Mike Brophy

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday on Sportsnet.ca and appears regularly on Hockeycentral.

Sure Maple Leafs fans may not be the brightest, but their loyalty should be applauded.

Disbelief is a word that comes to mind when trying to understand fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

As I sat in the Air Canada Club watching Thursday night's game between the home Toronto Maple Leafs and the visiting New Jersey Devils, one thought kept popping into my mind: This is unreal.

I mean, here we are in the final stretch of yet another losing season for a team that hasn't won the Stanley Cup since 1967; the roster has been dismantled by yet another general manager who traded away the organization's top draft pick for the next two years and the Leafs were mired in 29th place. Yet the building is not only full, it is bloody well rocking!

The team stinks and has the most expensive tickets in the league and night after night the building is full to the brim. It really defies logic. Those who don't worship at the altar of the NHL's richest and often worst-run team have suggested it is a sickness. Journalist Al Adams once said, "The Leafs could play a home game at 3 a.m. in a blinding snow storm and the building would be full." I think he's right.

I am sitting with a friend, Grant Johnston, who says his company pays in excess of $35,000 a year for Leafs' season tickets and he admits he would never dream of giving them up... just in case. "I may not be alive with the Leafs win their next Cup, but maybe my kids will," Grant says with a laugh.

Another guy at our table, Roy Rusaw, has the Leafs TML logo tattooed on one arm and an ode to the Maple Leafs 1963 championship (the year he was born) on the other. When the Leafs score, his thunderous hand clapping causes my ears to ring.

This will be the fifth consecutive year the Maple Leafs have missed the playoffs. For the record, that is six straight years without a playoff game thanks to the lockout of 2004-05, and yet it is darn near impossible to get a ticket to a game. Tune in to watch the Atlanta Thrashers play a home game and the empty seats easily outnumber the ones with bums in them. Even in Detroit, where the Red Wings have been the NHL's model franchise for more than a decade, the economy has seriously affected attendance. It is shocking some nights to see loads of empty sets when the Red Wings play at The Joe.

The first period of the Leafs-Devils match is kind of dull until Phil Kessel, who would shoot from the shower inside the Leafs dressing room if he thought he could hit the net, scores his 27th goal of the season. Instantly the place is rocking.

In the second period, however, the pace of the game picks up a bit. Devils backup goalie Yan Danis is clearly on his game in a rare start with Martin Brodeur taking the night off, as is Toronto's Jean-Sebastien Giguere, whose play has been rather indifferent since his arrival from Anaheim. Tough guy David Clarkson of the Devils challenges Toronto's Dion Phaneuf to a fight, but when the Leaf defenceman declines, Clarkson puts his attention back to playing the game and ties the score with his ninth goal in an injury-filled campaign.

The third period is scoreless and so is overtime which takes us to the shootout where the Leafs connect on all three shots and the Devils connect just once. The thundering applause directed at a team hopelessly out of the playoffs picking up an additional point in the standings is mind-boggling. On the way back to our car after the game, the people celebrating the victory along Bay Street was absolutely astounding. You would think with all the whooping and hollering Toronto had just advanced to the Stanley Cup final.

I cannot pretend to understand what turns the crank of a Leafs fan; the agony and ecstasy of cheering for a team that has disappointed so many for so long, but I have a friend who gets it. My pal Nick Trantos lives and breathes for the Maple Leafs. We're talking about a guy who, at 10 years old, skipped school to attend the Leafs last Stanley Cup parade in 1967. When his teacher told him to wear his best shirt the next day to school for the class photo, Nick showed up to school wearing his treasured Leafs jersey.

"Being a Leafs fan takes a lot of courage and patience and only true Maple Leaf fans understand this," Nick says. "Constantly taking abuse and always enduring another rebuilding season, it can be difficult, but there are advantages. When we win, it's a big deal. How many professional teams warrant a celebration and close down their main street for just one playoff round victory (vs. St. Louis in the 80s) or have a parade for losing in the semifinal (vs. Los Angeles in 1993)?

"My wife, Sandy, tells me I have a sickness, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Only my fellow members of Leaf Nation truly understand this. I will continue to endure and I hope to be on the parade route at least one more time in my life."

When it comes to the Maple Leafs, you never know what to expect. When it comes to their fans, though, you could make the case that no sports organization in the world has more passionate followers. Weird.