How the Raptors Kicked the Leafs Aside and Won Toronto
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Frank Doyle
Wake up, Toronto. Forget the Toronto Maple Leafs and take your support to the Toronto Raptors.
Of course, many Torontonians made that move long ago. They got fed up of Leaf-mania in the media and have been backing the Raptors for years. However, after the last week or so, you can bet on another flood from the rink to the hardcourt.
First, let’s take a look back at the week that was for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They struggled through a three-game losing streak to start off with, which included a dreadful 6-2 loss to the terrible Buffalo Sabres followed by a 9-2 thrashing at the hands of the Nashville Predators on home ice.
From there, things got really weird.
After that game, a couple of fans threw their Leafs sweaters on the ice – something we’ve seen a couple of times in Toronto already this year. Phil Kessel called that “classless” and “disrespectful” only a day or so removed from telling a reporter to “get away from me,” which really got journalists’ mic cords tangled.
Of course, the Toronto media piled on, lambasting the team throughout the week as only that select group of journalists can, calling for trades, firings and just about everything else outside of locking the doors of the Air Canada Centre and throwing away the key.
Note: At the time of this upheaval, the Leafs were actually one game above .500.
So then, the Leafs come out Thursday night and play one of their better games of the season, downing the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2. At that point, you’d think that’s the type of win that could right the ship. Well, following the victory the Leafs didn’t salute the crowd – a common sight around the league since the Rangers started doing it a couple of years ago.
That sat about as well with the Toronto media as Randy Carlyle at a hockey analytics conference.
The team had a 15-minute closed-door meeting Friday after practice after which captain Dion Phaneuf said the non-salute didn’t have anything to do with the fans and that the team was just trying to “change up the routine.”
Seriously.
So to recap, the Maple Leafs suffer a couple of bad losses, the Toronto media says the apocalypse is approaching and the team and journalists sling mud at each other for a few days in the sandbox. Reminder: the Leafs are now two games above .500.
Meanwhile, all the Toronto Raptors have done is sprint out to a 9-2 record to claim top spot in the Eastern Conference while averaging 105 points scored per game. This comes on the heels of last year’s We The North campaign that not only took over Toronto during the NBA playoffs, but spread wide across the entire country. Drake is the team’s spokesperson and Eugenie Bouchard makes guest appearances at Raptors games now.
Oh, and along the way they were classy enough to bury the hatchet with former Raptor poster boy Vince Carter. The standing ovation and the video tribute brought Carter to tears and then Toronto went on to win its seventh game in its last eight contests.
The Raptors are cool again. Really, just ask the kids.
So, on one hand, you can get a decent seat at a Raptors game for $40 and watch a first-place team that works hard and supports one another, while enjoying a well-marketed, fan-friendly experience. Or, you could spend hundreds of dollars on Leafs tickets only to see the lower bowl half-full of suits in the stands and an ill-guided, underachieving team on the ice, then suffer through the endless squabbling in the media after the game.
Makes you think, if Toronto really is the “Centre of the Hockey Universe” it’s really no surprise more kids are picking up a basketball instead of tying a pair of skates than ever before, doesn’t it?