For some time now, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been little more than the punch line to countless jokes from hockey fans around the league. Just last week, when the inevitable came and the Leafs were mathematically removed from the playoff picture, a “Happy Leafs Elimination Day” picture made the rounds on the internet. The last time the Leafs made the playoffs, Apple was $13.07 a share; today it’s at $609.86. There have been some hard times in Leafland of late, but there’s no joke here. The Leafs are in trouble.
On February 6, the Leafs won a game against the Edmonton Oilers at home that moved them into sixth in the Eastern conference. Since then, they’ve spiraled into chaos, losing 11 straight at the Air Canada Centre. They’ve won only five of their 25 games since that point, losing games by scores of 8–0 and 7–1 to Boston and Philadelphia, respectively. They have moved from being in the thick of playoff contention to having a shot at the first overall draft pick. They may have been officially eliminated from the playoff picture just last week, but their season was over long ago. It’s a familiar story for Leafs fans, this missing the playoffs thing, but this year it has a decidedly different script.
For the past three or four years, the Leafs have started abysmally but made late season pushes to make the playoffs, only to fall just short. This year, the Leafs started well, and maintained it until early February. Then something changed, and everything fell apart. The biggest difference between this year and years past, however, is simple. For the first time in a long time, no one seems to care.
The players certainly don’t — that’s been clear for a while now. They were shutout four times in March, and scored more than two goals just three times in that same span. They’re listless on and off the ice, — just watch one of their post-game interviews. Not what you want to see from players in the world’s biggest hockey market, but you can see where the lack of passion stems from, especially when they have their home fans on their case every game at the ACC.
Then again, can you blame the fans for being angry with the multi-millionaires for dragging their knuckles along the ice? For seemingly ever, the Leafs have been buoyed by a loud, raucous fan base, a la Montreal, but that too is changing. The ACC has been strikingly (although, after 11 straight home losses, unsurprisingly) empty — and not just in those gold seats where the suits are always inexplicably five minutes late to the start of every period. Actual fans, who pay good money to purchase tickets, are staying home. The ones who show up are quiet and bored. They rouse themselves late to boo the team off the ice or get a faint “Fire Burke” chant going, but that’s about it; they have little reason to cheer.
It’s all a vicious cycle, whereby uninspired play leaves uninspired fans who fail to provide anything for their home team. Compare this to Montreal, another major hockey market whose team is struggling. Habs fans seem to be doing their best to inspire their team with the passion we’re accustomed to seeing in Montreal, but the difference is that the Canadiens are just a season removed from the playoffs — it’s been eight years since The Leafs played in the postseason.
Of course, now that fans have finally stopped putting up with mediocrity or worse, the common thought is that Leafs ownership will actually do something. That, of course, raises the question of what exactly they can do. They’ve fired their coach, they spend to the cap, and ownership has stopped interfering with hockey decisions, leaving them up to GM Brian Burke. So, again, what can they do? They can fire Burke, but that’s about it. Right now, there’s nothing left in Toronto, except for a hollow team and fans bored half to death. There’s little to look forward to, save for maybe the end of another disappointing season.
