Longtime Fans Hold Annual ‘What’s Wrong With The Leafs?’ Lunch
Posted December 19, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Talking about the reasons why the Maple Leafs are struggling is probably second only to the weather when Torontonians get to yakking. For most it’s just ordinary venting, but for four Toronto friends it’s an annual tradition.
That the yearly lunch was held Wednesday, the day after the Buds blew a two-goal lead and lost in overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes, was especially appropriate. As if Leafs fans didn’t already have enough to gripe about.
“We just have this endearing faith that brings us all together,” Hillar Pinna, who’s been whining and dining since 1980 when the tradition began. “We somehow think we can find the solution.”
Each year the lunch includes a commemorative placemat made by the foursome, with this year’s theme harkening back to Leafs’ rookie Jiri Tlusty who appeared naked on the Internet earlier this season.
“His baring all for the cause was a great way to inspire the Leafs,” joked participant Steve Conover, another of the faithful, or faithless as it were.
But a third of the quartet says it’s not so much about poking fun at their favourite team as keeping themselves from getting too down more than 40 years from the last Stanley Cup win.
“We’re here not really to make fun of them, we’re just fans that are a little broken hearted,” admitted Alex Stuart. “We still believe one day it’s all going to turn around.”
In truth the afternoon at The Pilot Tavern on Cumberland Street was barely about slamming general manger John Ferguson Jr. or head coach Paul Maurice, but more about memories and hope for the future.
“We need Jim McKenny,” Rod Tanaka joked, referring to the Citytv sports anchor and former Leaf who was part of the Buds’ last Cup run in 1967. But few words, or stories, were more appropriate than those of Pinna.
“The night of the Leafs’ (’67) Cup-winning victory I’d already gone to bed,” he recalled.
“But my father came and woke me up and brought me back downstairs … just as George Armstrong lifted the Cup up he said, ‘I want you to see this because who knows when you might see this again.'”
And that’s a question all four will keep asking, at least until next year.
