To all who celebrate: Happy Leafs Elimination Day!

[JoeSchmoe]

It's my annual tradition around here to post this well worn newspaper article circa 2017. If you live anywhere close to Leafland like I do, it's a lifetime of listening to Leafs fans and Leafs media that makes this holiday extra special. Enjoy!

https://torontosun.com/2017/09/11/simmons-vaulted-by-big-3-this-maple-leafs-team-is-a-champion-in-waiting

-----------------------------
You can see a Stanley Cup from here.

Maybe for the first time since the Stanley Cup season of 1967, you can see it.

You can envision it. You can believe in it. You can close your eyes and actually picture Gary Bettman calling Auston Matthews — assuming he will eventually be granted the captaincy — to come up and grab the Cup.

The Toronto Maple Leafs: Future Stanley Cup champion.

This isn’t a dream or a joke, it’s a path. It’s a destination. The seemingly impossible eventually becoming possible. For most of our lives, we haven’t known anything like this at all. You could hope, but it was never realistic. You could predict, but it wasn’t logical.

There hasn’t been a Maple Leafs team in 50 years that looked to be anywhere near the part of champion in September. Even that old 1967 team — and it was old — didn’t begin the season as any kind of favourite.

But as the Maple Leafs open training camp on Thursday, you can honestly say that for the first time since the 1960s, the one most of you never saw or lived through, you can look at this group, especially the kids, the coach and the management team, and you can see a finish line.

A finish line ending with a parade.

And a future that isn’t necessarily all that far away.

And, believe me, there has been no reason to pen anything like this in my first 30 years writing about the Leafs.

This season may be too soon. Teams don’t go from last to playoffs to title in three seasons. But in four seasons? That’s happened.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane carried the Chicago Blackhawks to their first of three Stanley Cups in just their third NHL season, 2009-10. Toews was 22 when he was handed the Cup. Kane was just 21.

The template of sorts was set for new champions then. You can win a Stanley Cup with a great centreman (Toews), a great scorer (Kane), an A-defenceman (Duncan Keith) a front-line coach (Joel Quenneville) and solid goaltending with Corey Crawford, and before that, somehow, Antti Niemi.

Sidney Crosby was in his third NHL season when he and Evgeni Malkin took Pittsburgh to the Stanley Cup final. The Penguins won a year later: Malkin was 22, Crosby turned 22 two months later.

The template was there. Strength down the middle with Crosby and Malkin; a burgeoning A-defenceman in Kris Letang; Dan Bylsma as coach; Marc-Andre Fleury in goal.

After that, Drew Doughty led the Los Angeles Kings to their first of two Cups under coach Darryl Sutter. That was Doughty’s fourth NHL season, the fourth season for goalie Jonathan Quick. The complete Anze Kopitar played the part of Toews; Jeff Carter played the Malkin role as the second-line centre.

The template changed more than slightly this June, with Pittsburgh winning its second straight Cup. The Pens had the goalie in Matt Murray, the coach in Mike Sullivan, the centres in Crosby and Malkin, but not a Doughty, a Keith or a Letang to be found on defence.

They just had guys. And they won with them. With Ron Hainsey and Brian Dumoulin. With Justin Schultz and Ian Cole. Trevor Daley and Olli Maatta.

Somehow they won with them.

This is Year 2 for Matthews and Mitch Marner, and Year 2.5 for William Nylander. The Leafs have never been in this position before, with young players with such immense and diverse talents. They are each exceptional and varied in their games.

This is a year to grow and learn to contend. No one in the Eastern Conference has young forwards of this pedigree or talent level to compare with.

And who knows? In a game getting younger, as professional sports appears to be trending that way all over, what could that mean for a team that has yet to win a playoff round? After this season, though, with Matthews and Marner in Year 3, before their big salaries kick in and the salary cap tapdance begins for the Maple Leafs, the running of the Cup marathon does not look like a mountain that cannot be climbed.

Pat Quinn coached some very good Leafs teams in his years in Toronto. Good, yes. Great, no. They looked like they might one day get to a Cup final if everything went their way. Twice they got to the Conference final and tapped out.

They never had the look of a future champion.

Pat Burns coached some surprisingly good Leafs teams in his first two years in Toronto. Overachieving, yes. Great, no.

In the inspiring and miraculous first season in Toronto, Burns’ teams came within a Kerry Fraser hair of playing for the Stanley Cup. They were good and lucky and, when Doug Gilmour played, they were great.

No Leafs team has been close since.

Even the Roger Neilson teams of the late ’70s, with Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming and Mike Palmateer looked like they were a player addition or two away from being serious. But as top-heavy as those teams were — they had the template parts — the Montreal Canadiens were stacked with eight Hall of Fame players and a Hall of Fame coach.

The playing field was hardly level. Those Leafs made a semifinal once.

Now, look at the Eastern Conference today, before this season begins, and project what might come soon.

Pittsburgh has already won three Cups. History will tell you there may not be a lot more for the Penguins.

Ottawa has Erik Karlsson, but what else?

Henrik Lundqvist is nearing the end in New York and their top three skaters are nowhere near the level of Matthews, Marner and Nylander.

Montreal has Carey Price and an aging Shea Weber on defence and not a single proven centre up front.

Washington, which finished 23 points ahead of the Leafs and 73 goals ahead in goal differential, doesn’t seem built for playoff runs and needed overtime to take the Leafs rookies out last April.

Which leaves what in the future?

The Lightning seems to have all kinds of depth and strength and the Cup template of the Blackhawks and Kings fits it, with Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson at centre, Nikita Kucherov on the wing, Victor Hedman as a top-three NHL defenceman, the coach Jon Cooper and young goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. It looks like it can contend for a number of years.

Florida has the requisite centre and defenceman in Sasha Barkov and Aaron Ekblad, but do they have enough aside from them?

Jack Eichel will be carrying Buffalo to a better place.

But who has Matthews, Marner and Nylander? And depth alongside them up front. The defence isn’t where it needs to be yet, but it can improve internally. Frederik Andersen can be a Cup-winning goalie. Babcock has already been a Cup-winning coach.

Now it should be a matter of when. The view to the top of the mountain, forever cloudy, forever illogical, forever impeded by barriers of incompetence, ownership woes or lack of talent, seems rather clear for the first time in my life — and probably yours.

The Leafs will win the Stanley Cup. I’ve never written that before. This team is a champion in waiting.

Edited 17 hours ago by JoeSchmoe

[PerreaultForever]

Tomorrow is the best day of all. Tomorrow is podcast/media Leaf whining day. The what went wrong discussions begin. They are the best. 

 

On that note I heard that post game Matthews said there were "too many passengers" and I believe Marner agreed with that. Very interesting that your star "leaders" put the blame on others rather than taking the responsibility or even better by having actually stepped up themselves. Other than his game 6 goal Matthews was in fact a pretty big "passenger" and considering his salary and role perhaps the biggest passenger of all. 

[North Buffalo]

No mention or calling out of Leaf fans for their pathetic despicable behavior... even Philly fans have more respect maybe by degrees but they do.

[MattPie]

It's even more special when it happens in Toronto, and from the looks of it, in a rout.

That said, a bunch of Sabres fans gleefully celebrating a team getting getting eliminated probably isn't an awesome look. Sure, it feels good, but Sabres Elimination Day is a winter holiday.

[JohnC]

As a Sabre fan I’m not going to be gleeful about another team losing the seventh game in the second round when my team hadn’t even qualified to make the playoffs in a generation and still counting.  
 

The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.

Compare Toronto’s ownership to our owner who is silent and clueless? Our owner has created a franchise where not only do players with a NMT clause don’t want to come here but also our best players exerted themselves to get out of this cluster (F—k) franchise.

I’m not going to mock the Toronto fans for being disappointed because they outshine us to the extent they fill their arena every game while our arena is often half empty and silent. It’s gotten so bad that when Toronto plays in Buffalo they have more fans in the arena cheering on their team. How embarrassing is that!!!!????

I choose to be silent and not snide about another fan base’s playoff outcome disappointment because as a Sabre fan I’m not in position to snicker at anyone else.

This is where our obtuse owner has relegated us to. I detest what he has done to this franchise and fan base. He should be ashamed of himself. The problem is that shameless people can’t be shamed.

[PromoTheRobot]

19 minutes ago, JohnC said:

As a Sabre fan I’m not going to be gleeful about another team losing the seventh game in the second round when my team hadn’t even qualified to make the playoffs in a generation and still counting.  
 

The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.

Compare Toronto’s ownership to our owner who is silent and clueless? Our owner has created a franchise where not only do players with a NMT clause don’t want to come here but also our best players exerted themselves to get out of this cluster (F—k) franchise.

I’m not going to mock the Toronto fans for being disappointed because they outshine us to the extent they fill their arena every game while our arena is often half empty and silent. It’s gotten so bad that when Toronto plays in Buffalo they have more fans in the arena cheering on their team. How embarrassing is that!!!!????

I choose to be silent and not snide about another fan base’s playoff outcome disappointment because as a Sabre fan I’m not in position to snicker at anyone else.

This is where our obtuse owner has relegated us to. I detest what he has done to this franchise and fan base. He should be ashamed of himself. The problem is that shameless people can’t be shamed.

 

 

 

 

[Weave]

1 hour ago, MattPie said:

It's even more special when it happens in Toronto, and from the looks of it, in a rout.

That said, a bunch of Sabres fans gleefully celebrating a team getting getting eliminated probably isn't an awesome look. Sure, it feels good, but Sabres Elimination Day is a winter holiday.

As a Sabres fan old enough to well remember the Sabres going 0 for the 80s in the playoffs, this laugh at the Leafs stuff is no class.  I will swap the Leafs failures of the last decade over the Sabres failures of the last decade every time.

[PASabreFan]

I bet we still love Southern Ontario Leaf fans.

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

As a Sabre fan I’m not going to be gleeful about another team losing the seventh game in the second round when my team hadn’t even qualified to make the playoffs in a generation and still counting.  
 

The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.

Compare Toronto’s ownership to our owner who is silent and clueless? Our owner has created a franchise where not only do players with a NMT clause don’t want to come here but also our best players exerted themselves to get out of this cluster (F—k) franchise.

I’m not going to mock the Toronto fans for being disappointed because they outshine us to the extent they fill their arena every game while our arena is often half empty and silent. It’s gotten so bad that when Toronto plays in Buffalo they have more fans in the arena cheering on their team. How embarrassing is that!!!!????

I choose to be silent and not snide about another fan base’s playoff outcome disappointment because as a Sabre fan I’m not in position to snicker at anyone else.

This is where our obtuse owner has relegated us to. I detest what he has done to this franchise and fan base. He should be ashamed of himself. The problem is that shameless people can’t be shamed.

Now please excuse me while I self-flagellate and put on my hairshirt 

[JohnC]

Just now, PromoTheRobot said:

Now please excuse me while I self-flagellate and put on my hairshirt 

I don't know what you are getting out. My point is simply that being gleeful at another team's failures, when their failures are still miles ahead of your own puny successes, is ridiculous. Pathetic losers who derive satisfaction at snickering at people who failed yet are more successful than the biggest losers in the chortling crowd should show some grace and be silent. You may not be aware of it but you are embarrassing yourself when you do that. (Not singling out anyone but stating my comments in general.) It's like a 300 lb. slob telling a person who is a few pounds overweight that they are fat. The lack of self-awareness is stunning. 

I apologize if I'm coming off as a scold. It's not my intention to be judgmental. But being a Sabre fan under the ownership of a fool owner has resulted in skewing how a lot of people view things. 

[Drag0nDan]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Tomorrow is the best day of all. Tomorrow is podcast/media Leaf whining day. The what went wrong discussions begin. They are the best. 

 

On that note I heard that post game Matthews said there were "too many passengers" and I believe Marner agreed with that. Very interesting that your star "leaders" put the blame on others rather than taking the responsibility or even better by having actually stepped up themselves. Other than his game 6 goal Matthews was in fact a pretty big "passenger" and considering his salary and role perhaps the biggest passenger of all. 

Now i'm sure its like this for many players because playoffs usually means - better goaltending, and just fewer goals scored in general... but...

Matthews 82 game average:

Regular season - 52 goals, 42 assists, +20, 15.8% shooting 

Playoffs - 31 goals, 40 assists, +2, 9.2% shooting

[Drag0nDan]

2 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I don't know what you are getting out. My point is simply that being gleeful at another team's failures, when their failures are still miles ahead of your own puny successes, is ridiculous. Pathetic losers who derive satisfaction at snickering at people who failed yet are more successful than the biggest losers in the chortling crowd should show some grace and be silent. You may not be aware of it but you are embarrassing yourself when you do that. (Not singling out anyone but stating my comments in general.) It's like a 300 lb. slob telling a person who is a few pounds overweight that they are fat. The lack of self-awareness is stunning. 

I apologize if I'm coming off as a scold. It's not my intention to be judgmental. But being a Sabre fan under the ownership of a fool owner has resulted in skewing how a lot of people view things. 

It's the leafs man! Their fans are obnoxious, i hate the organization, and their failure is generally a pretty joyful experience for everyone else.  It's like hating the yankees, the dodgers, the lakers, etc.  I am aware of the yankees success (their fans will remind you if you aren't), so when they crash out in the world series after beating my guardians - i LOVED seeing them crying all over twitter. 

So to me it goes the same for the leafs... if you're going to trash sabres fans all season, and talk smack up 2-0 against the defending champs.... don't be shocked when the receipts pop up.  

[Night Train]

The crash is always more painful with big market teams. Their star players who are paid well continue to come up short in the post season. Time to blow it up. 

The curse of Harold Ballard continues. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

I loath the Leafs, but I’m not happy they were eliminated. The Sam Bennett cheap shot to the Leafs goalie changed the complexion of the series.  The lack of a penalty or a suspension was further proof of the joke that is the NHL league office and the refs that work for them.  
 

For once I almost feel bad for Leafs nation.  Almost

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

As a Sabres fan old enough to well remember the Sabres going 0 for the 80s in the playoffs, this laugh at the Leafs stuff is no class.  I will swap the Leafs failures of the last decade over the Sabres failures of the last decade every time.

Close, not 0 for the 80's (to follow on the Bills 0 for the 70's) but it was 10 years - '83-'92.  And of course the 20th Anniversary Slogan, to follow the 10th Anniversary's "The Best is yet to Come," was "Celebrate the Tradition."  After 7 consecutive seasons of not getting to the 2nd round, the marketing department chose "Celebrate the Tradition" as their rallying cry.  Tone deaf for sure.

But, regarding the actual focus of your post, YOU don't sit in the stands when the A-hole Loaf fans invade OUR building.  Some of us do.  And, for those of us that do, we despise the Loafs even more than the B's, the Phlyers, or the Aisles, or (pick your own personal squad of demons).  Their fans are beyond obnoxious.  And they paid for their tickets, so they get to do whatever those all so wellknown for being the nicest people on earth (yeah, right 😒) Canuckleheads want to do short of inciting violence.  But it doesn't mean any of us have to like them and we sure as heck can take small comfort from them getting their just desserts handed to them.

They're the NY Yankee fans of the hockey world, except nearly all of them have NO SUCCESSES within their OWN lifetimes to celebrate.  (Cowboys fans are quickly joining the Loaf fan ranks as well, too.  Good for them.)  They've not even made it to the Final since the league expanded beyond 6 franchises.

And, while it isn't classy to cheer for the bully to get his arse handed to him, it sure does feel good.  (Until next year, when it'll all likely repeat itself, and the Sabres end up pitiful again and the Loafs are certain they'll finally have handed to them what they've richly deserved (in their fans own demented minds) for nearly the past 60 years only to have it ripped from them again.) 

And while the Sabres fans may be Charlie Brown getting the football pulled away once again by Lucy.  At least we're not Biff Tannen getting the car full of #### that he so richly deserves once again.  Was it classless to laugh at that?  Perhaps.  But it sure did feel good.

Well, with that said, time to make like a tree and get out of here.

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

I bet we still love Southern Ontario Leaf fans.

[PASabreFan]

Torrono's just desserts=parade in Buffalo with announcement of that 20 year contract for KA that SDS hauntingly predicted some time back.

[JoeSchmoe]

3 hours ago, JohnC said:

As a Sabre fan I’m not going to be gleeful about another team losing the seventh game in the second round when my team hadn’t even qualified to make the playoffs in a generation and still counting.  
 

The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.

Compare Toronto’s ownership to our owner who is silent and clueless? Our owner has created a franchise where not only do players with a NMT clause don’t want to come here but also our best players exerted themselves to get out of this cluster (F—k) franchise.

I’m not going to mock the Toronto fans for being disappointed because they outshine us to the extent they fill their arena every game while our arena is often half empty and silent. It’s gotten so bad that when Toronto plays in Buffalo they have more fans in the arena cheering on their team. How embarrassing is that!!!!????

I choose to be silent and not snide about another fan base’s playoff outcome disappointment because as a Sabre fan I’m not in position to snicker at anyone else.

This is where our obtuse owner has relegated us to. I detest what he has done to this franchise and fan base. He should be ashamed of himself. The problem is that shameless people can’t be shamed.

Maybe you gotta live in Southern Ontario or regularly been in the stands during a Leaf takeover to fully appreciate this holiday. If you don't observe, that is ok.

[WhenWillItEnd66]

As much as i HATE the Leafs, at least they are making the playoffs..... Enough said

[JP51]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Tomorrow is the best day of all. Tomorrow is podcast/media Leaf whining day. The what went wrong discussions begin. They are the best. 

 

On that note I heard that post game Matthews said there were "too many passengers" and I believe Marner agreed with that. Very interesting that your star "leaders" put the blame on others rather than taking the responsibility or even better by having actually stepped up themselves. Other than his game 6 goal Matthews was in fact a pretty big "passenger" and considering his salary and role perhaps the biggest passenger of all. 

I was gonna say lol... Matthews wasnt just a passenger, he was on a horse drawn chariot getting fanned and fed grapes... 

Just now, WhenWillItEnd66 said:

As much as i HATE the Leafs, at least they are making the playoffs..... Enough said

When you are in the 5th ring of Hockey He(( you unfortunately get your joy vicariously thru others pain...  and I unfortunately am in that category and despite hating that I am... I am just laughing over here at the Leafs... and hey, no one has a problem laughing at us being the biggest joke in professional sports history. 

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

Close, not 0 for the 80's (to follow on the Bills 0 for the 70's) but it was 10 years - '83-'92.  And of course the 20th Anniversary Slogan, to follow the 10th Anniversary's "The Best is yet to Come," was "Celebrate the Tradition."  After 7 consecutive seasons of not getting to the 2nd round, the marketing department chose "Celebrate the Tradition" as their rallying cry.  Tone deaf for sure.

But, regarding the actual focus of your post, YOU don't sit in the stands when the A-hole Loaf fans invade OUR building.  Some of us do.  And, for those of us that do, we despise the Loafs even more than the B's, the Phlyers, or the Aisles, or (pick your own personal squad of demons).  Their fans are beyond obnoxious.  And they paid for their tickets, so they get to do whatever those all so wellknown for being the nicest people on earth (yeah, right 😒) Canuckleheads want to do short of inciting violence.  But it doesn't mean any of us have to like them and we sure as heck can take small comfort from them getting their just desserts handed to them.

They're the NY Yankee fans of the hockey world, except nearly all of them have NO SUCCESSES within their OWN lifetimes to celebrate.  (Cowboys fans are quickly joining the Loaf fan ranks as well, too.  Good for them.)  They've not even made it to the Final since the league expanded beyond 6 franchises.

And, while it isn't classy to cheer for the bully to get his arse handed to him, it sure does feel good.  (Until next year, when it'll all likely repeat itself, and the Sabres end up pitiful again and the Loafs are certain they'll finally have handed to them what they've richly deserved (in their fans own demented minds) for nearly the past 60 years only to have it ripped from them again.) 

And while the Sabres fans may be Charlie Brown getting the football pulled away once again by Lucy.  At least we're not Biff Tannen getting the car full of #### that he so richly deserves once again.  Was it classless to laugh at that?  Perhaps.  But it sure did feel good.

Well, with that said, time to make like a tree and get out of here.

Leaf fans are just 2000 - 2020 Patriots fans without anything to back up their trash talk with.

 

4 hours ago, JohnC said:

As a Sabre fan I’m not going to be gleeful about another team losing the seventh game in the second round when my team hadn’t even qualified to make the playoffs in a generation and still counting.  
 

The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.

Compare Toronto’s ownership to our owner who is silent and clueless? Our owner has created a franchise where not only do players with a NMT clause don’t want to come here but also our best players exerted themselves to get out of this cluster (F—k) franchise.

I’m not going to mock the Toronto fans for being disappointed because they outshine us to the extent they fill their arena every game while our arena is often half empty and silent. It’s gotten so bad that when Toronto plays in Buffalo they have more fans in the arena cheering on their team. How embarrassing is that!!!!????

I choose to be silent and not snide about another fan base’s playoff outcome disappointment because as a Sabre fan I’m not in position to snicker at anyone else.

This is where our obtuse owner has relegated us to. I detest what he has done to this franchise and fan base. He should be ashamed of himself. The problem is that shameless people can’t be shamed.

I roll my eyes hard at this entire post.

When a team's fanbase dishes out ***** at every given moment you are most certainly allowed to call them out when they inevitably fail. Based on your opinion, Sabres fans should quite literally be perpetually depressed because we have no right to enjoy anyone's defeat.

(The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.)

Every team's fanbase wants to win the Cup, make the playoffs, etc. Most fanbases however don't tout themselves being the Hockey Mecca, superior in all aspects to everyone else, and the Cup Favorite each and every year. Everything must be about them rather it be traditional/social media, print, and forum discussions. Start talking about anything on the hfboards and you'll get swarmed by Leaf fans looking to hijack it.  

 

[repster]

58 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Maybe you gotta live in Southern Ontario or regularly been in the stands during a Leaf takeover to fully appreciate this holiday. If you don't observe, that is ok.

Oh, I observe, and luckily most times in the history of our head-to-heads, we Sabres fans end up getting the last laugh, and the Leafs fans end up heading back across the border as losers.  That includes the last time they met in the playoffs.  I was at that penultimate game and remember waving bye to all the blue and white jerseys as they filed out of the HSBC arena in shame.  Even as I crossed back across the border, Channel 4 had their cameras in the Peace bridge lineup in front of the inspection booths.  We got their attention and celebrated with everyone else staring at us in envy.  The thing is that, when the Leafs win a game or two, their fans start planning the parade.  It’s beyond obnoxious how entitled they are.  After they eliminated Ottawa, I was seeing jersey and flags everywhere.  It was nauseating.  So it’s so great to see them have their annual playoff collapse and hear the Toronto media natter at each other.  Steve Dangle is a great watch.  If you’ve never seen his videos on YouTube, it’s highly entertaining.  I want ongoing pain for that team and all their fans.  He tells it like it is and is very satisfying to know most of their fans are losing their minds in a similar fashion.  I would love nothing more than the Sabres to have some form of relevance again, but in the meantime, I need something in the NHL to celebrate.  The Leafs have succeeded in becoming the perfect failure.  They truly are the Laffs.

[LGR4GM]

 

 

[Taro T]

26 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Leaf fans are just 2000 - 2020 Patriots fans without anything to back up their trash talk with.

 

I roll my eyes hard at this entire post.

When a team's fanbase dishes out ***** at every given moment you are most certainly allowed to call them out when they inevitably fail. Based on your opinion, Sabres fans should quite literally be perpetually depressed because we have no right to enjoy anyone's defeat.

(The Toronto fans are angry that they didn’t go on to win the Cup. Their expectations may be unrealistic but at least they have them. What are the Sabre fans’ expectations? Low! Just qualify.)

Every team's fanbase wants to win the Cup, make the playoffs, etc. Most fanbases however don't tout themselves being the Hockey Mecca, superior in all aspects to everyone else, and the Cup Favorite each and every year. Everything must be about them rather it be traditional/social media, print, and forum discussions. Start talking about anything on the hfboards and you'll get swarmed by Leaf fans looking to hijack it.  

 

Hey, let's leave NY Giant fans out of this discussion.  😉 

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Maybe you gotta live in Southern Ontario or regularly been in the stands during a Leaf takeover to fully appreciate this holiday. If you don't observe, that is ok.

What’s a disgrace is that Toronto fans have the ability to fill up the arena because there are so many unsold seats and seats being sold by the hometown ticket holders. That in itself is a freaking disgrace that opposition fans are more willing to attend than hometown fans. 
 

You want to be mad about the situation? Focus your venom on the obtuse owner with the big boat who has crushed this franchise and fanbase with his foolishness. And it should be noted that his absurd ridiculousness has been going on for a generation.