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

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The pall in the arena subsided only briefly when Clark steamrolled over some poor, unfortunate Blues player not long after the puck dropped. But soon after, the Leafs looked to be just a step behind the Blues, who had Wayne Gretzky in their lineup after he had been traded there from the Los Angeles Kings about six weeks before. Gretzky put on a clinic, registering three assists and keying a 3–1 win. The home fans had difficulty accepting the loss because it was hard to face the fact their team simply wasn’t good enough after the previous playoff runs that were still fresh in their minds. And so they began searching for a scapegoat.

“Come on down, Larry Murphy.”

Before leaving on my trip, the last thoughts I had had of Murphy involved imagining trying to inflict pain on his blond head in order to stop the stress he was causing me as I watched him play for the Leafs. Granted, Murphy was a much better player than, say, Macoun, and he had come to the Leafs after winning the Stanley Cup twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Previous to that, Canadian hockey fans had fond memories of him because he helped set up Mario Lemieux when he scored the Canada Cup–clinching goal in 1987. But there was something not quite right about Murphy; though he was a local Toronto lad, he appeared to have picked up something oddly American, or foreign, playing in places such as Los Angeles and Washington. Even though he replaced a Russian — Dmitri Mironov — in the Leafs lineup, there was a sense that he was an outsider, an intruder, not long for Toronto. Murphy just didn’t seem to fit with his home city and its fans. It likely had something to do with his salary, as players’ paycheques were starting to grow fatter by the mid-1990s and Murphy was making more than $2-million a year. Murphy’s play during his first season in Toronto, statistically speaking, was fine, and he notched 61 points, only marginally behind his numbers in Pittsburgh, a club that had much more offensive firepower headed up by Lemieux. But there was something missing. He had been touted as a puck-moving defenceman, which the Leafs had needed even during their impressive playoff runs to the conference final. Murphy, as the point totals suggested, had done okay in that role, but there was also the worrying sight of him looking helplessly behind him as speedier opposition forwards blew past. That image tended to stick out more than the still-impressive offensive game he brought to the table.