It was the colour. Or at least the change from the black-and-white of the hockey world I’d known, to the colour of Maple Leaf Gardens.
Just like in the Wizard of Oz. Black-and-white to colour.
Most of the time, you see, I’d watched the Maple Leafs growing up on a black-and-white set, either at home or when I walked across Upper James Street on Hamilton’s west mountain to watch with a similarly minded elderly neighbour across the street. So when my dad took me to my first game at the Gardens sometime in the 1970-71 season, I’ll never forget walking that slight incline up the ramp into the colour of that scene.
An indelible imprint on a young boy’s mind.
I was only nine, and completely unaware, coming as I was from a decidedly non-hockey, immigrant family, that only four seasons earlier the Leafs had been Stanley Cup champions. Didn’t know a darn thing about the four Cups won in the 1960s. The only Cup champion I was aware of was the Boston Bruins, and that Bobby Orr had scored the winning goal to clinch the Cup the previous spring against St. Louis.
We watched the Leafs, but they were the Leafs of Norm Ullman, Paul Henderson, Jim McKenny, and rookie centre Darryl Sittler, not of George Armstrong, Johnny Bower and Tim Horton. Only Dave Keon, really, was leftover from the ’67 champs, although Bobby Baun returned to the Leafs partway through the season.
That was enough for me, but it was only later, as I grew older and read books, that I realized I was most certainly living in the post-greatness era of the Leafs. It got exciting in the mid-seventies to the latter part of the decade, but then it got dark, and stayed dark, for a long time.
So this was my reference point. By the time I started covering the Leafs for the Toronto Star in 1989, it was 22 years since the team had won the Cup, not a short time, but certainly not the half-century at which the club is now staring.
The point of all this is to try and explain my contribution to the Top 100 Maple Leafs of all-time as unveiled by the hockey club Friday. It was way back in June when I was contacted by Mike Ferriman of the Leafs and asked to participate on a panel to select the Top 100. I was flattered, and accepted immediately. Nice to be asked to be part of history particularly when you feel like you’ve been an active witness to that history.
But it’s not an easy list to come up with. For starters, giving the struggles since the last Cup, it’s not easy to come up with 100 names. You end up having to include Jacques Plante and his 48 wins as a Leaf somewhere. Secondly, today’s hockey is so different than the 1940s and 1950s that it seems almost impossible to compare players. But somewhere in there you have to calculate, for example, where 60 points in 2010 is comparable to 30 points in 1945.
Finally, each of us who participated brought their own biases to the process, a reflection of the moment they become aware of the Leafs, either as a fan or a working member of the media or something else. On my street, everybody played road hockey wanting to be Keon. A decade earlier, it might have been Frank Mahovlich. Today, just guessing, but the argument would be over who gets to be Auston Matthews, and who gets to be Mitch Marner. My 11-year-old daughter wears No. 44 for the peewee Etobicoke Dolphins because of Morgan Rielly.
Come to think of it, maybe Rielly should have made it on to my list…
At the end of the day, you have to let your biases breathe, and hope that combined with the perspective of the other panelists, a truly representative Top 100 will be delivered.
Funny thing; of my first 10 players, I saw only two of them, Sittler and Borje Salming, play live.
Mahovlich, to my reckoning and measurement, was the last true superstar to wear the blue-and-white. Syl Apps was the crown prince of the organization. Busher Jackson and Charlie Conacher are simply too legendary to be ignored. So where they sit is more about my understanding of their place in Leaf history, rather than anything remotely close to first hand knowledge.
Doug Gilmour, at No. 13 on my list, was the first player I really covered as a journalist. Rick Vaive, at No. 24, will probably be higher on my list than most, but I remember him displaying courage as the lone bright light on those horrible teams of the 1980s. Terry Sawchuk should probably be higher than No. 31, but he was only briefly a Leaf. Just like Andy Bathgate and Max Bentley.
Interestingly, the choices from Nos. 51-100 were just as hard. Putting Phil Kessel (No. 52) ahead of Ed Olczyk (No. 61) was a toughie. Seeing Darcy Tucker at No. 85, immediately followed by Bill Barilko, just looks weird. I’m not saying Dion Phaneuf was a better NHLer than Kent Douglas, but Phaneuf was a Leaf captain and Douglas was only with the team from 1962-67.
By Tyler Bozak at No. 99… okay, I was running out of candidates.
I could explain all the choices, and the logic I used to make them, but you and I would have to sit down for a couple of hours and discuss it. Then I’d probably have to re-work my list.
To me, this was less about accuracy, and more of a demonstration of the different perspective people have of the Leafs based on the time they became part of your conciousness, or work life.
Feel free to disagree with my list. Can’t say I’d blame you.
Damien Cox’s list of the Top 100 Maple Leafs:
1. Frank Mahovlich
2. Syl Apps
3. Dave Keon
4. Darryl Sittler
5. Borje Salming
6. Busher Jackson
7. Charlie Conacher
8. Turk Broda
9. Johnny Bower
10. Tim Horton
11. Ted Kennedy
12. Red Kelly
13. Doug Gilmour
14. Mats Sundin
15. Hap Day
16. Babe Dye
17. George Armstrong
18. King Clancy
19. Carl Brewer
20. Lanny McDonald
21. Gordie Drillon
22. Ace Bailey
23. Joe Primeau
24. Rick Vaive
25. Ron Ellis
26. Babe Pratt
27. Max Bentley
28. Tod Sloan
29. Lorne Carr
30. Bob Pulford
31. Terry Sawchuk
32. Sid Smith
33. Dick Duff
34. Jim Thomson
35. Harry Lumley
36. Allan Stanley
37. Wendel Clark
38. Curtis Joseph
39. Norm Ullman
40. Ian Turnbull
41. Ed Belfour
42. Baldy Cotton
43. Dave Andreychuk
44. Paul Henderson
45. Mike Palmateer
46. Tiger Williams
47. George Hainsworth
48. Red Horner
49. Harry Watson
50. Sweeney Schriner
51. Tomas Kaberle
52. Phil Kessel
53. Bobby Baun
54. Gus Mortson
55. Gaye Stewart
56. Marcel Pronovost
57. Ron Stewart
58. Jim Pappin
59. Bert Olmstead
60. Gary Roberts
61. Ed Olcyzk
62. Jack Adams
63. Gary Leeman
64. Bill Derlago
65. Vincent Damphousse
66. Al Iafrate
67. Andy Bathgate
68. Alexander Mogilny
69. Wilf Paiment
70. Dave Ellett
71. Dion Phaneuf
72. Kent Douglas
73. Fern Flaman
74. Jim McKenny
75. Bryan McCabe
76. John Anderson
77. Mike Gartner
78. Nick Metz
79. Wally Stanowski
80. Bob Nevin
81. Bucko McDonald
82. Todd Gill
83. Russ Courtnall
84. Steve Thomas
85. Darcy Tucker
86. Bill Barilko
87. Billy Harris
88. Inge Hammarstrom
89. Mike Walton
90. Felix Potvin
91. Glenn Anderson
92. Errol Thompson
93. Sergei Berezin
94. Daniel Marois
95. Larry Murphy
96. Eddie Shack
97. Nikolai Borschevsky
98. Grant Fuhr
99. Tyler Bozak
100. Jacques Plante