Bridges don't span 40 years.
The ceremony, as you may have seen on TV, was nice and efficient. So efficient in fact that the game started only two minutes late. I'm sure the Maple Leaf corporation was happy about that. While Keon did get the biggest ovation, it was more out of politeness and obligation, than anything really emotional... There was no connection here last night. And why should there be? It's been 40 years since this team won the cup and looking around me, most of these fans weren't even born yet.
Nothing grows in a deep valley.
The damage done by the pathetic Ballard years is just too much to overcome. If this event had happened, as it should have, in 1987 at Maple Leaf Gardens, the ovation for Keon & Co. would have been amazing... would have been just grand and very inefficient. Looking around me on Saturday night, I spotted only two other Keon sweaters... that's among 19,500 people in attendance. Two. In contrast, I stopped counting the Sundin sweaters at 45... These were passionate Leaf fans, but of today's leafs not of yesteryear. The fans around me behaved exactly how they should. The Leafs won and everyone went home happy.. almost everyone.
As I got on the streetcar after, I was reminded of something I wrote a month ago - "This night will not mean much to many...". Man, I just didn't realize how true those words were...
I guess that's the way it has to be.
Thanks for the memories, Davey. Safe passage back to Florida.
It's been an exciting week for this 8 year old, but I gotta get to sleep, a 46 year old has work in the morning....
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Globe's Shoalts has another angle on Sat night.... talk of corporate stiffs... and that 'real' fans don't go to Leaf games... This is definitely true... and has been true for many years now...
Simple night fetes Leafs' reluctant folk hero
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