Game 7 FTB: Why everyone should cheer for the Maple Leafs tonight

I know you don’t want to do it, but you should.

Tonight the Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Boston Bruins in game seven of a first round playoff series for the third time in the past seven seasons. I’m here to let you, the person who is neither a fan of the Leafs or Bruins, know why you should cheer for the Maple Leafs to win tonight, and the series, against the Bruins.

As we all know, the Maple Leafs are not well liked outside of their own fan base. The team “gets too much coverage” and “the fans are the worst”, which , fair. The Leafs play in the largest media market in Canada and have the largest English press corps in all of hockey, and have the most fans, so the flaws that all fan bases have are magnified.

All fine reasons to not want to the Maple Leafs to succeed, but let me ask you this question: Why should the Boston Bruins?

This brings me to my first reason you should cheer for the Maple Leafs:

Boston has won enough sports for a lifetime

The New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, and Boston Bruins have all won at least one championship this past generation. Kids in Boston know nothing but trophies and parades, they don’t know how to take a loss. Losing to the Maple Leafs would give them a good and much needed life lesson. Toronto, meanwhile, hasn’t won a championship in any of the four major sports leagues since 1993 - someone born the day the Blue Jays won their last world series is now grown and having kids of their own - or at least throwing their dog a birthday party.

Do you like good hockey or old and slow hockey?

The Maple Leafs are chock full of future superstars that the NHL will surely do nothing with in a refusal to market themselves properly.

Mitchell Marner, William Nylander, and Auston Matthews are still years away from the prime of their careers but are some of the most electrifying names in the league and they all play on the same team together.

Every post-season, people malign the fact that we’re being denied Connor McDavid in the playoffs. We need the top young players in the league to succeed so that they can become the face of hockey in North America, rather than a bunch of old, tired, has-beens like the Bruins. Patrice Bergeron? Zdeno Chara? Brad Marchand? All past their best buy dates and well past their “face of the league” dates.

Sure the Bruins have some young hot players themselves, but they’re just the store brand versions of the Leafs young guns.

The deeper into the playoffs the Leafs go, the more Leafs fans suffer.

Do you think that we, as Leafs fans, will enjoy round two?

This is just not true. Our infighting over special teams and time on ice and veteran usage will only intensify as the playoffs go on. Our deep-seated refusal to believe anything actually good is happening to us will eat us from the inside out until - by some miracle - the Leafs are in the Stanley Cup Finals and we become shadows of our former selves. First round exits are old hat to us by now - imagine how much we’ll suffer with a game seven loss in the final to Vegas.

When Frederik Gauthier accidentally tips the puck to Mark Stone and he goes on a break away in overtime and scores cleanly glove high on Garrett Sparks* the centre of the hockey universe will collapse into itself like a dying star.

If you want to see us suffer, you want the Leafs to go deep into the playoffs.

*Andersen was injured in the conference final when Nylander was shoved into him by Justin Williams - of course Nylander is completely blamed for the injury.

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Thank you for reading, and taking into consideration the Toronto Maple Leafs for your hockey cheering selection tonight.

Remember: Our pain, is your pleasure.

Now, the news.

In the playoffs last night the Carolina Hurricanes tied their series with the Washington Capitals with a convincing 5-2 victory:

The Dallas Stars eliminated the Nashville Predators and will face the St. Louis Blues in round two:

The Jets* season ended, and with it our hearts rose.

I know one coach who should be available soon. He won a Memorial Cup with the Oshawa Generals, so you know he’s....a guy who exists.

Wait...why is the Vegas site writing about the Seattle team?

Hey! A thing about the Leafs!

Close, I hope.

Someone should take things down from the inside - just like Eugene!

It’s because he’s a Bruin and is bad.

This is great. The Vegas Golden Knights were excellent at building a connecting with their fans by having lots of open practices. With the Blue Jackets winning their first playoff round in a sweep, they need to keep that buzz going and this will help it for sure. Every team needs to find ways to connect with their fans and stay in mind between series.

Alright, we’re half a day away from puck drop. Let’s do this.

Buds all day.

Go Leafs Go!