Turning Over a New Leaf -- Toronto Maple Leafs EHM 07
Rosters used: Lidasv1.3 (2008-09 Trade Deadline, I think...)
The year was 1917. Another argument had broken out between the various owners of teams in the NHA (the National Hockey Association). The owners of four clubs -- the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, the Quebec Bulldogs, and the Ottawa Senators -- had enough votes amongst themselves to expel their argument's opponent -- Eddie Livingstone, owner of the NHA's Toronto Blueshirts. Instead, the four teams decided to organize a new league for themselves, all but abandoning Livingstone's Blueshirts in the NHA all by themselves.
However, the four clubs were wise and thoughtful, and decided it would be unjust not to have a team hail from Toronto, which was Canada's second largest city at the time. They also needed a new team to balance the new leagues' schedule, since the Quebec Bulldogs had decided to suspend operations for another three years. The new league -- now titled the "NHL" -- granted a "temporary" Toronto franchise to the Arena Company, owners of the Arena Gardens. The Arena Company decided to lease the Blueshirts' players until the issues had been resolved, and the untitled franchise lovingly referred to as "The Toronto's" by fans took home the NHL's first ever Stanley Cup championship.
For the following season, the Arena Company decided to create their own team, instead of leasing players from Livingstone's ex-Toronto franchise. It was titled, "The Toronto Arena Hockey Club", and soon enough, Livingstone decided to sue the Arena Company for all of his players back. With mounting legal bills, and a steady downfall of available funds, the Toronto Arena Hockey Club was forced to trade away the majority of their top-notch, more expensive players, which resulted in a horrendous 5-win season in 1918-19. Once it became obvious the TAHC would not be able to finish an entire season, the NHL decided to fast forward directly to the playoffs.
The legal dispute with Livingstone nearly ruined the Arena Company, and the hockey club was forced to be put up for sale. General Manager Charlie Querrie put together a party that mostly comprised of people who had run the senior amateur St. Patricks team in the Ontario Hockey Association. The new owners decided to rename their new NHL squad the "Toronto St. Patricks" (or St. Pats, for short) and would remain in control of the organization until 1927, giving the new franchise one Stanley Cup championship in 1922.
Querrie would eventually lose a lawsuit to Livingstone and put the St. Pats up for sale, and sold the team to Conn Smythe, who took control of the team on Valentine's Day of 1927. Smythe decided to rename the team to the "Toronto Maple Leafs". And a legend was almost immediately born.
In the 1928-29 season, the "Maple Leafs" appeared in Blue and White jerseys, and have worn those timeless classics ever since.
After many awful seasons, Smythe and the Maple Leafs debuted in their newest arena, the "Maple Leaf Gardens" on November 21, 1931.
With their cup victory in 1948, the Toronto Maple Leafs finally moved past their vicious rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, for most Stanley Cups in league history. It would take the Habs 10 years to reclaim their title.
In the 1960's, Mr. Conn Smythe sold nearly all of his shares in Maple Leaf Gardens to a partnership composed of his son Stafford Smythe, newspaper baron John Basset, and Toronto Marlboros president Harold Ballard. The sale price was $2.3 Million, which was a very hefty income for Conn Smythe, comparing it to the initial amount of money he put down on the place when it was first established. Under the new ownership trio, The Maple Leafs won three straight cups from 1962 to 1964. They won once more in 1967.
That would be the last time an NHL player wearing the Blue and White of the Toronto Maple Leafs would ever hoist Lord Stanley.
Following Stafford Smythe's death, Harold Ballard bought over Smythe's shares to assume full control of the team. During the 1970s, with 12 new franchises in the league, as well as the conception of the rival World Hockey Association, the Leafs were able to churn out competitive teams for several seasons. Yet despite the presence of stars such as Darryl Sittler, Dave Williams, Ian Turnbull, and many others, they only managed to make it past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs once, besting the New York Islanders (a soon-to-be legendary dynasty) in the 1978 quarter-finals only to be swept by nemesis Montreal Canadiens in the semi-finals. One of the very few Toronto Maple Leaf highlights of this era occured on February 7, 1976, when Sittler scored six goals and four assists in one game against the Boston Bruins to establish an NHL single-game point record that still stands more than 30 years later.
The serious decline, however, began when Ballard brought in his good friend, Punch Imlach, as the team's general manager. Imlach traded away some key players to try and undermine Daryll Sittler's influence on the team. Sittler himself was gone two years later, traded away to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Ballard died in 1990, and a year later his dear friend, supermarket tycoon Steve Stavro, bought a majority of the Leafs' stake. Unlike, Ballard, Stavro hated being in the spotlight, and rarely interfered with the Leafs' hockey operations. His first act, however, was to lure Calgary Flames' GM Cliff Fletcher, who had crafted the Flames' 1989 Stanley Cup championship team, to Toronto after the 1991-92 season.
Fletcher immediately set about building up a club that was competitive once again, making a series of trades and free agent acquisitions, which turned the Leafs quickly from an also-ran to a contender almost overnight, starting in 1992-93. Outstanding play from forwards Doug Gilmour, as well as Dave Andreychuk, as well as impeccable goaltending from phenom Felix Potvin, led the team to a franchise-record of 99 points, third place in the Norris Division, and the eighth-best overall record in the league. TO dispatched the Detroit Red Wings in the first round, then defeated the St. Louis Blues in the next round to nab the Division title.
They then faced off against the Los Angeles Kings who at the time were led by legend Wayne Gretzky, in the Campbell Conference Finals. The Leafs were set to win the game on the sixth game of the series, but the Kings won the next two straight, humiliating the Leafs, and moving on to the next round to face off against longtime Leafs' rivals Montreal Canadiens.
However, the Leafs weren't done there, putting up another strong run in the 1993-94 season, finishing with 98 points, good enough for fifth overall in the league. However, despite finishing one point above Calgary, Toronto was seeded third in the Western Conference by virtue of the Flames' Pacific Division title. The Leafs eliminated divisional rivals the Chicago Blackhawks in six games, as well as terminating the surprising San Jose Sharks, before falling to the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference Finals. The Canucks would go on to lose to the New York Rangers in a series that would last a lifetime.
At that year's draft, the Leafs would package a deal involving Wendel Clark to the Quebec Nordiques for a hulking, gigantic Swedish monster with one of the greatest scoring touches the Leafs had ever seen.
Mats Sundin.
In 1996, Stavro took Larry Tanenbeum, the co-founder of Toronto's new basketball team, the Toronto Raptors, as a partner. Maple Leafs Garden Ltd. was promptly renamed Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) and it remains the parent company of the Leafs, the Raptors, and The Toronto FC of Major League Soccer (MLS).
Eventually, in the mid-90's, the Leafs acquired goaltender Curtis Joseph as a free agent from the Edmonton Oilers and signed head coach Pat Quinn, who had been fired from the Canucks in 1997. This resulted in the Leafs making another charge in the playoffs of 1999, but only after moving from the Maple Leaf Gardens to their new bastion of blue, the Air Canada Centre (ACC).
The Toronto Maple Leafs would continue to make the playoffs for the majority of the next few years, up until the NHL Lockout, which gave the Leafs an entirely new story.
After the 2005 NHL Lockout had been settled, the Toronto-based dynasty began to feel "the blues", so to speak. They struggled in the 2005-06 season, and despite a late-season surge (led by none other than their 3rd string goaltender, Jean-Sebastien Aubin), the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since 1998.
This marked the first time that the team had missed the playoffs under the tenure of Pat Quinn, and he was fired shortly after as a result. Paul Maurice, an experienced NHL coach who had just coached the Leafs' American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, was announced as Quinn's successor. On June 30, 2006, the Leafs bought out the contract of long-time Leafs' fan favorite, Tie Domi. In addition, the team decided against picking up veteran goaltender Ed Belfour. Both players became free agent's on July 1, 2006, effectively ending their time with the Maple Leafs.
Despite the coaching change, as well as the addition of players such as Pavel Kubina and Michael Peca, the Leafs still failed to make the playoffs once again, starting a long, long streak.
On January 22nd, 2008, general manager John Ferguson Jr was fired and replaced by Cliff Fletcher on an interim basis. on May 7, the Leafs fired head coach Paul Maurice and replaced him with the former San Jose Sharks' head coach, Ron Wilson.
On November 29, 2008, the Leafs hired general manager and hockey mastermind Brian Burke, formerly of the Anaheim Ducks, to hopefully steer the team in the same direction he did with the 2007 Anaheim Ducks, who won their first and only franchise Stanley Cup that very year.
With nothing but failed seasons time and time again, the Toronto Maple Leafs have decided it is time to go in a new direction.
Gone are the days of Cliff Fletcher. Gone are the days of Brian Burke, of old-time feuds, classy Swedish players and fiesty, all-star goaltenders.
Gone are the days of success, of playoffs...of Stanley Cup Victories.
The Toronto Maple Leafs organization is turning over a new leaf, for a new era.
People of Toronto, meet your new general manager:
Mikko Lehtinen.
Rosters used: Lidasv1.3 (2008-09 Trade Deadline, I think...)
The year was 1917. Another argument had broken out between the various owners of teams in the NHA (the National Hockey Association). The owners of four clubs -- the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, the Quebec Bulldogs, and the Ottawa Senators -- had enough votes amongst themselves to expel their argument's opponent -- Eddie Livingstone, owner of the NHA's Toronto Blueshirts. Instead, the four teams decided to organize a new league for themselves, all but abandoning Livingstone's Blueshirts in the NHA all by themselves.
However, the four clubs were wise and thoughtful, and decided it would be unjust not to have a team hail from Toronto, which was Canada's second largest city at the time. They also needed a new team to balance the new leagues' schedule, since the Quebec Bulldogs had decided to suspend operations for another three years. The new league -- now titled the "NHL" -- granted a "temporary" Toronto franchise to the Arena Company, owners of the Arena Gardens. The Arena Company decided to lease the Blueshirts' players until the issues had been resolved, and the untitled franchise lovingly referred to as "The Toronto's" by fans took home the NHL's first ever Stanley Cup championship.
For the following season, the Arena Company decided to create their own team, instead of leasing players from Livingstone's ex-Toronto franchise. It was titled, "The Toronto Arena Hockey Club", and soon enough, Livingstone decided to sue the Arena Company for all of his players back. With mounting legal bills, and a steady downfall of available funds, the Toronto Arena Hockey Club was forced to trade away the majority of their top-notch, more expensive players, which resulted in a horrendous 5-win season in 1918-19. Once it became obvious the TAHC would not be able to finish an entire season, the NHL decided to fast forward directly to the playoffs.
The legal dispute with Livingstone nearly ruined the Arena Company, and the hockey club was forced to be put up for sale. General Manager Charlie Querrie put together a party that mostly comprised of people who had run the senior amateur St. Patricks team in the Ontario Hockey Association. The new owners decided to rename their new NHL squad the "Toronto St. Patricks" (or St. Pats, for short) and would remain in control of the organization until 1927, giving the new franchise one Stanley Cup championship in 1922.
Querrie would eventually lose a lawsuit to Livingstone and put the St. Pats up for sale, and sold the team to Conn Smythe, who took control of the team on Valentine's Day of 1927. Smythe decided to rename the team to the "Toronto Maple Leafs". And a legend was almost immediately born.
In the 1928-29 season, the "Maple Leafs" appeared in Blue and White jerseys, and have worn those timeless classics ever since.
After many awful seasons, Smythe and the Maple Leafs debuted in their newest arena, the "Maple Leaf Gardens" on November 21, 1931.
With their cup victory in 1948, the Toronto Maple Leafs finally moved past their vicious rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, for most Stanley Cups in league history. It would take the Habs 10 years to reclaim their title.
In the 1960's, Mr. Conn Smythe sold nearly all of his shares in Maple Leaf Gardens to a partnership composed of his son Stafford Smythe, newspaper baron John Basset, and Toronto Marlboros president Harold Ballard. The sale price was $2.3 Million, which was a very hefty income for Conn Smythe, comparing it to the initial amount of money he put down on the place when it was first established. Under the new ownership trio, The Maple Leafs won three straight cups from 1962 to 1964. They won once more in 1967.
That would be the last time an NHL player wearing the Blue and White of the Toronto Maple Leafs would ever hoist Lord Stanley.
Following Stafford Smythe's death, Harold Ballard bought over Smythe's shares to assume full control of the team. During the 1970s, with 12 new franchises in the league, as well as the conception of the rival World Hockey Association, the Leafs were able to churn out competitive teams for several seasons. Yet despite the presence of stars such as Darryl Sittler, Dave Williams, Ian Turnbull, and many others, they only managed to make it past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs once, besting the New York Islanders (a soon-to-be legendary dynasty) in the 1978 quarter-finals only to be swept by nemesis Montreal Canadiens in the semi-finals. One of the very few Toronto Maple Leaf highlights of this era occured on February 7, 1976, when Sittler scored six goals and four assists in one game against the Boston Bruins to establish an NHL single-game point record that still stands more than 30 years later.
The serious decline, however, began when Ballard brought in his good friend, Punch Imlach, as the team's general manager. Imlach traded away some key players to try and undermine Daryll Sittler's influence on the team. Sittler himself was gone two years later, traded away to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Ballard died in 1990, and a year later his dear friend, supermarket tycoon Steve Stavro, bought a majority of the Leafs' stake. Unlike, Ballard, Stavro hated being in the spotlight, and rarely interfered with the Leafs' hockey operations. His first act, however, was to lure Calgary Flames' GM Cliff Fletcher, who had crafted the Flames' 1989 Stanley Cup championship team, to Toronto after the 1991-92 season.
Fletcher immediately set about building up a club that was competitive once again, making a series of trades and free agent acquisitions, which turned the Leafs quickly from an also-ran to a contender almost overnight, starting in 1992-93. Outstanding play from forwards Doug Gilmour, as well as Dave Andreychuk, as well as impeccable goaltending from phenom Felix Potvin, led the team to a franchise-record of 99 points, third place in the Norris Division, and the eighth-best overall record in the league. TO dispatched the Detroit Red Wings in the first round, then defeated the St. Louis Blues in the next round to nab the Division title.
They then faced off against the Los Angeles Kings who at the time were led by legend Wayne Gretzky, in the Campbell Conference Finals. The Leafs were set to win the game on the sixth game of the series, but the Kings won the next two straight, humiliating the Leafs, and moving on to the next round to face off against longtime Leafs' rivals Montreal Canadiens.
However, the Leafs weren't done there, putting up another strong run in the 1993-94 season, finishing with 98 points, good enough for fifth overall in the league. However, despite finishing one point above Calgary, Toronto was seeded third in the Western Conference by virtue of the Flames' Pacific Division title. The Leafs eliminated divisional rivals the Chicago Blackhawks in six games, as well as terminating the surprising San Jose Sharks, before falling to the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference Finals. The Canucks would go on to lose to the New York Rangers in a series that would last a lifetime.
At that year's draft, the Leafs would package a deal involving Wendel Clark to the Quebec Nordiques for a hulking, gigantic Swedish monster with one of the greatest scoring touches the Leafs had ever seen.
Mats Sundin.
In 1996, Stavro took Larry Tanenbeum, the co-founder of Toronto's new basketball team, the Toronto Raptors, as a partner. Maple Leafs Garden Ltd. was promptly renamed Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) and it remains the parent company of the Leafs, the Raptors, and The Toronto FC of Major League Soccer (MLS).
Eventually, in the mid-90's, the Leafs acquired goaltender Curtis Joseph as a free agent from the Edmonton Oilers and signed head coach Pat Quinn, who had been fired from the Canucks in 1997. This resulted in the Leafs making another charge in the playoffs of 1999, but only after moving from the Maple Leaf Gardens to their new bastion of blue, the Air Canada Centre (ACC).
The Toronto Maple Leafs would continue to make the playoffs for the majority of the next few years, up until the NHL Lockout, which gave the Leafs an entirely new story.
After the 2005 NHL Lockout had been settled, the Toronto-based dynasty began to feel "the blues", so to speak. They struggled in the 2005-06 season, and despite a late-season surge (led by none other than their 3rd string goaltender, Jean-Sebastien Aubin), the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since 1998.
This marked the first time that the team had missed the playoffs under the tenure of Pat Quinn, and he was fired shortly after as a result. Paul Maurice, an experienced NHL coach who had just coached the Leafs' American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, was announced as Quinn's successor. On June 30, 2006, the Leafs bought out the contract of long-time Leafs' fan favorite, Tie Domi. In addition, the team decided against picking up veteran goaltender Ed Belfour. Both players became free agent's on July 1, 2006, effectively ending their time with the Maple Leafs.
Despite the coaching change, as well as the addition of players such as Pavel Kubina and Michael Peca, the Leafs still failed to make the playoffs once again, starting a long, long streak.
On January 22nd, 2008, general manager John Ferguson Jr was fired and replaced by Cliff Fletcher on an interim basis. on May 7, the Leafs fired head coach Paul Maurice and replaced him with the former San Jose Sharks' head coach, Ron Wilson.
On November 29, 2008, the Leafs hired general manager and hockey mastermind Brian Burke, formerly of the Anaheim Ducks, to hopefully steer the team in the same direction he did with the 2007 Anaheim Ducks, who won their first and only franchise Stanley Cup that very year.
With nothing but failed seasons time and time again, the Toronto Maple Leafs have decided it is time to go in a new direction.
Gone are the days of Cliff Fletcher. Gone are the days of Brian Burke, of old-time feuds, classy Swedish players and fiesty, all-star goaltenders.
Gone are the days of success, of playoffs...of Stanley Cup Victories.
The Toronto Maple Leafs organization is turning over a new leaf, for a new era.
People of Toronto, meet your new general manager:
Mikko Lehtinen.
First the scratch, then the thing not saving, and now, it not loading with rosters. I either hockey games dont like you, or it has to do with me being away, hmmm. lol
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