and packing the Air Canada Centre fourty-one times per season.

This is why the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is ranked as the worst ownership in the NHL and is widely regarded as the single-most hated ownership group in pro sports. The general opinion of the OTPP views them as a meddlesome bunch of stuffed shirts who don't care about hockey as long as the cash keeps rolling in. While this may be true, the ultimate blame must be placed on members of Leafs Nation for readily making themselves available to be taken advantage of on a daily basis, on more than a few levels. This isn’t a case of “fool me once- shame on you, fool me twice- shame on me.” No, that phrase became invalid in Ballard’s second year of ownership; this is not the case at all. The situation with the Maple Leafs and the relationship between it’s never deterred fan base and it’s faceless ownership who thinks only in terms of a dollar amount, is like almost nothing else seen in the supply and demand era. The consumer behaviour of Leafs Nation defies the laws of economics and finds hope in the laws of probability which rationalize its annual belief that this season the Leafs have a chance. It is this belief that creates a 2,500 person waiting list for season tickets. It is this belief that has allowed ownerships to make an average of $1.9 million per game, sell out since 1946, and make Leaf tickets one of the toughest tickets to acquire in Canada at a price which more than doubles the average price for every team that has won the Stanley Cup in the past ten years. It is this belief that has crippled the team on the ice as much as it has made them an overwhelming success in the boardroom. At a net worth of $470 million, up twenty-four per cent in one year, on revenue of about $138 million, and operating profit just north of $75 million, an overwhelming success may be an understatement. When all columns are totaled, MLSE figures to be valued at $1.75 billion, three times its value from nine years ago. The kind of growth that MLSE and its owners have seen over the past six playoff-free years only further promotes the notion that the fans are truly the most deserving of blame for granting ownership, in the most obvious of fashions, a monopolistic market power over them. As Colin Jones, a professor at University of Victoria discusses "Pretty much any study you look at, you'll find a very strong correlation between attendance and winning." But for the Leafs, he says "they can do whatever the hell they like and the attendance and merchandise sales go up, and TV and radio contracts hold. In terms of competitive performance, this monopolistic power is a very bad thing." As a professor of sports management at the University of Massachusetts who studies the incentive structures affecting pro sports, Neil Longley says “for most teams, winning is urgent. And even winning doesn't guarantee [financial] success for a lot of teams, but losing pretty much guarantees their failure.” For organizations like Dallas and New Jersey, winning has become part of the culture, yet there is still difficulty in selling tickets and turning an annual profit, forcing ownership to produce a quality team each and every season. While in Toronto, fourty-three years of Stanley Cup misery and five consecutive seasons without a playoff berth warrants more than 260,000 people to tune in every time the fantastic blue and white hit the ice. That staggering number has produced even more staggering numbers for rights to broadcast local Leaf games. Ownership collects $200 million over five years from TSN, $100 million per year from CBC and $700,000 per game from Sportsnet, which only became profitable after broadcasting Leafs games. Having said all of that, for all of the money that has been made, OTPP and MLSE have yet to bring even a sniff of a championship to Toronto. Leafs Nation has allowed themselves to be conned into forking over the most, economically and emotionally, and getting the least in return. In a 2008 survey by ESPN on rewarding fans, the Leafs were ranked 121st out of the 122 professional teams in the major North American sports leagues. Teams were graded by stadium experience, ownership, player quality, ticket affordability, championships won and "bang for the buck"; in particular, the Leafs came last in ticket affordability. The Fan Cost Index estimates the cost of bringing a family to a game, including four average-priced seats, two beers, four small soft drinks and hot dogs, parking, a couple of programs and two ball caps. At a Leafs game in Toronto, it costs a member of Leafs Nation $476, up almost five per cent from the previous year and totals almost $100 more than second place.

Each member of Leafs Nation’s passion for the Blue and White becomes nothing more than another drop into an endless river of cash which flows directly through 5650 Younge Street: the home of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Leafs Nation is the most gullible and ignorant fan base in sports, constantly used by everything from television stations to ownership, its loyalty is tested and played on in any situation. “Want an audience? Talk about the Leafs. Want to sell something? Put a Blue and White crest on it.” This is the sad state that Leafs Nation has been stuck in for fourty-three years and counting. As Karl Marx would say, the oppressed need to realize their oppression. When an ownership group can cheat its fan base into purchasing the newest jerseys by removing one stripe from the previous year, the loyalty and obsession must be exposed as harmful. When an ownership group can begin a successful condominium project with a team logo as it’s main selling feature, while that same team and it’s fans currently suffer one of the most humiliating statistics in sports, the ownerships power is clearly defined. It must be seen as the fault of Leafs Nation for not only supporting but ultimately accepting the profit priority agenda of both Harold Ballard and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan with it’s undying loyalty to the team that never satisfies. As one former NHL general manager said of the situation; “the team makes too much money. It's too easy, there's just no burning incentive to put a good team on the ice. And it's been that way since long before any of these current people were involved. They need a cultural change. Everybody's just too comfortable.”

Solution to Ownership

The Leafs are a monopoly business which has been corrupted by its own market power. In the sport’s greatest market, the laws of economics do not apply. The idea that success must yield benefits and failure must yield consequences has never existed in Toronto. A culture of laxity by owners has been spawned by the gusher of wealth acquired, regardless of performance. The NHL as a business has had its share of encounters with crooks disguised as owners. In recent memory, three have been incarcerated on charges of fraud. That being said, the OTPP is about as squeaky clean an ownership as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman can ask for. So to quickly swat away any rumblings that the Leafs ownership solution can come from the NHL, it’s best said as simply as “it ain’t gonna happen.” The Toronto Maple Leafs and its majority owner, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, make money for the NHL and other franchises; it’s not in the NHL’s best interest to rid itself of the OTPP. In a world that revolves around dollar amounts, its this same reason why the generally hated MLSE CEO Richard Peddie and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will never be fired, they produce profits for the people they report to, and that’s the bottom line.

In an even more unrealistic solution, experts and economists may think the problem is solvable in one quick suggestion: “boycott the team.” They would suggest that fans stop coming to games, resist purchasing jerseys and generally boycott any action that generates revenue for ownership. In cutting down the profits of ownership, the OTPP will be forced to provide fans with the quality on-ice product that they deserve. This solution may be the easiest and most logical, but in Toronto it’s not realistic. Leafs Nation is more proud of being loyal then of having a winning team. Leafs fans will never stop supporting their team no matter how badly they’re treated. Hypothetically speaking, even if Leafs Nation went on strike against ownership, the only people with the spending power to actually influence the club’s decision to improve the on-ice product are the platinum-level corporate season tickets holders. These “suits” do not seem prepared to put their passion for the team ahead of the seats’ value in doing business, especially when it’s being written off as a business expense.

There’s only one solution to this problem that may actually be attainable, get a new owner. This new owner needs to be the chocolate to the vanilla of past ownerships, the complete opposite of any of the Leafs ownership eras since Conn Smythe bet on a horse at 100-1 odds to land his cornerstone player. In the center of the hockey universe, Leafs Nation needs an owner that’s one of their own, someone so passionate about bringing a Stanley Cup to Toronto that they are willing to spend over budget to do it. An owner that restores priorities to their rightful order, win games and profits will follow behind. History says this type of ownership works. Mike Ilitch bought the Detroit Red Wings in 1982 for $3 million dollars and three Chuck E. Cheese franchises. Detroit, a once proud organization, hadn’t won a cup since 1955 and were mocked at the time of Ilitch’s purchase by being referred to as “The Dead Things” instead of the traditional Red Wings. Ilitch’s arrival brought a drastic culture change to an unsuspecting organization which desperately needed it. Willing to sacrifice the cash to turn the franchise around, Ilitch signed the best up and coming general manager, flew his team on a chartered jet to road games, brought in more scouts as well as a nutritionist and a masseuse, all revolutionary moves at the time they were implemented. The extra funding paved the way for the Red Wings to draft Steve Yzerman, a future superstar, fourth overall in 1983 and the rest was history. The Red Wings won four Stanley Cups and became a hockey dynasty valued at $303 million in 2008. Ilitch to this day, is still ranked as one of the best owners to play for in all of sports.

A Toronto version of Mike Ilitch is integral to capturing a well-deserved Stanley Cup for Leafs Nation. The person with the ability to be knight in shining armour is current minority owner, Larry Tanenbaum. Tanenbaum must become the primary owner, giving the Maple Leafs a structured ownership that has an individual face to which some accountability can be held. Lack of an individual accountability has plagued the Leafs since OTPP became the majority shareholder. Tanenbaum, a self-proclaimed superfan, is no different than any other supporter of the blue and white in the sense that winning a championship takes priority over revenues. Where he is extremely different from any other supporter of the Maple Leafs is his economic power. Tanenbaum was ranked fifty-third on Canadian Business’ list of wealthiest Canadians, at a net worth of $950 million he has the funds to acquire controlling interest in the team he loves. The OTPP has been on record as saying MLSE will always be for sale. Tanenbaum has a 20.5 percent stake in the team in comparison to the 66 percent of OTPP. A close associate of Tanenbaum’s has been reported as saying that “Larry goes to bed at night thinking about what needs to be done to make the Leafs winners.” Leafs Nation’s optimism rests in the hope that the Cornell graduate realizes that his takeover is what needs to be done to make the Leafs winners. In terms of winning a championship, it’s no coincidence that since 1967, while Tanenbaum went to sleep thinking of how to make the Leafs winners, the majority owners went to sleep thinking of how to make the Leafs more profitable. For OTPP, justifying the spending of an extra $20 million is difficult when the money would otherwise become profits. If he bought the shares from OTPP to become the majority owner, Tanenbaum would have total control to spend what he pleases on what he sees fit, without answering to anyone. This Mike Ilitch type ownership can bring to Toronto what seems impossible with OTPP at the helm, a Stanley Cup. Larry Tanenbaum can go down in history as an innocent bystander to another era of losing, or he can become a Maple Leaf legend, remembered for ending this historic curse.

CONCLUSION

Fourty-three years without a cup, five years without a playoff game, it’s one of the sporting world’s great mysteries: why does this passionate fan base still have any faith? Everyone else in the league knows there’s something inherently wrong with this team, this organization and this city, and whether they’re in denial or are just simply too ignorant to notice, Leafs Nation still believes every year that the Leafs have a got a miracle up their sleeve. Leafs Nation’s passion, loyalty, and obsession have created such a haze of blue and white smoke that they are blind and oblivious to what’s staring them right in the face. Leafs Nation must recognize itself as the cause for the Stanley Cup drought and for the fact that it will continue. Leafs Nation must be blamed for Blue and White disease, the pressure associated with playing in Toronto and for being taken advantage of by ownership.

Blame Leafs Nation for Blue and White disease. Blame them for acting like elementary school girls with a crush on a high school boy. Blame them for believing their crush is perfect and can do no wrong. Regardless of score, Leafs players are celebrities anywhere they go. Blame Leafs Nation for granting players the right to become satisfied with losing. Blame Leafs Nation giving Leaf players their first taste at the drug of fame, blame them for a player’s addiction and blame them for supporting, condoning and supplying a player’s addiction by celebrating selfish attempts at personal reward.

Leafs Nation and its obsessive need to know and discuss every detail of the Maple Leafs organization can be blamed for the unnecessary pressure that’s placed on coaches, players and management. Leafs Nation can be blamed for repelling useful players from Toronto like bug spray to mosquitoes, for not learning its lesson with Luke Schenn and putting even more pressure on the next generation of stars like Phil Kessel and Nazem Kadri. Blame Leafs Nation for running players out of town without being aware of the value they have to the team. And most importantly Leafs Nation can be blamed for providing enough of a market for the intolerable amount of media which dissects and analyzes each and every irrelevant action which concerns the great Toronto Maple Leafs.

Blame Leafs Nation for making the Maple Leafs worth $470 million dollars. Blame Leafs Nation for defying the laws of economics by packing the Air Canada Centre each and every game for a measly $500, to watch one of the league’s worst teams. Blame Leafs Nation being compared to drinkers of civet coffee, who spend more than $50 per cup to have it made with beans that have passed through the digestive tracts of cat-like Asian mammals. Making Leafs Nation and civet coffee drinkers the only two groups in the world who willingly pay ridiculous prices for crap. For buying a piece of mesh the size of a fingernail for $250 from a company that makes $75 million in profits annually, with an owner that’s worth over $88 billion that won’t match what other teams pay for scouting because it doesn’t have to. Blame Leafs Nation for giving ownership no incentive to treat them better.

Almost 27 years ago, on a night in 1981, the Maple Leafs played the league’s worst team in the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets came into the sacred Maple Leaf Gardens and beat the heavily favoured Maple Leafs in every facet of the game. During a stoppage in play, an older gentleman calmly walked up to the boards, took off his Leafs jersey, threw it onto the ice and walked out of the rink in disgust. A witness recounts that night: “He must have been close to his seventies, and all these people clapped. But you know, I bet that guy came back the next night.” This story represents Leafs Nation in a nutshell. Ten years from now, thirty years from now or sixty years from now, the time frame doesn’t matter, Cup or not, Leafs Nation will still tune in eighty-two times per year. While the Ferrari driving, Armani suit wearing marketers may be able to extract every last dollar from a bank account, they will never be able to take away Leafs Nation’s love for the game or the Toronto Maple Leafs. As long as the Leafs wear blue and white, the passionate army behind them will bleed the same colours. If nothing changes, Leafs Nation will continue to find its hope in the laws of probability. These season’s odds: 1 in 60. Leafs Nation, don’t hold your collective breath or two million Torontonians could be all wiped off the earth at once.