The Toronto Maple Leafs: Mutiny, Complacency, and Patience—It's All Part of the Plan

You see some beautiful things in big cities like Toronto and New York. You also see a lot of strange things that catch your attention.

But I've never seen anything like this in London, Ontario.

I was driving down one of the main roads of my hometown at around ten after eight last night and (meaning yes, while everyone was shutting of their lights to conserve energy and save the world, I was burning fossil fuels—call it dramatic irony I guess), and I drove up to a stoplight.

As I was waiting for the light to change, I saw something that I've only ever seen on TV.

A Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

But it wasn't the jersey itself I'd never seen before (personally, I own three), it was what was on the jersey that got my attention.

There wasn't a famous name and number on the back, or even an obscure name and number (one day I'll own a John Pohl jersey...one day), but taped over the Maple Leaf crest on the front of the jersey, was a big red 'x'.

As I said: I've seen drastic measures like these on TV before, but never walking down the street beside me. 

As the light turned green, I drove through the intersection slowly, just trying to take it all in. I mean, I've watched people jump on bandwagons before in cities that are no where the championship team's home (About 30% of Giants 'fans' following the Super Bowl) but I've never seen someone outside of that team's city jump off with such authority.

Now I'm no spokesperson for driving safely here, but I turned to watch him finish his walk across the intersection (my car is still going forward), and I noticed that there was something emblazoned upon his back—there was, in fact, a message on both sides of this jersey.

It was just too dark for me to read it.

Needless to say, that 10 seconds stuck with me the rest of the night, and nibbled at the back of my conscious.

I wish I had been walking last night (although the walk across town would have been roughly three hours). I have so many questions like how long he's had the jersey like this (it was from the mid-90s with the Maple Leaf shoulder crests, but how long had the 'x' been there) and what drove him to take such an extreme measure.

And I still want to know what the hell is on the back of his jersey.

Sidenote: This one may not be so much of a sidenote, but what could be on his jersey? What if it says something like Sickofit (in reference to Leafs management) or LoseJFJ (I know, it dates the jersey a few months, but it'd still be cool)? Maybe it was just something simple like Donewithit.

What if he's doing it gradually, like a tattoo, and the line is just the start of a process with mores lines to come. Maybe the giant note on his back will tell us the story of how the 'x' on the chest is actually because his wife forced him to cheer for Montreal or Ottawa.

All I know is that it was something lengthy (shoulder-to-shoulder, and that I hope it's rating is above PG 13 because if it is, that guy just became my new hero.

But it got me to thinking  about everything that had gone wrong for the Leafs in just the 19 years I've been alive, let alone that 41 year Cup drought.

There were those Harold Ballard years, the Gretzky high-stick in 1993, the Make-me-Laugh years (1994-1998), 2002—where it seemed destined to come together but Martin Gelinas made sure it wouldn't, the following two seasons where they tried to start a rivalry with the Flyers but just kept getting dominated, and the JFJ Era—culminating in three straight years without playoff hockey in the city of Toronto.

We also had to say good-bye to favorites like Borje Salming (a year before my time, but no matter), Doug Gilmour (twice), Wendel Clark (three times), Tie Domi, and now possibly Mats Sundin to name a few.

So what have the Maple Leafs done for me that keeps me cheering for them year after year?

Absolutely nothing.

No championships, no appearances in the finals, three years of being frustratingly close, the promise of getting better but never actually following through, and no upper-echelon talent waiting in the wings.

I guess that being a member of Leafs Nation is like an addiction that you just can't kick; it's embarrassing at some points and satisfying at others—like beating the Canadiens, but only after losing your way out of the playoff picture—you can be completely ignored or accepted by your peers because of it, and there comes a point where you just don't know why you keep doing it to yourself, but you do. 

You keep on hoping, looking towards the future, and guessing that tomorrow will be the day that it all turns around and starts looking up.

Maybe my friend on the street was right; a little mutiny can go a long way.

Maybe management has finally clued in to a winning strategy, and we're three or four years (plus a take-charge GM) away from being back at the top.

Maybe we're still another 40 years away from sipping champagne with a satisfied smile on our faces as we tell our children "this is what I've waited my whole life for".

Who really knows when it'll happen?

All I know is that nothing is forever—be it a drought, frustration, or success—so one day it will be our turn. It HAS to be our turn.

Just keep telling yourself that.