The 7th game of the first round of NHL playoffs ended with a loss. The next morning, newspaper headlines screamed, “The curse continues.” The Leafs extended their comedy of errors. Some might claim it was 55 years of futility.
Another excruciating tug on the heartstrings of us captivated Toronto Maple Leafs hockey fans who year after year build up their hopes, believing, “This is the year the Leafs will win it all.”
If two rival teams with better records, Montreal and Ottawa, are enticing Toronto followers to switch, why is there still so many of us steadfast fans putting our faith in the impossible? 1967, more than 5 decades ago, was the last time they fondled and kissed that Stanley Cup while frolicking around the ice surface looking like kids with a lollipop – in the old Maple Leaf Gardens no less.
Consider the last five years in a row; they were ousted in the first round. Could this be a genetic curse that began after their ’67 Stanley Cup. And if it truly is a curse – why?
Following that 1967 cup win, the Leafs didn’t win another playoff series for over a decade, suggesting that a devilish curse must have manifested just after that last championship. There had to be some explanation why one of the richest hockey teams in the world couldn’t turn it around. The possibility of winning another cup was like a backhoe trying to pick up a cigarette.
Out of growing desperation, the club hired Archivists and private dicks to do a thorough search for the answer going back to May of 1967. They wondered what could possibly have changed their fortunes from a sheer dynasty to be so punchless ever since. There report stressed that no longer will groundbreaking excuses or pointing a finger at better hockey clubs be tolerated. The Leafs had to be held accountable of their own failures. The fans patience in turn was wearing thin.
These investigators even considered somewhat irrelevant events that took place around that time. Could the debut of GO Transit in May 1967, have epitomized the Leafs into becoming a trainwreck? The team knows where it has to go, the obstacle is reaching the station. Or possibly Lester B. Pearson stepping down as Prime Minister and handing the leadership over to Pierre Elliott Trudeau had started the curse? Much hypothesis has resulted in few if any answers.
Discovering that a Pizza Pizza was founded in December of 1967 just a short walk from Maple Leaf Gardens was considered an omen. As Pizza Pizza franchises rapidly spread, Toronto’s Stanley Cup drought spread along with it.
Of course, there’s the possibility of a besieged player Larry Hillman who refused to sign until a better contract was offered. Instead he was fined $2400. He slapped a hex on the team saying, “They would never win another cup until he was paid back the money owing plus interest.
Most fans believed the Hillman Hex was the basis of the Leafs losing streak. Then in 2017 when a concerned hockey player paid back the $2,400 plus interest Hillman lifted his curse. The fans and the whole organization were relieved, yet the Leafs went on losing!
Then it happened. Amid their research, the archivists were brought to the most unexpected of places – baseball. Toronto residents knew that there’s more than one Toronto Maple Leafs in town. An independent baseball team who played out of Christie Pits also donned the Maple Leafs moniker. In fact the baseball team was around since the late 1800s, decades before the name became synonymous with hockey.
Sure enough, some evidence points to the Leafs hockey team being cursed by none other than the original Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard, in charge of both Leaf teams. The baseball Leafs were sold in October 1967, the timing somewhat suspicious. Is it possible that the NHL team’s refusal to save the original Maple Leafs angered the sports gods who cursed the franchise for decades to come with animosity that sticks to this very day?
For our beloved Leafs to break the curse, they’ll have to resolve what went wrong between them and the original Toronto Maple Leafs – no easy task.
