Why I still hate the Leafs

The following has been adapted and revised from a blog post I wrote a couple years ago on another blog that I (well really my wife) kept for family things. The recent four game losing streak has prompted me to revisit what I said then and update it for present times. I hope all you Toronto fans can empathize and you Leaf haters will enjoy this:

Mention the Toronto Maple Leafs to any Canadian hockey fan and you're bound to get a broad spectrum of reactions. From resentment at perceived media bias towards "Canada's Team", to bitter hatred based on regional (Ottawa) or traditional (Montreal) rivalries, to plain old laughable dismissal at the abominable 45 years since they last saw the Stanley Cup finals. The Leafs might just be the most hated team in professional hockey and they hold that title while simultaneously being the biggest and most profitable organization in the history of the sport.

None of these are the reason that I hate the Leafs.

Don't mistake me for a bitter rival, or the fan of a smaller market team with an inferiority complex - I bleed blue and white. I have never cheered for another team over the Leafs in all the years of my life and I don't anticipate that I ever will. I make the effort to watch every single game that I can because I care and I hope against hope that one day the organization that I am committed to will one day warrant my undeserved devotion. But for now - they don't deserve anything.

I should be finished with them, I should give up and cheer for a team that is closer geographically to where I live (Calgary or Winnipeg) or a team that is more reflective of being "Canada's Team" today (Vancouver) but I'm infected with the same sickness with regards to hockey that causes me to cheer for the Riders in the CFL - it's called unwavering loyalty. Loyalty and devotion that have gotten me nothing but ridicule from the majority of folks out here who are NOT Leaf's fans, people who take great pleasure in pointing out the plain truth that my team sucks and that the organization has lost their way - and worst of all, they're absolutely right.

I hate the Toronto Maple Leafs because they continue to disappoint, because they should be better than they are but they're not – I hate that they have some amazingly talented players who just can’t seem to have good nights on the same night. I hate that the goalies will raise our hopes one week with ridiculously stingy play and then open up the barn doors the next week as if in some vain attempt to bring balance back to the hockey universe. I hate that our best players are streaky players and our most consistent players are our worst. I hate that they give me just enough hope every so often to rope me back in and then the bottom falls out and I’m looking in from the outside at the post season again.

And now I've trained boys to cheer for the blue and white. Jack and I have a little ritual that when I’m home for hockey games we will both put on our Leafs jerseys and cheer them on together – Harry then throws a fit because he doesn’t have a Jersey anymore that fits him. Both of them run around chanting “GO LEAFS GO!” while sit there and wonder if I am condemning them to the same miserable hockey fan existence that I have endured all my life?

I hate the Toronto Maple Leafs, but I’ve got this twisted sense of loyalty that won’t allow me to love anyone else. They will always be my team even though year after year they do nothing to deserve my devotion. In the past week they’ve lost to Winnipeg, been shut out by the Habs, been blown out by the flames and will probably drop the game to Vancouver Saturday. I'll tune in before then to see if they can at least salvage something from the Oilers – but by the end of the week, the team that was once known as “Canada’s team” is likely to have been embarrassed by every other important Canadian franchise inside the span of a fortnight - and once again, a little bit of my hockey loving soul will die.

...But at least they won’t have lost to Ottawa.