History is Blue & White

All week while house-sitting, I've been watching Leafs-TV, an entire station devoted to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 24-7. As you can imagine - I'm in heaven!

They're showing all the old black n' white games from the past. I've seen about five Dave Keon goals already and I feel like a kid once again. Dave Keon was my childhood hero. Man, all the great Leafs are here - Bower, Kelly, Salming, Sawchuk, Ullman, Walton. And the other players during the original-six era are here too - Hull, Beliveau, Howe, Makita, Orr. When I lived in Ottawa and had digital cable, Leafs-TV was not available. No doubt because of the Ottawa Senators and their desire to build a following for their team. So I am catching up this week in a big way.

You cannot talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs without mentioning Conn Smythe and Harold Ballard. Conn Smythe was the man who created and built up the religion that is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Harold Ballard is the man that nearly destroyed it. I'll let Wikipedia tell their stories...

Since I'm feeling sort of nostalgic this week with all these old Leaf games, my childhood home nearby and the hockey season is right around the corner, I figure I'd go through the exercise of listing my all time favourite Leaf teams - which is a right of passage of any loyal team fan. Yankee fans do it, Manchester United fans do it. Hell, I have no doubt there are legendary rugby teams in South Africa where their following recall their all time favs from time to time.

So, for me - it's the Leafs.... and since there's so many great players over the decades to choose from, I've decided to select them in 5 eras:

1) Early Smythe era team (up to 1950)
2) Late Smythe era team (50s/60s)
3) Ballard era team (70s/80s)
4) Post Ballard team (90s & up) and
5) All time best (all eras)

And so without further ado, here are my teams... (note that honourable mentions are in brackets)

Early Smythe Team
Goal: Turk Broda (Lorne Chabot)
Defence: Babe Pratt / King Clancy (Red Horner / Hap Day)
Centre: Syl Apps (Joe Primeau, Ted Kennedy)
Right Wing: Charlie Conacher (Howie Meeker)
Left Wing: Busher Jackson (Gord Drillon, Ace Bailey)
Coach: Hap Day
GM: Conn Smythe

Late Smythe Team
Goal: Terry Sawchuk (Johnny Bower)
Defence: Red Kelly / Allan Stanley (Tom Horton / Carl Brewer)
Centre: Dave Keon (George Armstrong, Andy Bathgate)
Right Wing: Ron Ellis (Bob Nevin, Bob Pulford)
Left Wing: Frank Mahovlich (Dick Duff, Sid Smith)
Coach: Punch Imlach
GM: Punch Imlach

Ballard Team
Goal: Jacques Plante (Mike Palmateer, Ken Wregget)
Defence: Borje Salming / Ian Turnbull (Al Iafrate / Randy Carlyle)
Centre: Darryl Sittler (Norm Ullman, Bill Derlago, Russ Courtnall)
Right Wing: Lanny McDonald (Rick Vaive, Gary Leeman)
Left Wing: Wendel Clark (John Anderson, Errol Thompson)
Coach: Roger Neilson (Red Kelly)
GM: None worth mentioning.

Post Ballard Team
Goal: Curtis Joseph (Felix Potvin, Grant Fuhr, Ed Belfour)
Defence: Tomas Kaberle / Dmitri Yushkevich (Bryan McCabe / Dave Ellett)
Centre: Doug Gilmour (Mats Sundin)
Right Wing: Alexander Mogilny (Steve Thomas)
Left Wing: Dave Andreychuk (Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker)
Coach: Pat Quinn
GM: Cliff Fletcher

And now a drumroll, if you please....

My All Time Leaf Team:

Goal: Terry Sawchuk

Defence: Borje Salming / Red Kelly

Centre: Dave Keon

Right Wing: Charlie Conacher

Left Wing: Wendel Clark

Coach: Hap Day

GM: Conn Smythe