Toronto Maple Leafs

It is often said that there are two types of people in Canada: those who love the Toronto Maple Leafs with all their hearts and those who cannot stand the team. Part of the animosity felt towards the team is simply down to Toronto being the largest city in Canada, along with the many years the Leafs spent dominating Canadian television hockey coverage despite being not very good. But there is no denying that the Maple Leafs are, along with their long-time rivals and co-founders of the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens, a storied and historic institution of the game of hockey itself. The team was founded in 1917, operating for its first 10 years under the decidedly old-timey names of the Toronto Arenas and Toronto St. Patricks. In the inaugural NHL NHL season of 1917-1918, Toronto won the Stanley Cup in their first year of existence, defeating the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, then added a second Cup in 1922. In 1931, now named the Maple Leafs, the team began playing in the spectacular new Maple Leaf Gardens arena that was to be their home until 1999 and baptized the Gardens with their third Stanley Cup in 1932. The Leafs were one of the Original Six teams that set the foundations for the modern NHL between 1942 to 1967, and the team kicked the era off in style in 1942 when they defeated the Detroit Red Wings four games to three in the Stanley Cup Finals in a series that has gone down not just hockey in hockey but in sports legend. Down three games to zero, the Leafs, led by the incredible Turk Broda in goal, stormed back to overturn the deficit by winning four straight games, a feat that had never been accomplished and would not be seen in the NHL again until the New York Islanders did it in 1975 (the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings also did it in 2010 and 2014, though Toronto remains the only team to come from 3-0 down in the Stanley Cup Finals). The Red Wings nearly returned the favor in 1945, steaming back from 3-0 down to level the series, but the Maple Leafs beat them in Game Seven to win another Cup. The Leafs then went on their best Cup run of all time, taking home the silverware four times in five seasons between 1946-1951. The 1950s saw them drop off a little as the Canadiens and Red Wings dominated, but the Leafs would rise again as the Swinging Sixties kicked in, winning three straight Stanley Cups in 1962, 1963, and 1964. As a result, when the Toronto Maple Leafs won another Cup, the thirteenth Stanley Cup in franchise history, on May 2, 1967 in six games over their eternal nemesis, the Montreal Canadiens, none of the happy fans streaming out of Maple Leaf Gardens that day ever would have predicted that it would be the last Stanley Cup that their Leafs would win for 56 years (and counting). NHL expansion, which began the season immediately following the Leafs’ last Cup, seemed to suit some Original Six teams, namely Boston and Montreal, quite well, but the Leafs just could not adapt and struggled through the 1970s and 80s, frequently missing the playoffs, their sole run at the Cup ending in a 4-0 sweep by the Canadiens in 1978. It wasn’t until 1993, when, led by the plucky Doug Gilmour and gritty Wendel Clark, the Leafs made their first return to the Conference Finals in 15 years, facing off against Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings. With the Leafs up three games to two, Gretzky’s stick flew up and cut Gilmour’s face, but the referee missed the call (which would have put Gretzky in the box for five minutes) leaving #99 on the ice to score the winning goal that sent the series to Game Seven. The Kings won, and Toronto fans were left complaining bitterly of the injustice, while the rest of Canada basked in the warm glow of schadenfreude (although the Kings’ win prevented a Canadiens-Leafs Stanley Cup Finals, the first in decades, that all of the country had been looking forward to). The Leafs gave the Conference Finals another go the very next year, but were steamrolled by the high-flying Vancouver Canucks. Apart from one more deep run into the playoffs in 2002. Subsequent years have seen the Leafs slip into the doldrums, failing to make the playoffs or losing in the first round when they do. In 2023, the Leafs won their first playoff series in nearly twenty years, over the Tampa Bay Lightning, giving their long-suffering fans the slightest glimmer of hope of better things in the future.