The Hockey News cover for April 2, 2018, was carefully laid out in Maple Leafs blue and white.
It featured the three young stars who were meant to carry the team into a glorious future: Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
The headline left no room for the unpredictable nature of sports. It was unequivocal: “FUTURE WATCH: PLAN THE PARADE”
And below that: “Toronto Will Win the Stanley Cup. It’s only a matter of when, and how many.”
Eight years later, all that is in tatters. The “how many” boils down to winning two playoff series — one fewer than the upstart Canadiens won in 2021 alone. The “when” still dangles over Toronto, the same unanswerable question since 1967: “When will the Leafs win another Cup?”
Barring an almost unimaginable turnaround before next season, the streak of futility will reach 60 years in spring 2027. Marner is now with the Vegas Knights. Matthews and his US$13.25 million per year contract ended the season on injured reserve, not that it would have mattered.
After he fired Brad Treliving with a couple of weeks left in the season, MLSE boss Keith Pelley betrayed his total ignorance of the NHL when he admitted, “we didn’t see that train coming” in reference to the young Canadiens, and Leaf fans were in despair.
How is a team to rebuild with a clueless suit like Pelley at the helm?
When Cole Caufield turned a defenceman into a pretzel and scored the winning goal (his 49th of the season) against the New York Rangers Thursday night, the Canadiens hit 98 points for the season and were close enough to Tampa and Buffalo to get a ticket for tailgating. The Leafs, meanwhile, were 21 points back, in last place in the very tough Atlantic Division.
The Champions of the Handshake Line are a source of endless mirth. You can’t be an official Montrealer unless you know at least 10 Leafs jokes. Their annual playoff exits provide a guaranteed laugh line. (This year, they didn’t even get that far.)
I’m not immune to the occasional giggle. The insufferable arrogance of the franchise down the 401 makes it tough not to poke holes in their balloon. But there is a cautionary tale here: get ahead of yourself, as Toronto did with that ludicrous Hockey News cover, and you are inviting failure and ridicule.
There is a lot of pride in Montreal this Easter weekend. Pride in the league’s youngest team as it drives toward the playoffs, pride in the speed of this remarkable rebuild, pride that they are such a likable bunch.
The sports world can change in a hurry, however. I spent the month of March 2024 in Coquitlam, B.C., with the friend who introduced me to hockey. We watched every Vancouver game. The Canucks had Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes and goalie Thatcher Demko.
With all that talent, how could the Canucks fail?
Then Demko got hurt. Miller and Pettersson could not get along, so the Canucks traded Miller. Then they traded Hughes. Now in the second year of an eight-year contract with a US$11.6 million cap hit, Pettersson has 15 goals and 33 assists. The Canucks are the league’s worst team.
Meanwhile, a story this week said a lot about priorities in Toronto. Jonas Siegel of the Athletic broke the news that Pelley brought a jaw-dropping scheme to the Leafs. For a mere $956.83 (not including game ticket) youngsters between the age of 8 and 12 can wave a Leafs flag at centre ice before a game. Anyone can hit the goal horn for $63.79 or snap a photo on the ice after a game for $95.68. And this one stinks: you can dine in the Leafs dressing room for about $1,000 per person for a group of up to 10.
The sleaze makes your skin crawl. Pelley can dish up all the codswallop he wants about how the Leafs are all about vision and strategy and process and people, but the truth is that his “vision” is all about extracting every nickel from the pockets of Toronto’s hapless fans.
(The Habs haven’t been blameless in that department — but if they ever come up with a racket like Pelley’s, this laptop can still rip.)
If the Canadiens’ rebuild is for the long haul, it’s because everyone is firmly grounded. Nothing is taken for granted, no one player is above the team. In Nick Suzuki, the likely winner of the Selke Award, the Canadiens have the most humble captain since Jean Béliveau. He sets the tone.
Their drafting has been superb, but GM Kent Hughes has prepared for the future by signing his young stars to long-term deals that pay them early in exchange for workable numbers down the line — something Toronto and Vancouver failed to do. The Canadiens are careful about the character of the players they draft, more cautious still with those they sign.
Suzuki, Hughes and Martin St. Louis set the tone in Montreal. Perhaps this team will be successful in its pursuit of that elusive 25th Stanley Cup, perhaps not. At least they’re going about it the right way.
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