This has been a foul season in almost every sense for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The salaries of the Lakers, Cowboys, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Dodgers are as much daily media poison in Canada as they are in the U.S., and just as nutritious. But if anyone involved wanted to change our consumption diet, we would at least have stopped eating that second bowl of ice cream by now.
And say this about the latest edition of Leafs Institutional Misery: It was very busy. Toronto’s season was a cavalcade of hopes that almost turned to waste after Canadian Thanksgiving, and they ended up underperforming in the playoffs for the ninth straight year and being completely eliminated in the worst way imaginable. From January 12th to yesterday, they went 4-12-4 and did not have a single win against Team USA. With 78% of the National Hockey League being American, this presents a truly mathematical challenge to glory. As a result, this Leafs season was halted and the debate about it turned into a debate about how many people should be fired at different levels of the organization, and which specific stars they should be fired with. Their talent levels were ridiculed, their basic team structure undermined and even their molecular GAF was disgraced. Something has to be done to satisfy the red-hot fan base and begin a much-needed rebuild, and most of it has to be done by someone else.
Of course, this didn’t separate the Leafs from any other lone team, and as a result, Thursday night’s game against Anaheim drew minimal attention and had minimal meaning. What didn’t matter was that the Leafs won 6-4, breaking an eight-game losing streak. This in itself is another bad outcome for those who support the idea of a disastrous bottom out for their draft lottery odds and embark on a rebuild going forward. But according to the theory that rain can cause houses to catch fire, this win was much worse than that. That’s because the team’s captain and best player, Auston Matthews, crushed his knee in an open-ice knee-to-knee blow from Anaheim’s notorious troublemaker Radko Gudas. It takes the worst-case scenario and turbocharges it.
The hit itself, with four minutes remaining and a late-game change, was universally condemned as a dirty business perpetrated by someone well-versed in the genre. Gudas is a veteran defender with no regard for the safety of others. He was suspended four times during his career for dangerous plays of various kinds, and the legitimate hit he inflicted on Sidney Crosby at the Olympics remains the main reason the Canadians ultimately lost the gold medal, ranking the knee-to-knee on hockey’s list of major crimes and misdemeanors. The best thing that can be said about Gudas is that his intention was not to hurt Matthews. But even that is debatable among those who don’t find it more intense. In short, Gudas has a MO, and Leafs fans have all sides of the beef here.
In this case, Gudas made a cynical and obviously risky play to disrupt the rush after losing on an advancing play by Matthews that may be remembered as key to the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s gold medal run. Suspension is considered as follows: according to regulations here.
But the beauty of the Leafs, like the Cowboys, Manchester United, Real and WNBA labor negotiations, is that there are layers of complaints. To the new outrage of Leafs fans, none of Matthews’ teammates dropped the gloves and forced immediate borderline justice on Gudas. The same goes for coach Craig Berube, who went from having little job security to “of course he was fired, why should we waste time discussing it?” “We should have gotten four people in there and done something about it,” he said, referring to the lukewarm response from Matthews’ colleagues. And veteran defender Morgan Rielly agreed: “It’s my fault for not responding to Gudas sooner. It’s a pinch hitter. I didn’t understand how bad he was in that moment. But all the blame is on me for not getting in there first or responding sooner.”
To be sure, hockey has its rituals, the futile gesture of retaliation in the moment being the most important of them. It is the only sport in which fighting is not the goal of the game, but is permitted as a tool applied toward that goal. If someone tarnishes you, you risk your reputation and avoid the opportunity to tarnish them. In this case, revenge is a dish served hot, and by the time it reaches room temperature, you’ve waited too long. So in a season full of Leafy’s frustrations, this particular outrage ranks surprisingly high. The Leafs and Ducks had several shield clashes in the third period following the Matthews incident, but none of the True Believers had it happen. The Leafs were found guilty of failing to performatively avenge their captain’s crumpled honor, and it was proof among the fan base that the team didn’t care, if proof was still needed. That’s one level lower than just not caring. That’s bad.
And since the Leafs have made the biggest impact on Canadian sports culture, this has become a new way for those who love them most to hate them even more. Steve Glynn (stage name Steve Dangle), who long ago established himself as a fan voice on the Internet with his podcast and postgame reaction videos known as Leafs Fan Reaction, put together a solid and convincingly drug-free fake screed minutes after the game ended. The main theme here was “no puck” when the Leafs and Ducks play again in Anaheim on March 30th. In other words, the game should not be a game, but rather a series of line brawls that are coming back into vogue in these culturally and politically dangerous times. If nothing else, Dangle speaks to the mindset of a very disgruntled audience, given that the playoffs are no longer a consideration and the depth and purpose of degradation is the only point of discussion. Leafs fans want their disgraced hero to leave at least a fist-sized mark on this long-abandoned season.
And I think it’s a good thing to have an outlet like this. We can all agree that any regular season is too long, but that theory means replacing the regular season with an off-season that is too long, and every good idea is subject to a 13% excise tax. The Leafs and their fan base have 16 games left to decide how they will relate to each other in what has been a cold and mostly crappy offseason. Especially in the case of Auston Matthews.
