News Article: Toronto Star: "The Leafs vs. Habs rivalry is over — and Montreal has won"

[Jackson14]

To be fair, the Raptors weren't suppose to do well. The Blue Jays suck now and will suck for a while. I don't even care about Basketball, but I bet the Raptors will go back to sucking next year.

To try and switch the focus because Toronto has "other options" is ********. They (Blue Jays and Raptors) have sucked for a while, too.

When you go from one ****** team to another to another it's hard to fully get behind any sports team when you're so use to failure.

I heard Toronto's MLS team is better than Montreal's, though.

What has Montreal done recently? Both cities won their last championship in 93 and have been average since. Most people on this forum probably don't even remember that. Both cities have a team in the playoffs right now but do you really think either is going to actually win anything other than round or 2 at best.

 

[Jackson14]

The only reason you have other sports teams is because the Leafs can't win. Toronto fans just want to win and I don't think they care too much who wins. Like Montreal, when we have a chance for a Grey Cup we go nuts. Last year the Impact had my total attention with the team they had.

In the end, hockey is really the only sport that matters between Montreal and Toronto and that rivalry has dated back so many years, that a lot of us have no idea what it was really like. Now the rivalry is a traditions, but **** tradition.

Are you really comparing the Alouettes and Impact to NBA and MLB franchises? It's not the same thing.

Obviously this is a tough sell on a hockey forum but basketball is huge in Toronto. There is a major playoff buzz in Toronto like it or not.

 

[MDN]

Article is spot on.

While the Leafs think they're our biggest rivals, any Habs fan will say it's the Bruins.

Montreal has always been ahead of Toronto for decades. Nothing new.

 

[AH]

What has Montreal done recently? Both cities won their last championship in 93 and have been average since. Most people on this forum probably don't even remember that. Both cities have a team in the playoffs right now but do you really think either is going to actually win anything other than round or 2 at best.

Of course Toronto is a good sports town with more teams. But that wasnt the point of the article...

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Go Habs.
Finish off Stamkos !

Congrats on beating my Leafs again this year.
As most other years.

47 years and still waiting.

Smart move getting rid of Marois !

La Belle Provence looks better and better

 

[HamiltonNHL]

FWIW, the Rivalry is NOT over.
It just looks one sided.

 

[Bob b smith]

Go Habs.
Finish off Stamkos !

Congrats on beating my Leafs again this year.
As most other years.

47 years and still waiting.

Smart move getting rid of Marois !

La Belle Provence looks better and better

Thanks. I hope Leaf ownership gets a clue so we can have a real playoffs rivalry again one day.

 

[Phil Parent]

Go Habs.
Finish off Stamkos !

Congrats on beating my Leafs again this year.
As most other years.

47 years and still waiting.

Smart move getting rid of Marois !

La Belle Provence looks better and better

Courageous guy, Leaf fan supporting the Habs... I like that.

Thanks!

 

[HabstuckinTO]

Every time I catch a Leaf game I see at least a dozen white haired jet-set greaseballs with open collars unbuttoned to expose their liver spotted leathery chest and fresh Florida bronze tans, chatting away behind the bench about their latest merger with absolutely zero regard for anything going on the ice in front of them. These could be another set of boobs if tickets were reasonable.

Ha - that's so true! Same guys all the time.

 

[Analyzer*]

What has Montreal done recently? Both cities won their last championship in 93 and have been average since. Most people on this forum probably don't even remember that. Both cities have a team in the playoffs right now but do you really think either is going to actually win anything other than round or 2 at best.

Montreal will at least get to the 2nd round. The Raptors won't.

Habs fans in Quebec are passionate about the habs. When they suck, they don't blow it off and say "Oh, we're not passionate about the habs because we have other sports teams to care about"

That's a lame ass excuse to pass off the lack of passion. However, to be fair, the Air Canada centre isn't as loud as it could be because of corporations owning pretty much all the lower bowl and never going there.

 

[yoyo999]

Obviously this is a tough sell on a hockey forum but basketball is huge in Toronto. There is a major playoff buzz in Toronto like it or not.

You're joking right?

It has it's fanbase but it is hardly 'Huge'. Outside of the GTA, the Raptors are absolutely irrelevant. TV ratings prove this.

Even with the leafs out, there is more of a hockey buzz than raptors. Driving around I see more Habs flags on cars, not a single Raptors flag. I have mine up and I get honks and chants and people yell at me from the sidewalk.

That maple leafs square moment had everything going for it. In the middle of the afternoon, beautiful day, no playoffs for 4 years....

I'm sure if you work at King and Bay, 5 minutes form the ACC you'll see and hear more exposure to the Raptors, but huge playoff buzz? I completely disagree.

 

[Jackson14]

You're joking right?

It has it's fanbase but it is hardly 'Huge'. Outside of the GTA, the Raptors are absolutely irrelevant. TV ratings prove this.

Even with the leafs out, there is more of a hockey buzz than raptors. Driving around I see more Habs flags on cars, not a single Raptors flag. I have mine up and I get honks and chants and people yell at me from the sidewalk.

That maple leafs square moment had everything going for it. In the middle of the afternoon, beautiful day, no playoffs for 4 years....

I'm sure if you work at King and Bay, 5 minutes form the ACC you'll see and hear more exposure to the Raptors, but huge playoff buzz? I completely disagree.

You're driving around Toronto with a Montreal Canadiens flag on your car and are a fan of the team. Obviously youre going to get a response and feel more of a buzz. To say NHL playoffs are getting more of a response in Toronto than the NBA is ridiculous. Also demographically Raptors fans are younger and more urban. Not the type of people who are driving around with flags on their car.

 

[Maffew]

Because the CBC had Kadri on hockey night in canada for some bizarre reason?

No surprise there. You can only bring on players as guest broadcasters when they're not actually playing anymore.

 

[Kriss E]

As much as rivalry games are fun, watching your enemies burn and suck every year is just as fun.

 

[Et le But]

"There is no Leafs-Canadiens rivalry. It’s dead: the Leafs killed it." - Ken Dryden, 1983.

 

[dreamingofdrouin*]

Article is spot on.

While the Leafs think they're our biggest rivals, any Habs fan will say it's the Bruins.

Montreal has always been ahead of Toronto for decades. Nothing new.

i tell bruins fans its the leafs and leafs fans its the bruins.....dissapointed faces everytime

 

[Stoneburg]

A Toronto newspaper being negative about a loosing team? How original! I remember reading an article about the Leafs after they won three in a row that said that "giddiness sets in". After three wins in a row. Journalists, in Toronto, or Montreal, are fair weather friends. The team wins and they can do wrong, they loose, and they are idiots. Like hfboards. The Canadiens are a convenient counterpoint because we are in playoffs and winning. Nothing new here.

 

[Teufelsdreck]

Among the many problems the Leafs have is a lack of identity. It's clear the Habs have one and for that matter so do Boston and Detroit. In the NFL I think of the bears, in baseball you have the Yanks. That makes these franchises more interesting by nature because despite changing rosters the identity persists, which is something very difficult to achieve. When a new player joins the franchise, they know they're joining a family.

The Leafs haven't allowed that identity to come through. To me, the players that most embodied the Leafs in the last twenty or so years were Wendel Clark and Doug Gilmour. They were tough, played hard, but were fair and clean. I didn't mind cheering for the Leafs during that era (keeping in mind that they were in a completely different conference at the time). Today's Leafs are easy to root against.

I don't know. They used to say of Clark that he was 'Wendel' at home and 'Wendy' on the road. There were no such intimations about Gilmour.

 

[CanadiensforLife]

The article completely ignores the elephant in the room. The Leafs aren't in the playoffs but the city is buzzing because of the Raptors. Toronto isn't a one trick pony like Montreal. The scene outside the ACC Saturday was just as crazy as it was for the Leafs....

Who says were a 1 trick pony? When we don't follow the Habs, we follow the Alouettes and the Impact. When the Expos were there, we were passionate about them too. Montrealers are passionate about ALL their sports teams, but being Canadian, we follow hockey mainly.

 

[Doc McKenna]

LOL at toronto fans using basketball to rationalize the fact that habs don't have a rivalry with the leafs. Most other teams(you know ones that make the playoffs and don't choke) have more of a rivalry with us. I fail to see what the jays or raptors have to do at ALL with you guys thinking we are your main rival(we aren't buffalo and ottawa would be though) But this does illustrate how we dislike Leaf fans and media waaay more than the team. If you can't be honest that there is very little real rivalry and have to resort to some circular loopdy loop argument about other sport, it shows how you guys have an inferiority complex about the habs. Same one we have about watching the bruins boards.

I freely admit to enjoying seeing the bruins burn maybe more than the habs winning. I truly hate that organization. The ONLY fans I think that are worse is the flyers. So you have to get us to hate your team and not think they are irrelevant to us (for the most part) and then be as annoying as bruin or flyer or even ranger fans. I am sure after one playoffs, esp one that you guys won, it would be easy. But we haven't had a meaningful game or been competitive at the same time longer than I have been around, and thats almost 4 decades.

 

[Monctonscout]

I'm sure TML fans will be right back on the bandwagon in October when they go 9-2-1 and hailing Shanahan as a saviour when Clarkson scores a couple lucky ones and new coach as a savious when his Corsi is actually over 50%.

 

[MasterDecoy]

all montreal has is the habs.. no wonder they're so hockey crazy. there's no other teams there




toronto flips between the leafs.. the jays.. the raptors... fans are spread out between a selection of the other professional league sports. lots more to do in terms of toronto sporting events, its a bigger city with a bigger selection of major north american sports franchises

fans move on to to other sports in toronto in the spring, but all montreallers can do when they get eliminated from the playoffs is dwell until next october, why else do you think they're so hell bent on focusing on how much the leafs suck lol, there's nothing else to focus on until the fall.. unless they have a professional pool or darts team or something

Hell bent in focusing on how much the leafs sucks? In the words of the late great ODB: ***** please...

This is what most leafs fans get wrong: we don't give a **** about the leafs. You think we do, and that says more about leafs fans than It does us. If we ever focus of the leafs, it's to enjoy the hilarity that is the leafs yearly blowout

So you have lots of pro franchises? Good for you. It's gives you a bandwagon to hop on every spring. Go with the wind...

 

[MDN]

.
This is what most leafs fans get wrong: we don't give a **** about the leafs.

This pretty much sums it all up. Couldn't care less about the leafs, they offer good comedic relief, that's all. The Bruins on the other hand...

 

[FF de Mars]

What has Montreal done recently? Both cities won their last championship in 93 and have been average since. Most people on this forum probably don't even remember that. Both cities have a team in the playoffs right now but do you really think either is going to actually win anything other than round or 2 at best.

Montréal is hockey crazy. Isn't Canada the same ? Other championships don't count ! Hockey is our religion.

 

[Davebo*]

The article completely ignores the elephant in the room. The Leafs aren't in the playoffs but the city is buzzing because of the Raptors. Toronto isn't a one trick pony like Montreal. The scene outside the ACC Saturday was just as crazy as it was for the Leafs....

No one cares about toronto's 'buzz'. This is a hockey forum, and the topic at hand is hockey. Screw the raptors, and ***** your holier than thou attitude.

Maybe that's toronto's problem - dilution. Maybe folks in toronto just don't give a crap about the laffs anymore. Seriously - who gives two craps about baseball or basketball - WE'RE a hockey nation. And you people wonder why the leafs are so bad - no one cares about them any more!