Sports bars gear up for NHL playoffs

As blue and white fever hits the city, hockey fans will be flooding bars and restaurants on Wednesday to cheer on the Toronto Maple Leafs as they take on the Boston Bruins in their first playoff appearance in nine years.

The official Leafs playoff party will take place outside the Air Canada Centre with alumni appearances, interactive zones, prizes and a Molson Hockey House.

But if you’d rather check out the game indoors, sports bars around the city are expected to be packed.

“It will be loud. It will be a good time in the bar,” said Boston Pizza spokesman Perry Schwartz.

“We’re certainly behind the Leafs, and we’re certainly behind the Cup coming back to Canada.”

Schwartz said the Leafs will be on almost all of the 80 TVs at Boston Pizza’s Front Street location, although the Toronto Blue Jays are playing the Boston Red Sox as well on Wednesday and will get a token screen.

He expects a boost in sales during the playoffs and said having a local team in contention is “great for business.”

When Vancouver and Montreal were in the playoffs, restaurants in those cities did well, Schwartz said. But he figures hockey fans will come out whether or not the Leafs go far.

Fionn MacCool’s on Front Street — which typically serves Jays fans before games at the Rogers Centre — has seen a spike in reservations from hockey fans.

The pub expects roughly 50-75 more people for every night the Leafs are playing and already has enough staff on hand because of the Jays game.

“I think a lot of bars are going to greatly benefit,” said manager Darren Quinn.

“A lot of it is being with other fans — and it being May and the Leafs are still playing hockey and not golf.”

The Leafs-Bruins game begins at 7 p.m. in Boston.