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Canadians visiting Western New York make a habit of throwing garbage where it doesn’t belong. On Saturday they continued that proud tradition by first littering mall parking lots and later the ice at First Niagara Center.
The Canadian stereotype is different here in Western New York. Those dwelling in America’s Hat are usually seen by most people as polite and eager to please. That myth is shot to pieces by two groups that visit the Buffalo-Niagara region: Maple Leafs fans and Canadian shoppers.
Canadians seem to cross the bridges here fueled by delusions of grandeur. It’s a superiority that Buffalo sports fans should envy. The Bills and Sabres have never won anything of importance, creating an inferiority complex that grows with each passing year. Toronto’s string of hockey futility runs three years longer than the Sabres franchise has existed, yet they fill First Niagara Center each year like they are reigning Stanley Cup champions.
Maybe it’s money. Perhaps the machinations of big business and truckloads of Loonies provide Torontonians with a confidence that performance doesn’t justify. It costs more to live up there, though, and so each weekend denizens of the Greater Toronto Area travel to Western New York to shop, leaving garbage strewn about parking lots and stuffing new clothes in suitcases to avoid paying duty at the bridges.
The last time you could call the Maple Leafs “good” was 2002, when they lost in the conference finals to Carolina. Before that was 1999, when the Sabres beat them in the same round. What makes Leafs fans angry, what makes them expect more from a mediocre hockey team, is something I simply can’t understand. They’ve given you nothing for decades. Why expect something on a Saturday night in November?
This year’s version of the Leafs isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just not all that good. For years these meetings between the Sabres and Leafs have been toss ups. They tend to play down to one another. Even last season, with the Sabres clearly the worst team in hockey, the most lopsided game was a 3-1 Leafs win.
Saturday night’s 6-2 blowout was the opposite of the teams’ first meeting in Toronto. Buffalo jumped on a tired Leafs team early and silenced an enormously pro-Toronto crowd while the Leafs continued to make dumb mistakes on the ice. Once Michal Neuvirth stopped some early Toronto chances the Leafs and their fans went quiet. Their first goal of the game was answered by Matt Moulson 16 seconds later, and the third period was literally garbage time.
Boos and Bronx cheers for James Reimer saves graduated to more tangible forms of anger when garbage was rained onto the ice. Officials had to stop between plays to retrieve a number of Leafs scarves tossed by Toronto fans in the expensive seats. A beer can was launched from somewhere in the 300s. A jersey or two was tossed as well. The only reason empty shoeboxes didn’t hit the ice is because they were all left at the outlet mall in Niagara Falls.
“Throwing jerseys and stuff on the ice… I don’t know if that’s right from the fans,” Sabres winger Zemgus Girgensons said after the game. “You don’t see Buffalo fans doing that in the season we’re having.”
Girgensons was one of the major reasons Leafs fans were in a throwing mood on Saturday night. He scored his first of the night between four Leafs after Brian Flynn beat an out-of-position Reimer to a loose puck. He later capped the scoring in the third, taking advantage of a bad center ice pivot by Dion Phaneuf to blow past the defender, put a move on Reimer and side the puck into the net while diving to the right.
It’s very astute of Girgensons to recognize the difference between Sabres and Leafs fans in defeat. As bad as this season has been for Buffalo—as bad as it will continue to be despite Saturday’s result—there has been nothing close to the level of fan dissent shown by Leafs fans on Saturday night. It was an embarrassing display by everyone in blue and white.
During Wednesday night’s NBC Sports broadcast of the Bruins/Leafs game the intermission crew mentioned how many teams love to beat the Maple Leafs. Geography was included as a factor for teams like Detroit and Buffalo, and I doubt it’s because fans in those cities experience poor interactions with Toronto’s players and coaching staff.
Sabres/Leafs games are notorious for the poor behavior of Toronto fans. Some season ticket holders sell their seats to avoid having to deal with Leafs fans as much as they do to turn a profit. I know every Sabres fan who has endured a “Toronto Bills” chant in that past was thrilled to see Toronto’s favorite team take a beating on Saturday night.
Buffalo’s blowout win will amount to two points in the standings and a +4 on their abysmal goal differential, but for Sabres fans it was much more meaningful. In a season where the focus is on the future, few things can raise spirits more than building the worst team in hockey and beating the Toronto Maple Leafs with it.