Читать книгу Hope and Heartbreak in Toronto. Life as a Maple Leafs Fan онлайн

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I also used to cringe at the characterization that Leafs fans treated even small victories as though they were steps on the path to planning a Stanley Cup parade. The decade-long run of reasonable success really did give Leafs fans a sense of entitlement, an expectation that things would not only stay the same but that they would likely get even better. Back in 2002, I, like pretty much all my Leafs Nation brethren, thought that the numerals 1-9-6-7 signified Canada’s Centennial year. I’m not sure I even think about Canada’s 100th birthday when I see “1967” written anywhere now. I know precisely what it means: the last Stanley Cup victory for the Leafs.

Lost in the desert of missed playoffs and early springs, Leafs fans now grasp wins in pretty much the same way as their detractors used to say they did way back when, when all those unseemly comments really weren’t true. The Leafs won an average of thirty-four games in the five seasons between the fall of 2007 and the spring of 2012. If you extend that period back two additional years to include the first seven seasons since the NHL lockout wiped out the 2004–05 season, the number nudges up to an average of thirty-six wins per year. Those stats, especially the number from the past five years (because it’s more reflective of the Brian Burke managerial regime) really hits home. Most people who are gainfully employed get paid every two weeks. That means twenty-six times a year. The comparison struck me because a Leafs victory now really does feel like payday, that’s how rarely it happens.