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The pain and sorrow that Mr. Ronalds must have been going through is unimaginable. His son had just weeks to live, but aggressive chemotherapy had allowed him to realize a few dying wishes: going to Disney World, and celebrating one last Christmas and his birthday.

That night the two were fulfilling another one of those wishes as they attended a Leafs–Flyers game. In the moments leading up to game, I approached Angus and re-introduced myself. I had been to his wife Heidi’s funeral earlier that year but I could tell that he didn’t recognize me (my wife and Heidi had taught together at a Toronto-area public school).

“He’s terminal,” said Angus of Riley’s condition when I asked. “We’re just enjoying what time we have left together.”

Little Riley died shortly after his fifth birthday, on February 1, 2011.

It’s a question that confounds many people across the hockey world and even some who consider themselves Leafs fan: Why? What is it about a hockey team that makes Angus Ronalds’s story so common, even with its extraordinary and utterly sad details? Ronalds wasn’t the first father to bring his terminally ill son to see a Leafs game, and he certainly won’t be the last.