I've been following the travails of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club for almost 50 years. Don't ask me why, but for some reason, I still care what happens to this team. As the above picture indicates, my parents took my brother and me to Leafs games as kids (tickets cost a few bucks a seat back then). And ever since, my mood seems to rise and fall with the team's fortunes.
Two nights ago, "Leafs Nation" was treated to one of the great spectacles in team history. Massive underdogs going into their series with the Boston Bruins and down three games to one, the Leafs eked out a victory in game five in Boston, then came home to take a thrilling game six victory on Mother's Day.
As I left the Air Canada Centre that night, people were chanting: "Leafs in Sev-en! Leafs in Sev-en!"
Then, when the boys in blue took a 4-1 lead in Monday night's deciding game seven back in Boston, they did the thing that makes us keep coming back for more, no matter how many years of unrequited love we suffer: they made us believe again.
You know the rest. The Bruins came back. They found a way. The Leafs lost in overtime, in one of the most epic collapses in club -- and NHL -- history. And it's a long history.
I remember in the 1970s going to the old Maple Leaf Gardens to watch a particularly brutal series between the Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers. The Leafs went into Philadelphia and stole the first two games -- unheard of, since they were huge underdogs. But the Flyers stormed back, winning four in a row, including coming back from down 5-2 at the Gardens in the third period (any of this sounding familiar?).
It hasn't been uniformly awful since then. In 1978, the team made it to the final four after upsetting the New York Islanders in Game seven overtime on Long Island. Lanny McDonald got the goal and I'm not sure I've ever experienced a more euphoric joy in my life (maybe Paul Henderson's 1972 goal). We watched on TV at my home in Hamilton and jumped into each other's arms when Lanny worked his magic. But the team then lost four straight to the Montreal Canadiens.
The team got back to the final four again with Dougie Gilmour leading the way a couple of decades ago. But then Wayne Gretzky got away with a high stick, the Kings won, #99 went to the finals, and Leafs fans were denied a Stanley Cup final against the Habs, which would have been wonderful.
So we've seen this movie before, Leafs fans. To love the Leafs is to learn what it means to suffer.
A collapse such as last night's in Boston can presumably lead the team in two different directions: their young players will learn from this and show some resiliency next year, or the loss will be so crushing, it'll take years to recover from it. I don't know which.
But I take heart. My favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, went 86 years without winning a World Series. In 2003, they were on their way to playoff nirvana when the Yankees' Aaron Boone hit a home run to eliminate them yet again. But in 2004, they won the World Series. And they did it again in 2007.
Dare we ask the baseball gods to have a few words with the hockey gods and show some of that love to us and the Maple Leafs?