Gordie you have to realize their are thousands of hockey fans in Canada that hate the Leafs. I tun into lots of Bruin fans. I would rather listen to a Boston telecast any day.
I use to wear a pair of Boston Bruin socks to the Kitchener Ranger games just to bug a Leaf fan that had seats across from us. His wife complains about how many cases of beer he has had to buy betting on Leaf games.
I get it. A lot of Canadian fans can't abide TO (or MTL, or VAN, or...).
Toronto Maple Leafs fans and their hideous media remind of nothing so much as pre-2004 Red Sox fans and media.
The analogy is perfect, if I say so myself.
PS As you are doubtless aware, the Krauts grew up together in Kitchener.
More Than You Wanted to Know Dept.:
And I was born in Detroit, raised five minutes away from the East side (Sorry, Journey fans, there is no such thing as "South Detroit"), and grew up at the old Olympia. My attorney father represented Alex DelVecchio and the unpleasant Reggie Fleming. I met Gordie a few times and ran into Ted Lindsay -- literally -- running around the concourse back in the late '70s. Watched the Laffs on Hockey Night in Canada, tuned in to Windsor's Ch. 9.
Canadian roots on my mother's side (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan). Last visit to TO: 1976, HHOF. Last visit to Windsor: 1982. We drank a lot of Brador and lived to tell about it.
Edit: I just got off the phone with my eldest sister, Mary Kay, the keeper of family lore.
She confirms that my maternal great grandmother emigrated not to Prince Albert, but rather, Saskatoon. That, as I'm sure you also know, is where Gordie grew up.
I always thought this was the case, but my brother Michael confused Prince Albert with Prince Edward Island, apparently her first stop in Canada.
Back to your regularly scheduled programing...