I am proud to write this after the Leafs have lost their 7th in a row...Because I am a true Leafs fan...

A lot of people dont understand what it means to be a true Leafs fan..I am proud to say I am a Leafs fan and I am proud of them no matter what happens.
Growing up in the 80s a lot of memories come to my mind. Going to my first game with my grandfather and sitting in the greys, riding the escalator up and seeing GEORGE every game, waiting after the games to catch a glimpse or an autograph of my heroes Vaive, Derlago, Salming. The time me and a buddy snuck in to watch the last 10 minutes of Gretzky's first game at the gardens as a KING..The game againts the Blackhawks where Rick Vaive scored 4 goals including his 49th on the year to break the old Leafs record of most goals in a season., meeting Harold Ballard as a 12 year old and getting his autograph and him saying"dont you know how to say please kid"I have so many memories that are etched in my mind that I will never forget.

A lot of people get joy out of making fun of this franchise because they can. However to be a true leaf fan means a lot more than what these so called hockey fans can dish out. I am proud to say I will support this team through thick and thin and I know one day I will be rewarded...

This is a very special franchise with a long history of success and failure...But it doesnt matter if they win or lose because I am a LEAFS FAN and I am proud..

I 2nd that

Leafs Nation !

holy crap!

It's like being a fan of any other team!

(Except with more dellusions.)

Real fans don't say they are fans. It's a good thing you posted that you were a Leafs fan, because I always thought you were a Sabres fan.

YOu dont understand the Leafs Nation..unless you are a part of it...

Are you making the Kool-Aid Serge?

yeah, ahem, nice game there last night haha

anyway yea i think its always special to root for an original six team


GO WINGS

Please, you have it good compared to the teams that I am fans of. You wouldn't last one season as a Blackhawks fan, Cubs fan, Bears fan, or Kansas Jayhawks fan.
MapleLeafs have the second longest Stanely Cup drought.

QFMFT, and that is coming from a Leafs fan. Oh, and I'd spell delusions right.

I'm a Leafs fan, originally because I'm from Toronto, but I do like and respect both the current team and their history. We do have a long, glorious history, which I am proud to be a part of. The current team has some real issues, but I remain hopeful.

The only difference between Leafs fans and fans of most other teams, is that people hate Leafs fans. Mostly deserved, since Leaf fans tend to think we're somehow different or better than other fans.

btw, even Leaf fans realize that Tucker is a dirty player.

Hell yeah!

I agree with your comments ..the trouble I have is when the Leafs go deep in the Playoffs and the whole city goes nuts, with their little flags on the car...Those are the fans if they lose one game are the ones calling into the radio shows saying the Leafs suck...IT takes a lot of adversity to stay loyal to the LEafs with all the negative energy against them...But man how great is the Stanley Cup party going to be??

The Mustangs are closer to winning an AHL championship than the Leafs are to winning a Cup; and even 4 out of 5 dentists know how far the Mustangs are away.

QFMT

I hated it 2 seasons ago agaisnt filthy philly when that O.T heartbreaker shot beat belfour and all the idiots called in and were blaming it on belfour and how he was to slow to react to the shot...

meanwhile the series before the same people were calling in saying belfour had the necessary playoff experience to take them all the way....

Pet peeve #1 is the band wagon leaf fans

Man, that must suck to have bandwagon fans. Too bad Toronto isn't like every other sports team in the world where fans always say nice things about a team, even if they lose.

Well if you are saying that you dont live in Toronto...Does any other team in the NHL play under the same media scrutiny as the Leafs do...Do you think any of the Dallas Stars get recognized when they are walking in Dallas...Toronto is the center of the hockey universe, you need to understand that...Even when the Blue Jays were winning World Series this was a hockey town....The Leafs are God's team and there is no other franchise, especially in hockey that can compare to them..

Some other teams that might compare are

Chicago Bears
Greeen Bay Packers
Dallas Cowboys
Los Angeles Lakers
Oakland Raiders
Notre Dame and USC in College Football


The leafs are in a class on their own...Saying the Leafs Nation is like any other sports team is like saying the Pope is a Muslim or President Bush is a smart man..

thats all

Montreal Canadiens...I know you hate them, but don't be ridiculous!

How many other cities have you lived in to know?

Actually I have lived in Europe and I have lived in California...Ask any NHL player where the hockey universe is ..and they will all say Toronto..

For some they cant handle it, for others they love it...

As for Canadian Gothic 's Canadiens..Yes they also have a tradition, however our history is more colorful and vast....

Did the Canadiens fans suffer through Harold Ballard years??

Oh, so your definition of "colourful and vast" is crappy. You're right, the Leafs win.

I've never lived in Toronto. I live in Chicago. We've had a lot bigger athelets play here in Chicago than you have had in Toronto. (I'm talking all sports not just hockey) After every season of every team that doesn't win it here, people rip the entire organization for not winning or making the playoffs or whatever. It's been that way for years. I'm not saying that the Leafs aren't scrutinized, but don't make claims that they are scrutinized more than other teams.

I can't believe you say that the Leafs aren't like every sports team! Every team has die-hard fans, big fans, fans, and bandwagon fans.

Pay no attention to the BogoBot. Gov was hoping it would be smarter with the new update, but it seems to have become dumber.

Ok maybe you are right with other sports...however when it comes to hockey I dont think there is a comparison...

And I have been to Chicago and it is definetely one of the best sports towns in the world...However my argument is how many teams are there, especially in hockey that can sell out every game for years and years when the team is not a playoff contender...

The Leafs have an aura that is just hard to explain...

So what you had Michael Jordan we had Pape Sow
you had Walter Payton we had Pinball Clemons
you had Sammy Sosa and we had Kelly Gruber..

So there

Very funny...Did you come up with that or did one of your prospects??

No, I came up with that, my prospects are busy...

Bryan Little and Brendan Mikkelson are at Canada's junior camp.
Ladislav Smid is turning into one of Edmonton's best d-men.
And Guillaume Latendresse is scoring more than twice as many goals as Chuck Kobasew.

Yes, Toronto loves hockey. We all know and will not dispute this, but I don't think being a Leafs fan is harder than being a fan other teams. I would say it's harder to be a Blackhawks fan than a Leafs fan. We have the worst owner in sports, we get 5 home games a year on t.v., we haven't had a team to be excited about since early 90's. Yeah I know we have poor attendance, but the fans that haven't been totally put off by ownership are pretty hardcore if you ask me. How pissed off would you be if you couldn't watch Leaf home games on T.V.? There's a difference between not winning and having ownership just not give a snit about the fans. It's not always a good thing to be selling out stadiums when the team isn't good, trust me. We know all about it.

I don't know who Pape Sow or Pinball Clemons are, but whoever they are they don't compare to MJ or Sweetness.

gruven has 666 posts and he's about to post in this thread.

Coincidence? I think not.

I think not..... LOL


Okay, I've listened long enough..... I have had the good fortune to have been in almost every current NHL arena and a lot of the great old ones...

Here's what I think:
Leaf fans: If loyalty means buying underwear with your team's logo on it even though your team lost 65 games that year, then the Leafs have the most loyal fans. As far as fans in the arena go, the Leafs rank way WAYYYYYYYYY down the lists. When 1/4 of your crowd will leave with 5 minutes left in a 3-3 game, you can't call yourself a good crowd. HOWEVER... the Leafs do have one thing they lead in- Leaf fans outnumber every other team in a big way. And it's those legions of fans that DON'T have season tickets and might get into one game a year at best that make up the really good part of the Leaf fan base. The Leaf Nation IS huge, and loyal. And sometimes blindly loyal. If they would stop buying leaf flags, and pillow cases when the team sucked, then management might be encouraged to put a better product on the ice. But, as Ken Dryden explained to me a few years ago, theoretically, winning the Stanley Cup hurts your bottom line in the long run. What is best financially is to make the playoffs, go a couple of rounds, and always keep your fans interested. Sound familiar? Anyway, when you wash away my necessary neutrality, I AM a Leaf fan. But more than that, I'm a fan of good hockey, so I sour on the team from time to time. And, as for bandwagon jumpers, well, there's nothing wrong with that. It means you're team is winning.....

Best crowd: Old Chicago stadium. No question. Don't even bother arguing unless you were there and heard that crowd. And that was WITHOUT a winning team.

Smartest hockey crowd: Debatable, but I would say montreal. When you're team is up two goals, and then turns in a really crappy power play and get booed for the effort, you know the fans understand hockey.

Purest hockey fans: Either Edmonton or New York Rangers. Both have HARD CORE fan bases that know the game, love the hockey, and understand what they're cheering (or booing). They get excited when their team is on a run, but commiserate when they're team is in a funk. As opposed to the peaks and valleys of leaf fans, it's more of a slow uphill and downhill with the Oil and the Rangers...

Best Hockey Country: Canada. With a special visa permit to allow minnesotoans to be honourary canadians.....

PS.
I grew up idolizing Detroit Red Wing players (their farm team played in Hamilton, and once a year the big club would come to the old Hamilton Forum to play an exhibition, and so up close to Howe, Delvecchio, et al). My team was the Leafs. Period. And my favourite players were: Jean Beliveau, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, and Dave Keon. In that order......

I often quote myself in conversation, but not on the boards.

I agree with most of your points..However as you know the TRUE leafs fans are not at the game...as the game is not affordable for the True leafs fan...

I am a huge leafs fan however I only go to maybe 5 games a year , and thats only because my dad knows Tie Domi's brother in law and he gets us tickets....I consider myself middle class and if I cant afford to go to more games how can more people...

And yes my two year old has Leafs pyjamas, sippy cups, socks...

and as much as Nhl people want to argue the point, hockey in most of the United States is NON existent especially on television.

Serge, blind faith doesn't necessarily mean you're a leaf fan. I can be critical of the Leafs, and their management and players at times, but I don't think that means I'm not a true fan. I bet you've never gone as far as I have to see a game:

Couple years ago when Leafs/Philly were in the conference semi-finals, I was tree-planting just north of Temagemi, ON. I wanted to see game 6 really badly, so I walked 2km from our bushcamp out to the main highway, where I hitch-hiked north to a little town called Latchford. Unfortunately, Latchford didn't have a bar (burnt down) or any commercial place with a t.v., so I started wandering around the community looking through front living room windows (from the street) to find someone watching the game. Finally I found a house that had the game on, and I knocked on the door and asked if I could watch the game, explaining I was a leaf fan and tree-planting in the area without access to a television. Sure enough leafs lose in OT, but that's what being a fan of the Leafs is about.

I've been saying this for years.

If you were truly quoting Ken Dryden it would be 17 pages long.

I always hated that man...How can a career HAB be in charge of the Leafs..Good riddance Kenny boy...

Because he grew up in Toronto and has been a life long die hard leaf nation member, serge.... isn't that what's REALLY important????

LOL, Bob, you KNOW I shortened the answer just a tad...... like about 7 minutes worth..

No HABITANT can say he is a Leafs Nation member....

wont happen