48-and-Oh

That’s one in the books for the mighty Leafs. The mighty, unbeaten Toronto Maple Leafs.

I know it’s just one game, but it’s mid-January and Toronto is in first place, and when was the last time you could say that?

Probably 1993, in the Dougie Gilmour days. And that’s exactly 20 years ago.

Right. One game.

Truth be told, it was a sloppy game for both teams, though I’m mostly basing that opinion on the highlights and what I read, as my son and I went to see the Oshawa Generals and we only caught the last 10 minutes or so of the Leafs game.

(Props to the Gens, by the way, who laid a 6-1 beat down on the Kingston Frontenacs Saturday night. The Fronts are coached by ex-Leaf Todd Gill, who was hired by the aforementioned Doug Gilmour. Thankfully the Leaf mojo stayed in the GTA that night.)

That neither the Leafs nor the Habs played like a well-oiled machine shouldn’t come as a surprise. A single week of training camp will do that. But a win is a win, even a 2-1 win.

There were a couple things I noticed in the lead up to the game, and in the follow up the next day.

Firstly, the buzz is back. I was pretty sure it would be, but there was a little itch on the back of my head because of the bitterness stemming from the 133-day lockout. There was a ton of anger aimed at the fat cats on both sides of the dispute and I heard or read enough sworn vows to “never watch the NHL again” that there had to be at least some tiny doubts.

Would the love still be there?

That turned out to be a real no-doubter. The talk in the days between the settlement and opening night was all hockey, with very little resentment. At least, that’s the way it was in my circles.

The other thing I noticed was the reaction by fans (and the media as well) after the victory. Happiness, for sure, but the only hyperbole (besides the first two paragraphs in this blog) about the Leafs going 48-0 was followed by a LOL, or even a LMFAO.

In a shortened season anything could happen, but I think Leafs Nation understands that a lot of things will have to go right for this club to make the playoffs. Which sounds very realistic, and that seems unlike the usual early season flights of fancy of Leaf fans.

Huh. Maybe the lockout had an effect after all.