I used to write these updates fairly regularly when I was back home in the thick of things of 'Leaf Nation' and a modest contributor and one-time sports editor for my college magazine. What's the issue of the moment? Fans throwing their Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys on the ice in protest during a bad loss. Is this acceptable or is it 'disrespecting' the emblem? (Also, as ever, what in Seven Hells is Don Cherry wearing above?)
Firstly, a quick word on the appellation of 'Leafs Nation', since occasionally such an imaginary geographical entity in relation to a sports team is overused. I believe the term was first cultivated by fans of the Oakland Raiders NFL team. And while 'Raider Nation' is famous for its hardcore, and often costumed supporters, the Raiders aren't by any means the definitive team of the Bay area.
I think that collective 'living and dying' with the team's fortunes is a key ingredient if you're going to start inferring that a block of fans have taken on almost citizen and legionary status. Red Sox Nation works because the BoSox are undoubtably the team of New England; the Green Bay Packers have their very own Ancient Greek city-state fanaticism; the New York Yankees have the aptly titled 'Evil Empire'. A sense of angst and unrequited devotion helps too. Despite their popularity, I don't think you have an 'L.A. Lakers Nation', but conceivably could have a Chicago Cubs one, that is, if they're not too beat down already.
In hockey, there is certainly a Leafs Nation. From its metro Toronto core to proud border towns like London and Kingston. The heartland of the Nation travels north into my neck of the woods: Grey highlands, Collingwood, Creemore way. It takes in the Anglophone majority settlements in Sudbury, the Sault, Timmins and Kirkland Lake; where so many of the early stars of the blue and white had their ice-bound northern roots. Finally, in patches along the prairies to transplant ex-pat communities in Vancouver and Ottawa. Even holidaying Leafs fans often make up the majority of the crowd at games in Florida.
To the issue at hand. The Leafs have been terrible for basically a decade. Not terrible enough, mind you, to get a top three draft pick and rebuild from the ground up; but terrible enough to miss the playoffs, that more than half the league makes, for years on end.
Some modest hope arose with the solitary playoff appearance two years ago while fighting the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins in a memorable seven game series. (Of the 3rd period collapse to lose that series, which remains statistically the biggest choke in the history of the sport, I have nothing new to add, and have buried that way too deep to rehash).
The following year, fans hoped to be able to build on that post-season experience, and the season started brightly enough before another unwieldy collapse meant we finished in the bottom half again.
Thus, the stakes for this season are decidedly middling. It would be a disappointment not to make the playoffs and the low end expectation is that we should be in the running for that position. We're not exactly a demanding fan base, despite elements of the stupid and incorrigible Toronto media portraying us as impatient.
The Leafs, far from being middling in their on-ice play, have been wildly inconsistent. Several surprisingly good results in a row will be followed by a couple utter abominations. That's when, in a new twist for fan dissent this year, the jerseys have been projected from the audience. Not many, and not in every loss, but enough that it's become over the last week a discussion point.
Seeing as how some of the incidents have occurred during away games (where Leaf Nation turns up in force in outposts like Ottawa and Buffalo) I have read that many of the individuals actually doing the chucking of the jerseys (which, as with any officially licensed pro sports apparel, are quite expensive) are not in fact Leaf fans, but those wanting to stir the pot and get their antics written about in the newspaper.
Irrespective, the question comes back: is this an acceptable form of protest? Or, as former Leaf netminder, Ivy League graduate and self-styled intellectual, Ben Scrivens intoned when the same thing was happening in Edmonton: that it was fundamentally disrespecting the emblem of the hockey club.
Short answer is yes, it is acceptable within confined circumstance, and no, it is not disrespecting the sweater. After all, these are pro athletes who would happily shill advertising wearing team logo gear if the league let them.
I believe it is acceptable to throw shit on the ice when it is reserved as a most strenuous symbol of unrest. Especially given that patrons of the Air Canada Centre pay exorbitant and inflated prices for the pleasure/pain of watching the blue and white play live. I actually quite liked the briefly utilizied meme a few seasons ago when suffering Leaf Nation citizens took to wearing paper bags over their heads and throwing frozen Eggo waffles on the ice. I loved it because it was arbitrarily random, and yet was a legitimate time to protest. (Was that the Ron Wilson 18 wheeler off a cliff catastrophe year?)
MLSE, the Leafs corporate parent company, has made their policy clear. They are a business, eager to extract every possible dollar out of patriotic Leaf Nation citizens. From their point of view winning would simply be an added bonus. This makes me so angry, precisely because Leafs fans, with all their primal, ludicrous devotion, deserve better.
A perfect example of this was the release of the American media giant ESPN's annual rankings of how every North American professional sports franchise treats their fans. It featured a convoluted metric of on-field performance tied in with ticket prices and general satisfaction surrounding the culture of the team. Of the more than 120 pro teams in North America, the Toronto Maple Leafs ranked dead last for the first time. (We've been in the bottom handful for several years now)
The funniest thing was how up in arms the MLSE corporate suits were about this slight against the 'Centre of the Hockey Universe' (our own moniker faithfully used within the Nation and lampooned outside of it). If you had asked any average fan on the street they likely would have responded something like "that's a bit harsh to our on-field team, but definitely makes sense as far as how an ownership group treats the fans".
Thus, amid all this pseudo class tension between the boardroom and the millions of Leaf Nation citizens, when results fall below even our tempered and mediocre desires, fan protest is perfectly valid.
This past off-season MLSE hired as club president Brendan Shanahan, a son of Leafs Nation and absolute beast during his playing career, notably in the Stanley Cup playoffs with Detroit. He was, in part, tasked with injecting into the culture of the team a toughness and hard nosed edge, combined with suitable acumen, that has been lacking since the days of the late Pat Quinn a decade ago.
Upon opening the season the Leafs lost a couple bad ones out of the blocks. That, to me, is when the serenade of boos and barrage of logo'ed gear onto the ice is warranted. The blatantly money oriented boardroom hires a good 'ole boy of Toronto to take the flak at press conferences where much is discussed about 'leadership', 'compete levels', and 'taking responsibility', and then the team goes out and plays like that?
Yes, chuck the fucking jerseys on the ice, it's an embarrassment.
Then the Leafs began to turn it around. We became the alright, slightly above .500 team most were vaguely hoping for. A few good wins even brought us as high as third in the Eastern Conference, before returning to our familiar position around the eighth and final playoff spot.
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| With the scoreline at 8-2 during the Nashville game last week |
Just as this see-sawing was balancing out last week, came the two resounding losses. 6-2 to Buffalo (who are far and away the worst team in the league) and 9-2 (a lopsided scoreline that you practically never see nowadays in hockey) to Nashville. Cue more jerseys on the ice at the Air Canada Centre.
Obviously those are not good results, but they are only two more losses in an 82 game season. Indeed at the weekend the Leafs responded with quality wins over Tampa and Detroit; isolated disaster put to bed.
Two bad, even really bad losses, amongst a smattering of four or five good wins deserves loyalty and respect. I do suspect the jersey tossers aren't proper Leafs Nation citizens; can you imagine the Kop failing to sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' after a couple bad Liverpool losses? Faith needs to be held. Leaf fans are good at that.
Systemic underacheivement is one thing, and deserves ridicule and shaming. A couple of flat outings during a long season does not.
As for the second bit about 'disrespecting the sweater'; it's a bit rich for an NHLer to talk about that. I'm sure many players do value the logo on their chest, but they certainly don't have a monopoly on caring about it.
A strong fan of any team figuratively lives and dies by the successes and failures of their squad, and are tied to them as such. An NHLer hits free agency and often as not, follows the money. Dave Bolland, a Toronto boy and player I've loved since his junior days with the London Knights, played part of one season in his hometown blue and white before deciding this year to sign for slightly more money in Florida. Maybe that decision was also about preferable climate or not raising a family under the media microscope in Toronto for all I know, but it sure as hell had nothing to do with respecting the emblem on the front of his uniform.
The blessed blue Maple Leaf of my youth and of my life is cherished, not sacred. It is not the red Maple Leaf of our national flag or that Canadians wore on their shoulders in the First World War, from which the Toronto Ice Hockey club took its defining nickname.
Many sons of Leaf Nation have honoured the jersey down the years. In my lifetime I think of the late, great face-off man Peter Zezel. Of Gary Roberts, who went into the corners every time like it was his last. Of Curtis Joseph and Doug Gilmour, who came back to retire as Leafs.
Throwing the emblem of the blue Maple Leaf on the ice in disgust should be a last resort to lodge a complaint over insipid, weak play that has, all too sadly, been part and parcel of the Leafs in the last decade.
But if it is just a bad night at the office, the ACC needs to take a page from the Liverpool fans. Keep your heads held high and sing on through the storm.
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