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I can can I?..... okee dokee, you asked for it, get comfortable, long read if you care.... and ya, your observations & assessments absolutely correct. The rivalry between Boston & Toronto while pretty much dormant through the 80's, 90's, 00's through to today as well, Toronto pretty pathetic... wheels fell off the franchise about 2 minutes after they last won the Cup in May of 1967... but yes, a great rivalry through the 1930's & 40's, into the 50's. Its genesis beginning with the enmities, sheer contempt for each other between the brilliant Art Ross of Boston & Conn Smythe of Toronto. Many beyond amusing, hysterical encounters between those two at various games, off the ice at NHL BOG Meetings & so on. I honestly dont know what started it or why, Art Ross an absolute genius, inventor (Art Ross Net etc), great GM & Coach, and maybe thats what pissed off Smythe so much. Wasnt the smartest man in the room, ego couldnt handle it.
Then there was the Ace Bailey incident in 1933 when after being decked by Toronto tough guy & Team Captain Red Horner Eddie Shore, probably concussed & not seeing straight picked himself up off the ice & seeking revenge, thinking he was hitting Horner actually hit Bailey & unaware... sending him ass over tea kettle, landing on his head, fracturing his skull.... and of course all Hell broke loose. That event polarizing, exacerbating further the dislike that Toronto fans had for the Btuins, amp'd up considerably as Bailey a fan favorite, that hit by Shore career ending. A Benefit Game was played a couple of months later, the 2 men shaking hands, Shore himself donning a helmet that he wore for the rest of his career, Baileys #6 retired by the Leafs (the only # theyve ever retired), Bailey going on to having a lengthy off-ice career with Toronto and... impressed with Ron Ellis in the 60's, insisted his #6 be taken out of mothballs at least temporarily & worn by Ellis....
Next up was the Bobby Orr affair.... Toronto as most are aware pretty much had carte blanche in procuring the cream of the crops in english Canada, Maritime region, Ontario & northeastern Quebec, reaching into Manitoba & Western Canada. Thanks to Foster Hewitt's Hockey Broadcasts on radio followed by HNIC on television, until the mid 60's a vast majority of players growing up becoming fans of the Leafs, they were winning, respectable back then, depth at the elite amateur & Junior levels, a feeder system that for many eventual Leafs began at like Atom or Pee Wee playing for the Toronto Marlboros' in the Toronto Hockey League (which then became the Metro Toronto Hockey League in the late 60's, now called the Greater Toronto Hockey League & the worlds largest, has been for decades). The Leafs (and Habs) Scouting & Sponsorships second to none leaving Boston, NY, Detroit & Chicago in the dust however all 4 US based teams did well enough... Gordie Howe, Sawchuk etc in Detroit, Bobby Hull, Mikita et al in Chicago, Boston with Brimsek, the Kraut Line & so on...
Bobby Orr grew up in Parry Sound, literally Toronto's backyard, Muskoka, cottage country on the shores of Georgian Bay, a 2.5 hour drive from Toronto, and yet they somehow "over-looked" what was to become the Greatest Player All Time? Excuse me? And it wasnt like Orr wasnt on their radar. One of his Coaches a former Leaf who actually converted a young Orr from Forward to Defence & who in realizing he had a prodigy, once in a 100 year player phenom on his hands dutifully wrote to the Head Scout of the Leafs that "hey, you best be checkin this kid out, tearing up the League, absolutely incredible". Orr on the Leafs radar before Boston, everyone else. And what does this Brainiac at Maple Leaf Gardens do after watching Orr take apart & dominate older players, never mind kids his own age? Writes back to Orr's Coach telling him "its too early to tell, concerned about his height, weight, keep in touch though, maybe by Midget" & so on. Leafs were Orr's favorite team growing up. Toronto could have easily signed him, found him a place on the Marlboro's roster at the THL level or given him a scholarship to St. Mikes / Neil McNeil which were/are Catholic Schools with back then Jr. B & A as well as elite THL teams at all age levels... and we know that didnt happen.
They arrogantly dismissed Orr. Boston on the other hand... Damn straight. New siding for the Orr house in Parry Sound. Whatever you want kid. Orr then going on to play for the Oshawa Generals & tearing up the OHA. Leafs meanwhile selling off the farm clubs during the 60's precipitating a meltdown, crisis of talent, astute management, beyond pathetic ownership that Frankly continues to this day unabated. Orr not only changing the game, but so too leading Bruins from the wilderness, back to respectability, winning Cups, a culture that remains to this day say what you will about Jacobs. Boston always respectable, competitive. Toronto? No, not so much. As in NOT AT ALL. Some freak shows, events, one in particular involving Boston; the night of infamy when Sittler lit up poor Dave Reece of the Bruins, and ya, had to happen against Boston huh? Old nemesis. There were all kinds of other issues of course. Boston hammering Toronto with like basketball scores beginning in the early 60's when the Bruins were supposedly doormats, useless.... Playoff Sweeps by the Broons.... that guys like not only Orr who coulda been but that guys like Cheevers who actually was Leaf property at one time lost for nothing or next to it.... even Mike Walton. Guy had Superstar written all over him but Imlach beat the Hell out of him & he never became the player he couldve but fortunately still very useful as a Bruin, got out of the Madhouse that was & is Leafville.
Honestly, I dont know how much if anything the younger generations know or even care about all of this history between the two clubs but yes, its a long simmering rivalry. Dormant obviously but it does heat up from time-time. I grew up in Toronto late 50's & 60's, into the early 70's. Was a "fan of the game", all the teams & players, more interested in playing it than watching it. Wasnt "tribal" in any way, the way things have become. Toronto changed so much since my days living there. I didnt play for the Marlboro organization, played against them & from Atom on up they were always the Powerhouses at every level. Feeders to their Jr.B & A clubs. Solid organization back then at the amateur & Junior levels who in playing against them (I was a Goalie) loved to beat as they had the pick of the best players at every age level. When I did finally sign with them at the Junior level, nightmare. The politics, idiocy, demands, hard core approach to the game, that you were just a piece of meat not something I was prepared to accept much less deal with. Wasnt worth it. But once signed they werent about to give anyone a release and you did what you were told, played where they wanted you to play & that was that.... and from there I got the Sam Hell out of Toronto just as fast as I could.
So.... "Center of the Hockey Universe"? At the amateur & Junior levels I would say so. At the NHL level not so much as theyve essentially had an AHL level NHL franchise since 1967/68 but for 3 brief blips in time over the past 50 years. Beyond dysfunctional. A kind of sickness that permeates the entire organization. Losers. Really took hold during the Sittler- McDonald - Imlach fiasco of 79/80. Ballard spending his near on 30yrs of ownership destroying every last remnant of the Smythe era, pissing on the colors, no one player or Coach was ever going to be a bigger star than Harold, steal the limelight. Whats followed with ownership where really it all stems following his death equally appalling. Sycophantic media every fall claiming this is the year. Leaf just signed or Drafted, traded for Jesus Christ, Moses & Mohammed. On & on & on & on. The pretensions, the over-reach, the bald faced arrogance without substance mouthed by vacuous, empty headed sports talk radio & TV hosts, by blogsters & others beyond delusion. And everyone everywhere else knows it making that city, that team & its players Public Enemy #1.
As for the rest of your observations, ya, that is not the city I grew up in. The chest thumping, the flag waving, anathema to my generation, those who came before, a few after. I'll always love Toronto as thats where I grew up but it in no way today represents the city that it once was. Bang on with your Chicago-NY comparison. Toronto over-reaching beginning in the 70's with its pretension to being "World Class" without understanding you need substance, history to take your place amongst the Worlds greatest cities like New York, London & Paris. A Hell of a lot of Dilettante's living in that city, McMansions replacing the post WW1 & 2 houses, wall-wall condo's... the empty, plastic & hollow, very much corporate ACC & so on. Sad really. I barely recognize the place anymore....
