20 Years ago today was the last Leafs game played at Maple Leaf Gardens

[the squared circle]

That smell as soon as you walked in the doors. Heavenly.

 

[lottster14]

Wow i never knew the garden stood that long. Was 1 year and 1 month old at the time, i'm sure my dad had it on

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Still remember my first game. I was born in 1986 so I would have been 6 or so at the time and was a huge Potvin fan. My mom got me tickets right behind the net. That barn had such an awesome feeling to it as long as you didnt get those awkward seats on that weird wall that was angled.

 

[BigBlu]

My memory will be hard to top (at least for me, compared to any hockey memory):



Jan. 16th, 1982. I was sitting with my father two rows behind Walter and Keith Gretzky, just a few rows up from the Edmonton bench. Leafs somehow blew the heavily favoured Oilers out 7-1, but the entire game was all about #99.

To say the Garden was buzzing would be a gross understatement. It was literally like a Stanley Cup final game as the entire city was talking about "the great one" coming to town. As a kid, it was surreal. Never took my eyes off him even though it was far from his best game.

Marc Crawford must have seen that footage....

 

[93LEAFS]

Terrible building. Corridors are too small and the place has no character.
I was in Columbus at Christmas, that is a great building.

I don't think the average lower bowl client, and the fact there are so many suits there on weekdays who don't want to look unprofessional incase they run into a senior colleague at one of the 5 huge banks right down the street or associate lawyers running into a managing partner of one of the 7 sister banks.

 

[saffronleaf]

I became a Leafs fan at the beginning of the 1998-99 season. I remember the last game at MLG.

 

[pulfordfan]

Had season tickets 84 to 85. Leafs finished last in 84, got Wendel in 85, team was not much better, but man it was fun to watch Clark punch out some of the toughest guys in the league. If memory serves me correct, seats were first row greens center ice. Great for watching a game. Took my youngest son to see his first game there. He was about 9 years old. He had to use the toilet between periods. Should have seen his face when he seen the trough to use. Looked at me and I said this is how men take a piss.

 

[LeafSteel]

20 years?

Damn. I just felt a grey hair come out in my beard, and a brown one fall off my head.....

 

[horner]

I can not believe that today marks 20 years since the Leafs played their last game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Loved the Gardens

 

[BodaciousBeefBazooka]

20 years? Fack me. I was 8 years old I remember me and my dad recording it on VHS the the final game. We still have it in collecting dust on a shelf somewhere. Time flys man

 

[ACC1224]

I don't think the average lower bowl client, and the fact there are so many suits there on weekdays who don't want to look unprofessional incase they run into a senior colleague at one of the 5 huge banks right down the street or associate lawyers running into a managing partner of one of the 7 sister banks.

Wasn't referring to the crowd but the building itself.

 

[hfman]

Closed a year before I was born, but my dad had this game taped. I remember as a kid watching this game a few times, getting caught up in the history of that building, and wishing I had been alive to see a Leafs game in it. Home of the Leafs during their brightest and darkest days. Maybe I'll watch that tape again.

their darkest days came in the A.C.C., not MLG

 

[hoglund]

Nah. Many years ago troughs were pretty normal, especially for large venues.

That is true, Ivor Wynn stadium in Hamilton, the stadium where the Bills play are just a couple I remember.

 

[Notsince67]

My grandfather used to have season tickets, front row greens. I have seen concerts, wrestling there, I played against the Marlies there, visitor dressing rooms were tiny

One of the green seats is located in the Aurora Community Center Arena today. I doubt most people know what kind of history they are sitting on.

 

[67Leafs67]

their darkest days came in the A.C.C., not MLG

No way man, the 80s were way worse than the Burke era by all accounts. That is second darkest though

 

[Gabriel426]

Actually I still have not been to the ACC for a Hockey game. All the games I been to are at the Garden. Still remembered my first game there, think it was also Mike Gartner first game as a Leafs at the garden and he was amazing. In my memory, he literally played like McDavid now.

 

[hfman]

No way man, the 80s were way worse than the Burke era by all accounts. That is second darkest though

this sorry debate will go on forever.

at least in the 80s they made the playoffs quite a few times. there was hope. they had some name-brand players like Vaive, Sittler, Clark, Palmateer, just to name a few.

The mid-2000s on the other hand were possibly darker. No playoffs in a decade? After Sundin left, who were our guys? Antropov? Ponikarovsky or whatever the f his name was? Who were our goalies? Trevor Kidd, Toskala, Raycroft, Telqvist.. I mean, come on

The 80s were bad with all the Ballard antics, but as I said it was a 21-team league and they at least qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs several times.

The mid-2000s were a lot more empty and hopeless in my honest opinion. There were no antics, no playoffs, no name-brand players for a long, long time, and no hope in sight.

 

[67Leafs67]

this sorry debate will go on forever.

at least in the 80s they made the playoffs quite a few times. there was hope. they had some name-brand players like Vaive, Sittler, Clark, Palmateer, just to name a few.

The mid-2000s on the other hand were possibly darker. No playoffs in a decade? After Sundin left, who were our guys? Antropov? Ponikarovsky or whatever the f his name was? Who were our goalies? Trevor Kidd, Toskala, Raycroft, Telqvist.. I mean, come on

The 80s were bad with all the Ballard antics, but as I said it was a 21-team league and they at least qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs several times.

The mid-2000s were a lot more empty and hopeless in my honest opinion. There were no antics, no playoffs, no name-brand players for a long, long time, and no hope in sight.

Between 80/81 and 90/91, Leafs were 21st out of 21 teams in terms of points. Most losses. At least between 05/06 and 14/15 the Leafs were ahead of Edmonton, Florida, the Isles, and Columbus. Only reason they made the playoffs six times in the first period is because they were in the worst division in hockey where all they had to do was be better than the Dead Wings to slot into the playoffs. Only won two playoff rounds that entire time. Never once had more wins than losses in a season. Only won 32.8% of their games. Had a league worst -714 goal differential. The post-lockout Leafs at least had six seasons with more wins than losses, won 44.1% of their games total. Only had a -279 goal differential, 3rd worst in the league. Less playoff appearances, but what were the playoffs in the 80s other than getting beat up by the Blues & Hawks 3 or 4 more times?

You cite Sittler & Palmateer as '80's players'. Sittler played a season and a half into the 1980s before Ballard dumped him off to Philly, a seven week trade process that ended off with Sittler mentally depressed. Overall, really messy situation. Palmateer played two crappy years in the 80s with Toronto after he had already left for Washington and messed up his knees. He was bad, borderline like when CuJo returned in 08/09. No way you can cite those names as 80s stars. Those were holdovers from the moderately decent 70s era. One could much just as easily justify citing Sundin, McCabe, Tucker, and Belfour as part of the post-lockout era of darkness, and those are just as much "name-brand" players as the likes of Mike Palmateer.

As far as actual 80s stars go...Leafs had Vaive, Leeman, old Salming, Damphousse, Derlago, Anderson, Fergus, Frycer, Ihnacak, and Olcyzk as their top ten scorers. Couple other 'famous' names like Clark, Iafrate, Courtnall, Paiement, Thomas had small impacts in the 1980s. Hardly a more talented group than the likes of Kessel, Kaberle, Sundin, Phaneuf, van Riemsdyk, McCabe, Lupul, Blake, Bozak, Grabovski, Kadri, Steen, etc. I don't really consider the 1980s to be better for 'name-brand' players, or overall talent in general. Obviously names like Vaive or Leeman are well known for their 50 goal seasons that the inflated scoring totals of the 1980s allowed them to hit, but they weren't better players than the likes of Kessel or Lupul. Guys like Clark, Damphousse have name recognition because of what they did later in their careers, mostly in the 1990s, and in the case of Damphousse, not even on the Maple Leafs.

The way that Ballard ran the franchise into the ground, and tainted relations with starts such as Keon, McDonald, and Sittler was far darker on and off-ice than the Burke era. Yes, the Leafs post-lockout were incompetent, one of the worst teams, but at least there was no petty owner, starting from the top, corrupting the entire team. In the cap era, with the draft, there was always at least hope of a turn around.