April 21, 1951: The Bill Barilko Game and the Rochester Royals' Title

April 21, 1951, 75 years ago: Bill Barilko becomes hockey's version of Bobby Thomson -- nearly 6 months before Thomson becomes baseball's version of Barilko.

Barilko was a 24-year-old defenseman of Ukrainian descent, from the mining town of Timmins, Ontario. He had already helped the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup in 1947, 1948 and 1949. The 1951 Stanley Cup Finals against the Montreal Canadiens was unusual in that every game went to overtime.

Game 1, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, was won 5 minutes and 51 seconds in, on a goal by Sid Smith. Game 2 in Toronto was won after 2:55 by the Canadiens' Maurice Richard, a.k.a. "The Rocket," the greatest and most popular player in the sport at the time. The action shifted to the Montreal Forum, but the Leafs won Game 3 4:47 into overtime on a goal by Ted Kennedy. Then they won Game 4 5:15 into overtime on a goal by Harry Watson.

(Unlike the longtime U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was one of many men named Edward who ended up being nicknamed "Ted" or "Teddy," the man who scored the Game 3 winner was born Theodore Samuel Kennedy, was nicknamed "Teeder," and was the Leafs' Captain at the time.)

The series returned to Toronto for Game 5. There was no scoring in the 1st period. Richard scored midway through the 2nd period, but Tod Sloan tied it back up. Paul Meger gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead less than 5 minutes into the 3rd period, but Sloan equalized with just 32 seconds left in regulation.

At the 2:53 mark of overtime, Barilko, much like Bobby Orr would be in overtime of Game 4 of the 1970 Finals, was tripped up, but still managed to get a shot off. It went past Canadien goalie Gerry McNeil, and the Leafs won the game 3-2, and the series 4-1.

"It was as clean as a hound's tooth," Toronto Daily Star writer Red Burnett said. "McNeil never had a chance." Hockey fans tend to blame goaltenders who give up big goals considerably less than baseball fans blame pitchers who give up big home runs. And so, McNeill, who would be the starting goalie when the Habs won the Cup in 1953, before giving way to Jacques Plante, would not live in infamy. He lived until 2004.

The most familiar photo of the goal, taken by Nat Turofsky

It was the Leafs' 4th Cup in the last 5 years, and their 10th overall. At the time, no other team had more: The Canadiens had 6.

Another angle, showing Barilko's face,

and that of Maurice Richard, who clearly knows it's over.

The Leafs were a great team, with 4 players who went on to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame: Centers Kennedy and Max Bentley, defenseman Fern Flaman, and goaltender Walter "Turk" Broda. Barilko could have become another of them: He was a classic "defensive defenseman," a hard checker who enjoyed rough play. He wasn't regarded as dirty, so no one begrudged him his status as a national hero across Canada -- at a time when there were only 6 teams in the National Hockey League, and just 2 of them in Canada, the Leafs and the Canadiens.

A little over 4 months after his epic goal, Barilko went on a fishing trip with his dentist, Henry Hudson. Hudson was a licensed pilot, and he took Barilko on a Fairchild 24 floatplane, from Timmins to Waskaganish, Quebec, on James Bay.

There was some irony in this. James Bay is an extension of Hudson Bay, where an earlier Henry Hudson, the discoverer of the river in New York that would be named for him, disappeared in June 1611, on a voyage to find the Northwest Passage.

Barilko and Hudson caught a few fish, and, the weekend over, on August 26, 1951, they boarded the Fairchild. Hudson headed it back for Timmins, about 400 miles away.

They never arrived. Plane disappearances in the northern reaches of North America were nothing new. The last attempt at the 1st nonstop flight between the European and North American continents before Charles Lindbergh successfully did it took off from France, and was believed to have been crashed in the woods of northern Maine, or the Canadian Province of New Brunswick, and has still never been found. But this was different: Bill Barilko, the man who had won the most recent Stanley Cup, a new national hero, was missing.

Barilko did not live long enough to build a Hall of Fame career. But the Leafs did retire his Number 5. Or, at least, they thought they had: In 1992, someone working in the front office discovered that, while no player had worn the uniform number in 41 years, there had never been an official retirement ceremony for it. One was held on October 17, 1992.

The Leafs stopped winning. Over the next 7 seasons, of the 14 available places in the Stanley Cup Finals, 7 were won by the Canadiens (in other words, they made it every year), 4 by the Detroit Red Wings, and 3 by the Boston Bruins. The Leafs rebuilt, and got back to the Finals in 1959 and 1960, but lost to the Canadiens both times.

On April 22, 1962, the Leafs won the Cup again, dethroning the Chicago Black Hawks in the Finals. Had Barilko not died, he would have been 35 years old, and could still have been playing. Certainly, Leafs head coach and general manager George "Punch" Imlach was known to favor veterans.

Just 45 days after that Cup win, on June 6, helicopter pilot Ron Boyd was flying about 60 miles north of Cochrane, Ontario, when he spotted the wreckage of a plane. He reported it, and it was discovered to be Dr. Henry Hudson's Fairchild 24. His body, and Barilko's, were remarkably well preserved in the cold after 11 years. The wreck and the records were examined, and it was determined that Hudson's inexperience as a pilot, too much cargo (too many fish?), and bad weather doomed the plane.

There was something poetic about Barilko being found only after the Leafs won the Cup again, beginning a run of 3 straight, and 4 in 7 years -- at which point Barilko would have been 40 and, knowing Imlach, could still have been getting game time.

But since the last of those Cups, in 1967, they have never even reached the Stanley Cup Finals again. This time, there was no harbinger of trouble, like a plane crash. It was just bad management.

*

April 21, 1951 was a Saturday. The NBA Championship was also decided that day, and also in overtime, but in a Game 7. The Rochester Royals defeated the New York Knicks, 79-75 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York.

Left to right: Bill Calhoun, Bob Davies, Paul Noel, Joe McNamee,

Arnie Risen, Jack Coleman, Arnie Johnson and Bobby Wanzer

For the Knicks: Max Zaslofsky and Vince Boryla each scored 16 points, Harry Gallatin 12, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton (the 1st black player signed to an NBA contract) and Connie Simmons 11, Ernie Vandeweghe (father of future NBA player Kiki) 5, Dick McGuire (brother of Hall of Fame college coach and announcer Al) 4, and Ray Lumpp none.

It wasn't enough, as Arnie Risen scored 24, and former Seton Hall star Bob Davies scored 20. Scoring 2 points for the Royals in this game was William "Red" Holzman. Ed Mikan, brother of Minneapolis Lakers star George, was on the Royals' roster at the start of the season, but was traded.

The Knicks would win 3 straight NBA Eastern Division Championships, but lose the Finals all 3 times: This one to the Royals, and 1952 and '53 to the Lakers. It would take them until 1970 to win their 1st title, with Holzman as their coach. They won again in 1973. But haven't won one since, also losing in the Finals in 1972, 1994 and 1999.

At least the Knicks still exist. The Royals don't, at least not under that name. Rochester proved too small a market for a growing sports league. In 1957, they moved, becoming the Cincinnati Royals. In 1972, they moved again. Since Kansas City already had a baseball team called the Royals, they became the Kansas City Kings. And in 1985, they became the Sacramento Kings. In the early 2010s, they came close to moving yet again, to Anaheim and to Seattle, before the building of their new arena was negotiated. Come to think of it, Minneapolis lost the Lakers to Los Angeles in 1960.

Nevertheless, at their arena, the Golden 1 Center, the Kings still hang a banner proclaiming themselves to be the 1951 NBA Champions.

Davies, Wanzer, Risen, and Holzman as a coach have been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Kings retired Davies' Number 11. Nevertheless, when the NBA named its 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996, the '51 Royals were 1 of 4 teams with no representatives, the others being the 1947 Philadelphia Warriors, the 1948 Baltimore Bullets, and the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics.

Also on that day, actor Tony Danza was born.

April 23, 1950: The Pete Babando Goal

April 23, 1950, 75 years ago: Only twice in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals has a Game 7 gone to overtime. They happened within 4 years of each other, and both were won by the Detroit Red Wings.

The Wings had won the Cup in 1936, 1937 and 1943. In 1946, a rookie named Gordie Howe arrived. The Wings reached the Finals again in 1948 and 1949, but lost both to the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1950, they got back, and faced the New York Rangers.

There were 3 holdovers from 1943: Center and Captain Sid Abel, defenseman Jack Stewart, and right wing Joe Carveth. Abel centered a line with Howe on right wing and Ted Lindsay on left wing, which became known as "The Production Line," in honor of Detroit's automotive industry. Leonard "Red" Kelly and Marcel Pronovost were young defensemen. And in goal was Harry Lumley. All of these, except for Carveth, would make the Hockey Hall of Fame.

However, the Wings would have to go through the Finals without Howe: During the Semifinals against the Leafs, he attempted to check Ted "Teeder" Kennedy, but missed, and crashed into the boards, breaking bones in his face and putting his life in danger. He recovered, and became perhaps the greatest player the game had ever known, but would not be available for the Finals.

The Rangers had last made the Finals in 1940, which was also their most recent Cup win. They had no holdovers, but they had future Hall-of-Famers in centers Edgar Laprade and Buddy O'Connor, defenseman Allan Stanley, and goaltender Chuck Rayner.

(Two other Ranger players would be elected to the Hall, but in the "Builders" category: Bud Poile, for a long career as an NHL executive, including as the 1st general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers; and Fred Shero, who coached many of the players Poile acquired to the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cups, and then coached the Rangers to the Finals in 1979.)

But the Rangers had a problem: No home-ice advantage. The biggest annual moneymaker for the Madison Square Garden corporation wasn't the Rangers, or the NBA's New York Knicks. It was the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, which, in those days, came in April -- when the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals were both held.

At the time, arenas could not be configured to host a circus and a hockey game on the same day. And since the Circus made more money for The Garden than Playoff hockey (which is no longer the case), the Rangers were forced to play their "home games" elsewhere. They ended up playing Games 2 and 3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, while all the other games of the Finals were played at the Wings' Olympia Stadium.

The Wings won Game 1, 4-1. The Rangers won Game 2, 3-1. The Wings won Game 3, 4-0. The Finals nearly became the Don Raleigh Show: Raleigh scored 8:34 into overtime, to win Game 4 for the Rangers, 4-3; and 1:38 into overtime, to win Game 5, 2-1.

Don Raleigh 

But it was not to be. The Wings won Game 6, 5-4. The next night, April 23, the Rangers took a 2-0 lead midway through Game 7, the 2nd goal being scored by Tony Leswick. But Pete Babando got the Wings on the board, and Abel tied the game just 21 seconds later. The teams exchanged goals later in the period, and there were no goals in the 3rd period. So, for the 1st time since the Stanley Cup Finals went to a best-4-out-of-7 format in 1939, its Game 7 went to overtime, 3-3.

The 1st overtime also saw no goals, making this the 1st Stanley Cup Final Game 7 to go to a 2nd overtime. Through the 2021 season, it remains the only one. At the 8:30 mark of the 2nd overtime, Babando backhanded a shot past Rayner, and it was over: Red Wings 4, Rangers 3. Detroit had won the Stanley Cup, and Babando had become the 1st player to win the Cup on a Game 7 goal in overtime.

Babando, approaching his 25th birthday, was born in Braeburn, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, making him one of the few American-born players in the NHL at the time. But, like the vast majority of the players, he was trained to play in Canada, as he grew up in Timmins, Ontario.

And how did the Wings' organization thank him for his 2 Game 7 goals, including the clincher? They traded him to the Chicago Black Hawks before the next season. (Since James E. Norris owned the Wings and the Chicago Stadium, and his son, James D. Norris, owned the Hawks, they made a lot of deals, especially to get a player one or the other didn't like away from him. And the NHL allowed this arrangement at the time.) After 3 seasons with the Hawks, he was traded to, of all teams, the Rangers. He continued to play professional hockey until 1967, and lived until 2020.

The Wings began a sort-of-dynasty in which they won 4 Cups in 6 seasons. But the Rangers didn't reach the Finals again until 1972. Blowing a 2-goal lead in 1950's Game 7 was the 1st of a long series of Ranger chokes from 1940 onward, until they finally won the Cup again in 1994. Which turned out to be not an ending but an interruption, as they have choked many times since.

Don Raleigh was born in Kenora, Ontario, famous for being the home of the 1907 Stanley Cup Champions, the Kenora Thistles; but lived most of his life in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He played for the Rangers from 1944 to 1956, made 2 All-Star Games, and was named to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. He lived until 2012.

The next 3 years, the Knicks would also be hurt by The Garden's circus priority. They had to play Games 3, 4 and 6 of the 1951 NBA Finals at the 69th Regiment Armory, instead of the Garden. They lost Game 7 on the road, losing in overtime to the Rochester Royals. The same thing happened in 1952, when they lost Game 7 to the Minneapolis Lakers. It didn't get that far in 1953: They lost Games 3, 4 and 5 at the Armory, with the Lakers clinching in Game 5.

In 1954, Game 7 scorer Tony Leswick would be with the Wings, and become the 2nd, and so far last, man to score an overtime goal in the Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Finals. Others to score an overtime Cup-clincher:

* In Game 6: Bryan Hextall, 1940 Rangers; Henri Richard, 1966 Montreal Canadiens; Bobby Nystrom, 1980 New York Islanders; Brett Hull, 1999 Dallas Stars; Jason Arnott, 2000 New Jersey Devils; Patrick Kane, 2010 Blackhawks.

* In Game 5: Bill Barilko, 1951 Maple Leafs; Elmer Lach, 1953 Canadiens; Alec Martinez, 2014 Los Angeles Kings.

* In Game 4: Bill Cook, 1933 Rangers (before it was a best-of-7); Harold "Mush" March, 1934 Black Hawks (ditto); Hector "Toe" Blake, 1944 Canadiens; Bobby Orr, 1970 Bruins; Jacques Lemaire, 1977 Canadiens; Uwe Krupp, 1996 Colorado Avalanche.

February 14, 1934: The Ace Bailey Benefit Game

A colorized photo of Ace Bailey, included in a composite photo

of a Maple Leafs' Centennial Team, 2016

February 14, 1934, 90 years ago: One of the greatest moments in National Hockey League history occurs. But it was brought on by perhaps its ugliest game.

On December 12, 1933, the Boston Bruins were hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Boston Garden. The Bruins still had most of the players who had led them to the 1929 Stanley Cup, including 2 of the greatest defensemen the game has ever known, Eddie Shore and Aubrey "Dit" Clapper. The Leafs, winners of the Cup in 1932, had another, Francis "King" Clancy.

This game, which the Leafs would win 4-1, was in the 2nd period. The Leafs had taken 2 quick penalties, and sent Clancy, defenseman George "Red" Horner, and right wing Irvine Wallace "Ace" Bailey out to defend the 5-on-3 Bruin power play.

Shore, who helped the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 1929, rushed up the ice. Clancy, charitably listed at 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, and a winner of the Cup with the Ottawa Senators in 1922, '23 and '27, and with the Leafs in '32, followed him, and checked him into the boards.

Shore got up, and, in his daze, he figured the closest Leaf player to him must have been the one who did it. He guessed wrong: The closest Leaf player to him was Bailey. Shore hit him from the side, and he landed head-first on the ice.

Horner skated over, knowing full well that it wasn't Bailey who had checked Shore, and yelled, "What did you do that for, Eddie?" Shore, not realizing the enormity of what he had done, gave Horner a big grin. What happened next is in dispute: The first source I saw on the story said that Horner hit Shore over the head with the blade of his stick. Another source said that Horner punched Shore, knocking him out in an instant.

Whatever the truth was, Shore was also out cold. The Boston crowd booed the hell out of Horner, who was already known as one of the dirtiest players in the game. But so was Shore, who, with his attitude, his receding hairline, and the fact that he was admired but not especially liked, was practically the Ty Cobb of hockey.

But it quickly became apparent that Bailey was hurt worse. Both men regained consciousness, and were carried off the ice together. Shore apologized. Bailey seemed to forgive him, saying, "It's all part of the game," and then passed out again.

Bailey was taken to Boston City Hospital. He was diagnosed with a fractured skull and an extradural clot on the brain. His father, listening to the game on the radio in Toronto, packed a gun, and immediately boarded a train for Boston, intending to kill Shore.

Leafs owner Conn Smythe found out about this, and talked to his general manager, Frank Selke. Selke had a friend working with the Boston Police, who met Bailey's father at the hotel, and talked him out of the murder plot.

Nevertheless, the BPD said they would charge Shore with manslaughter if Bailey died. Within 24 hours, he underwent 2 spinal taps to relieve intracranial pressure. There was at least one news report that Bailey had died. But, through several procedures, he came out of his coma after 10 days. He hung on, through Christmas and New Year's. In mid-January 1934, he was released from the hospital.

NHL President Frank Calder suspended Horner for 6 games, and Shore indefinitely. Once he was confident that Bailey was going to live, Calder set Shore's suspension at 16 games, or 1/3rd of the season at the time (48 games). Bailey never played again.

Walter Gilhooly, sports editor of the Ottawa Journal, recommended that a benefit game be played, to offset Bailey's loss of income. Calder agreed. The Leafs would host the game, and put their team out against a team made up of players from the rest of the League, 2 from each of the other 8 teams then in it.

The game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens on February 14, 1934. Here were the lineups:

* From the Toronto Maple Leafs, coached by Dick Irvin, once a great player, and the father of eventual Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Irvin Jr.: Number 1, goaltender George Hainsworth, formerly a star with the Montreal Canadiens; 2, defenseman Red Horner; 3, defenseman Alex Levinsky; 4, defenseman Clarence "Hap" Day; 5, center Andy Blair; 7, defenseman King Clancy; 8, left wing Harold "Baldy" Cotton; 9, right wing Charlie "the Bomber" Conacher; 10, center Joe Primeau; 11, left wing Harvey "Busher" Jackson; 12, left wing Hector "Hec" Kilrea; 14, center Bill Thoms; 15, right wing Ken Doraty; 16, right wing Charlie Sands; 17, left wing Frank "Buzz" Boll.

NHL All-Stars, coached by Lester Patrick of the New York Rangers, also once a great player:

* From the Chicago Black Hawks: 1, goaltender Charlie Gardiner; and 7, defenseman Lionel Conacher, brother of Charlie.

* From the Boston Bruins: 2, defenseman Eddie Shore; and 9, center Nelson "Nels" Stewart, better known as a Montreal Maroon.

* From the Ottawa Senators: 3, right wing Frank Finnigan; and 17, defenseman Al Shields.

* From the Montreal Canadiens: 4, left wing Aurele Joliat; and 16, center Howie Morenz. Morenz, known as "the Babe Ruth of Hockey" -- like Ruth, he had several nicknames -- normally wore 7, but Lionel Conacher was considered the greatest all-around athlete in Canada, and had priority.

* From the Detroit Red Wings: 5, left wing Herbie Lewis; and 14, right wing Larry Aurie.

* From the New York Rangers: 6, defenseman Ivan "Ching" Johnson; and 15, right wing Bill Cook. Somebody decided that the Irish-Canadian Johnson looked Chinese, and nicknamed him Ching. He had seniority over Aurie, who also wore 6; but Lewis had seniority over Cook, who wore 5 with the Rangers.

* From the Montreal Maroons: 10, center Reginald "Hooley" Smith; and 18, right wing Jimmy Ward.

* From the New York Americans: 11, center Norman Himes; and 12, defenseman Norman "Red" Dutton.

Before the game, the other teams' players posed at center ice in their regular sweaters. Then they were given white jerseys with "NHL" on them. And the Leafs had special jerseys, too, with "ACE" on them.

The selection of Shore was controversial. When he skated up to receive his Number 2 jersey, the crowd of 14,074 was silent. Then he skated over to the Leafs bench, where Bailey was sitting in a suit, long coat and fedora. Shore offered his hand, and Bailey shook it. The crowd roared, and the players tapped their sticks on the ice, in what was already a long-established hockey salute.

The ceremony concluded with Smythe giving Bailey his Number 6 jersey, and announced that it would be retired.

Bailey dropped a puck for a ceremonial faceoff, and the game began. Charlie Conacher already had an injured knee, and left the game early. Other than that, there wasn't much hitting, and no penalties were called. Cotton and Jackson scored to put the Leafs up 2-0, before Stewart scored to make it 2-1 Leafs at the end of the 1st period.

Jackson scored again early in the 2nd period. Morenz and Finnigan scored to tie it up. But it was all Leafs the rest of the way: Day scored halfway through the 2nd, and Kilrea, Doraty and Blair scored in the 3rd. The Leafs won, beating the entire rest of the NHL, 7-3.

The game raised $20,909 for Bailey's family, about $494,000 in 2024. Bailey applied to the NHL to be a referee, but was turned down. Smythe hired him to work in the team's front office. He worked there in one capacity or another until a later owner, Harold Ballard, already perhaps the most hated man in the history of Canadian sports, fired him in 1986. Bailey lived until 1992, ironically becoming one of the game's last surviving players.

A later player, Garnet Bailey, no relation, played in the NHL from 1969 to 1978, and was known as Ace Bailey. (An athlete receiving the same nickname as an earlier player with the same surname has happened a few times.) He was working as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings when he died in the destruction of United Airlines Flight 175 at the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Shore continued to play with the Bruins through their 1939 Stanley Cup win. In 1940, he bought the minor-league Springfield Indians of Massachusetts, and remained their owner until his death in 1986. Both he and Bailey were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Bailey wanted the benefit game to become an annual event, for injured players. That didn't happen. But additional benefit games were held for the families of Morenz, who died of heart trouble in 1937, and the Canadiens' Albert "Babe" Siebert, who drowned in 1939. Both of those games were played at the Montreal Forum: The former was a combined Montreal team, Canadiens and Maroons, against the rest of the NHL. The Maroons folded in 1938, so it was just the Canadiens against the rest of the NHL in Siebert's benefit. Both times, the NHL All-Stars won. In 1947, the NHL finally established an annual All-Star Game.

Charlie Gardiner and Lionel Conacher led the Black Hawks to win the Stanley Cup, 2 months later. But, just 2 months after that, with antibiotics not yet available, Gardiner died of a tonsil infection. Conacher also died young, suffering a heart attack while playing in a charity softball game on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 1954.

Howie Morenz of the Canadiens broke his leg in a 1937 game, and never left the hospital, suffering a pulmonary embolism. George Hainsworth was killed in a car crash in 1950. Larry Aurie of the Red Wings suffered a stroke while driving in 1952. And Charlie Sands died in 1953.

Nels Stewart in 1957; Normie Himes in 1958; Hooley Smith in 1963; Bill Thomas in 1964; Busher Jackson in 1966; Charlie Conacher in 1967; Hec Kilrea in 1969; Al Shields in 1975; Andy Blair in 1977; Ching Johnson in 1979; Ken Doraty in 1981; Baldy Cotton in 1984; Eddie Shore in 1985; Bill Cook, Aurèle Joliat and King Clancy in 1986; Red Dutton in 1987; Joe Primeau in 1989; Buzz Boll, Hap Day, Jimmy Ward and Alex Levinsky in 1990; Herbie Lewis and Frank Finnigan in 1991; and Red Horner was the last survivor from this game, living until April 27, 2005.

February 13, 1999: The Last "Original Six" Arena Closes

February 13, 1999, 25 years ago: The last National Hockey League game is played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, after 67 seasons. The host Toronto Maple Leafs lose to the Chicago Blackhawks, 6-2.

The Hawks had also been the opponent, and a victorious one, in the Gardens' 1st game, on November 12, 1931, 2-1. The Leafs' Charlie Conacher scored the 1st goal, but it wasn't enough.

For the 1999 finale, a member of each team that played in that 1st game was on hand for a ceremonial puck drop: George "Red" Horner of the Leafs, and Harold "Mush" March of the Hawks. (March died in 2002, Horner in 2005.) Derek King scored the Leafs' last goal, while Bob Probert, better known for his fighting and his drug abuse, scored the last goal overall.

The Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup while playing at the Gardens in 1932, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967 -- clinching on home ice in '32, '42, '47, '49, '51, '63, '64 and '67. In addition, the New York Rangers clinched the Cup by beating the Leafs at the Gardens in 1933 and 1940, the Detroit Red Wings in 1937, and the Montreal Canadiens in 1959 and 1960.

Leafs player Irvine "Ace" Bailey had been injured by Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins in a game in Boston in 1933, and never played again. On February 12, 1934, the Gardens hosted a benefit game for him: The Leafs against a team of players from all the other teams in the League. When Shore skated over to the Leafs' bench, where Bailey was in street clothes, and shook hands with him, the Gardens erupted in cheers. The Leafs won the game. In 1947, the Leafs beat an All-Star team from the rest of the League again in the 1st official NHL All-Star Game.

The Gardens became known as "The Shrine of Hockey," with CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcasting Hockey Night in Canada from the building on most Saturday nights, first on radio, and then, starting in 1952, on television. It helped to make the Gardens -- even more than Parliament Hill in Ottawa or the Montreal Forum -- the most famous building in Canada.

On November 1, 1946, the Gardens hosted the 1st game in the league that would become the National Basketball Association. But the Toronto Huskies lost it to the New York Knicks, and only lasted that 1 season before folding. Pro basketball would return, briefly: From 1971 to 1975, the Buffalo Braves (the team now known as the Los Angeles Clippers) played 16 "home games" there, and the Toronto Raptors played 6 home games there in 1997, '98 and '99 when the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) was unavailable.

Also due to a scheduling conflict, the Rangers played their 1950 Stanley Cup Finals games at Maple Leaf Gardens, possibly costing them the Cup, as they lost to the Red Wings. In the World Hockey Association, the Ottawa Nationals had to move their 1973 Playoff games there, and the Toronto Toros played the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons there, before being forced to a smaller arena by the onerous rent charged by Leafs owner Harold Ballard, who, because of his presiding over the declines of both the Leafs and the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, became the most hated man in Canada.

Ballard was cheap, he was evil, and he was crooked. Smythe wasn't flat-out evil, but he was imperious, and he was certainly cheap. At one end of the Gardens was a large portrait of Canada's head of state, the British monarch. From 1931 to 1936, this was King George V. For much of 1936, it was King Edward VIII. Then, until 1952, it was King George VI. Finally, it was Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1968, the seating capacity at the Gardens was raised from 13,718 to 16,316. This was done through installing narrower seats, and removing the Queen's portrait so that more seats could be installed. Smythe, who had sold the team to a consortium including his son Stafford Smythe and Ballard, said of the new seats, "Only a young man could sit in them, and only a fat old rich man could afford them."

As for the removal of the portrait of the woman to whom Canadian citizens still paid a share of their taxes (and still pay them to the British Crown, to this day), Ballard pointed out that, in spite of a visit to the building in 1951, before she became Queen, she didn't pay admission to games: "She doesn't pay me. I pay her. Besides, what the hell position can a queen play?"

Maple Leaf Gardens hosted Game 2 of the 1972 "Summit Series" between Canada and the Soviet Union, a 4-1 win for Canada. It also hosted minor-league hockey: The Toronto Lions of the Ontario Hockey Association, 1931-39; the Toronto Marlboros (or "Marlies") of the OHA and its successor, the Ontario Hockey League, 1931-89; the Toronto Young Rangers of the OHA and the OHL, 1937 to 1948; the Toronto Knob Hill Farms of the Metro Junior A League, in the 1962-63 season; and the Toronto St. Michael's Majors (or "St. Mike's") of the OHL, 1997-2000.

Lacrosse is not considered a major sport in America. In Canada, where it was invented, it is considerably bigger. Canada's National Lacrosse League had the Toronto Tomahawks playing at the Gardens in 1974, and the Toronto Rock in the 1999-2000 season. The Gardens also hosted professional indoor soccer, the "pinball" version of "the beautiful game": The Toronto Blizzard in the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons, and the Toronto Shooting Stars in 1996-97.

The Gardens was 1 of 16 buildings to have hosted both Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Because Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was an illegal immigrant from the Netherlands, a fact not known during Elvis' lifetime, Elvis could only leave the North American continent to fulfill his U.S. Army obligation from 1958 to 1960. He sang at the Gardens on April 2, 1957. It was the only building to host The Beatles on all 3 of their North American tours: September 7, 1964; August 17, 1965; and August 17, 1966.

It also hosted boxing and "professional wrestling," with Killer Kowalski making that "sport" popular in his native Canada. On March 29, 1966, Muhammad Ali defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World there, defeating Canada's heavyweight champion, George Chuvalo.

Conn Smythe, who had served in the Canadian Army during both World Wars, and enjoyed being called "Major Smythe," resigned from the Gardens' board of directors over the decision to host a fight featuring a man who had already been making statements about how he would refuse to accept being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Smythe said of the owners, including his son, that they had "put cash ahead of class."

They could do that because the Leafs were a gold mine. From 1946, when the boys came back from World War II, until 1999, the Leafs never played to an unsold seat. This was in spite of the fact that, after the closing of the dynasty coached and managed by George "Punch" Imlach on May 2, 1967, the Leafs never appeared in another Stanley Cup Finals game at the Gardens -- and still haven't. The building, whose address was 60 Carlton Street, became known as the Carlton Street Cashbox.

The Gardens outlasted the somewhat enlightened despot Smythe, and the tyrant Ballard. It outlasted the Great Depression, World War II, and the high tide of the conflict between the Canadian federal government and Quebec nationalists. It outlasted the League of Nations, the Third Reich, the British Empire and the Warsaw Pact.

It outlasted 20 Mayors of Toronto, 12 Premiers of Ontario (equivalent to the Governor of a State), 10 Prime Ministers of Canada, and 1 Flag of Canada. (The current Maple Leaf Flag replaced the old "Red Ensign" in 1965.) It outlasted Maple Leaf Stadium (home of the minor-league baseball team that gave the NHL Maple Leafs their name), the Mutual Street Arena, the original Varsity Stadium, and Exhibition Stadium.

It outlasted the Montreal Maroons, the New York Americans, the California Golden Seals, the Cleveland Barons, the Atlanta Flames (now the Calgary Flames), the Kansas City Scouts and the Colorado Rockies that they became (now the New Jersey Devils), the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars), the Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche), the original version of the Winnipeg Jets (now the Arizona Coyotes), the Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes), and the entire World Hockey Association.

It outlasted the NHL's other "Original Six" arenas, some by plenty: New York replaced "the old Madison Square Garden" with "the new Madison Square Garden" in 1968, Detroit replaced the Olympia Stadium with the Joe Louis Arena in 1979, Chicago replaced the Chicago Stadium with the United Center in 1994, Boston replaced the Boston Garden with the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in 1995, and Montreal replaced the Montreal Forum with the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in 1996.

While not home to "Original Six" teams, the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and the St. Louis Arena were contemporaries, and they were also replaced before 1999. Considerably newer arenas were replaced in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Vancouver, Atlanta, Ottawa, Tampa and the San Francisco Bay Area. (And the ones in Minnesota and Atlanta were demolished before the Gardens closed.)

But nothing lasts forever. The ownership group for the NBA's Raptors didn't like playing in the huge SkyDome, and wanted to build their own arena, the Air Canada Centre, next to Toronto's Union Station. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Leafs and the Gardens, knew that there was only so much that could be done to modernize the Gardens, and increasing seating capacity, including adding more luxury boxes, was operationally impossible.

So they bought the Raptors, giving their owners shares in MLSE, and had the plans for the ACC to be altered so that it could host hockey as well. Both teams moved in a few days after their last game at the Gardens in February 1999. (In 2018, the ACC was renamed the Scotiabank Arena.)

The Gardens didn't close immediately. It still hosted amateur hockey and professional lacrosse, and the British rock band Oasis gave a concert there in 2000. The last "sporting event" there came in 2004, a re-creation of prizefights of eventual Heavyweight Champion James Braddock for the film Cinderella Man, taking advantage of the Gardens' old-time appearance.

But MLSE didn't want to own a dormant building, and they also didn't want to sell the old arena to anyone who would use it as a competing arena. (There has long been talk of putting a 2nd NHL team in Toronto, and the Maple Leafs have thus far managed to shoot it down.) In 2000, after a massive renovation, the Montreal Forum reopened as a mall, with stores, a movie theater, and other entertainments. It was suggested that the same be done with the Gardens. But a feasibility study showed that it couldn't be done: If the bowls of seating were removed, the exterior walls would collapse.

In 2004, Loblaw Companies, Canada's largest food retailer, bought the Gardens for $12 million. In 2009, they made a deal with Toronto's Ryerson University to renovate the building, to make the playing area a rink with 2,796 seats, while the rest of the building would host retail space.

The famed marquee, following the renovation

In 2011, the new Loblaw's store finally opened, with a red dot on the floor marking the original location of centre ice. In 2012, the Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens opened, and has been home to Rynearson's hockey team ever since. From 2013 to 2017, it also hosted the Toronto Predators of the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League.

Arenas Hosting the Stanley Cup Finals, 1918-2023

Congratulations to the Vegas Golden Knights, winners of their 1st Stanley Cup. Last night, they beat the Florida Panthers, 9-3, in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, at home at the T-Mobile Arena.

Arenas Hosting the Stanley Cup Finals

I'm counting only those in use from the founding of the NHL in 1917 onward. For all arenas currently in use, or formerly in use but still standing, their current names are used here. For all arenas that have since been demolished, the names they used at the time are used here. Ties are broken by most recent.

Montreal Forum, 32: 1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1935, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1986, 1989, 1993.

Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, 20: 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967.

Olympia Stadium, Detroit, 18: 1934, 1936, 1937, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966.

Boston Garden, 17: 1929, 1930, 1932, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1946, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1990.

Chicago Stadium, 10: 1931, 1934, 1938, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1973, 1992.

Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton, 7: 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 2006.

Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, 6: 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2008, 2009.

The Spectrum, Philadelphia, 6: 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1985, 1987.

Nassau Coliseum, Hempstead (New York), 5: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984.

Madison Square Garden III, 5: 1929, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1940.

Amalie Arena, Tampa, 4: 2004, 2015, 2021, 2022.

Madison Square Garden IV, 4: 1972, 1979, 1994, 2014.

Meadowlands Arena, 4: 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003.

Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, 4: 1991, 1992, 2008, 2009.

TD Garden, Boston, 3: 2011, 2013, 2019.

United Center, Chicago, 3: 2010, 2013, 2015.

Saddledome, Calgary, 3: 1986, 1989, 2004.

St. Louis Arena, 3: 1968, 1969, 1970.

Denman Arena, Vancouver, 3: 1921, 1923, 1924.

Mutual Street Arena, Toronto, 3: 1918, 1920, 1922.

T-Mobile Arena, Paradise (Las Vegas), 2: 2018, 2023.

Ball Arena, Denver, 2: 2001, 2022.

Capital One Arena, Washington, 2: 1998, 2018.

PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, 2: 2016, 2017.

Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, 2: 2012, 2014.

Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, 2: 1997, 2010.

Honda Center, Anaheim, 2: 2003, 2007.

PNC Arena, Raleigh, 2: 2002, 2006.

Pacific Coliseum Vancouver, 2: 1982, 1994.

Metropolitan Sports Center, Bloomington (Minneapolis), 2: 1981, 1991.

Ottawa Auditorium, 2: 1924, 1927.

Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise (Miami), 1: 2023.

Bell Centre, Montreal, 1: 2021.

Rogers Place, Edmonton, 1: 2020.

Enterprise Center, St. Louis, 1: 2019.

Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, 1: 2018.

SAP Center, San Jose, 1: 2016.

Prudential Center, Newark, 1: 2012.

Rogers Arena, Vancouver, 1: 2011.

Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, 1: 2007.

KeyBank Center, Buffalo, 1: 1999.

Miami Arena, 1: 1996.

The Forum, Inglewood (Los Angeles), 1: 1993.

Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, 1: 1975.

Matthews Arena, Boston, 1: 1927.

Patrick Arena, Victoria, 1: 1925.

Mount Royal Arena, Montreal, 1: 1924.

The Arena, Ottawa, 1: 1920.

Seattle Ice Arena, 1: 1919.

How to Be a Devils Fan In Toronto -- 2022 Edition

The Devils visit the Toronto Maple Leafs this coming Wednesday, March 23. There is quite the contrast: The Devils have won 3 Stanley Cups and reached 5 Finals, yet are still seen as one of the newer teams, about to celebrate their 40th Anniversary; while the Leafs, along with the Montreal Canadiens, were an original NHL team, and recently celebrated their 100th Anniversary, and have won 13 Stanley Cups, but haven't won one, or even appeared in the Finals, since 1967, 55 years.

Being in a foreign country has its particular challenges -- and, yes, for all its similarities to America, Canada is still a foreign country.

Before You Go. Make sure you call your bank and tell them you're going. After all, Canada may be an English-speaking country, and a democracy (if a parliamentary one), and a country with a Major League Baseball team, but it is still a foreign country. If your bank gets a record of your ATM card making a withdrawal from any country other than the U.S., it may freeze the card, and any other accounts you may have with them. So be sure to let them know that you will, in fact, be in Canada for a little while.

And, since June 1, 2009, you need a passport to cross the border in either direction. Even if you have a valid driver's license (or other State-issued ID) and your birth certificate, they ain't lettin' you across into the True North Strong and Free. Not even if you're a Blue Jays season-ticket holder living in Buffalo or if you sing hosannas of praise to Wayne Gretzky. You don't have a passport? Get one. You do have one? Make sure it's valid and up to date. This is not something you want to mess with. Canadian Customs officials do not fuck around: They care about their national security, too.

Do yourself another big favor: Change your money before you go. There are plenty of currency exchanges in New York City, including one on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue.

Leave yourself $50 in U.S. cash, especially if you're going other than by plane, so you'll have usable cash when you get back to your side of the border. At last check, on the afternoon of January 10, 2020, US$1.00 = C$1.25 – or, C$1.00 = US 80 cents. However, since the currency exchanges need to make a profit, the current rate may come close to actually favoring Canada.  (I was actually in Canada on the day when it most favored the U.S.: January 18, 2002, $1.60 to $1.00 in our favor.)

The multi-colored bill were confusing on my first visit, although we have those now, too. Most banknotes have not changed since I last regularly did Trip Guides. The $5 bill is still blue, and still features Wilfrid Laurier (Prime Minister 1896-1911). The $20 bill remains green, with the nation's head of state, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. The $50 bill remains red, and features William Lyon Mackenzie King (the longest-serving Prime Minister, 1921-1926, 1926-1930, 1935-1948, including World War II). And the $100 remains yellow, and features Robert Borden (Prime Minister 1911-1920, including World War I).

But the $10 bill has changed. While still purple, it no longer features John A. Macdonald, their 1st Prime Minister (1867-73 and 1878-91). Instead, it features Viola Desmond, the 1st black person, and the 1st woman other than Queen Elizabeth, to appear on Canadian banknotes. She was a businesswoman who, in 1946, challenged racially segregated seating in a movie theater in her native Halifax, Nova Scotia. Essentially, she was Canada's Rosa Parks, 9 years before Mrs. Parks became our Mrs. Desmond.

The tricky part is going to be the coins – and you'll thank me for telling you this, but keep your U.S. coins and your Canadian coins separate, for the simple reason that their penny, nickel, dime and quarter are all the same colors and just about the same size as our respective coins. (To make matters more confusing, as we recently did with our States, they had a Provincial quarter series.)

All coins have Queen Elizabeth's portrait on the front, but she's been Queen since 1952, and depending on how old the coin is, you might get a young woman, or her current 92-year-old self, or anything in between. You might even get a penny or a nickel old enough to feature her father, King George VI. Such a coin is still legal tender, however.

They have a $1 coin, copper-colored, bigger than a quarter, and 11-sided, with a bird on the back. This bird is a loon – not to be confused with the people lunatic enough to buy Maple Leafs season tickets. The coin is thus called the "loonie," although they don't say "ten loonies": They use "buck" for "dollar" the way we would.

In fact, the term is connected to Canada: Their first English settlers were the Hudson's Bay Company, and they set the value of a dollar to the price of the pelt of a male beaver, the male of the species being called, as are those of a deer and a rabbit, a buck. (And the female, a doe.) The nation's French-speakers (Francophones) use the French word for loon, and call it a "huard," but since the Montreal Expos are gone, you probably won't hear that term unless you're a hockey fan and go to see the Rangers, Devils or Islanders in Montreal – or maybe Ottawa, which is on the Ontario-Quebec border and has a lot of French-first-speakers.

Then there's the $2 coin, or "toonie." It's not just two dollars, it's two-toned, and even two-piece. It's got a copper center, with the Queen on the front and a polar bear on the back, and a nickel ring around it. This coin is about the size of the Eisenhower silver dollars we used to have. This is the coin that drives me bonkers when I'm up there.

My suggestion is that, when you first get your money changed before you begin your trip, ask for $1 coins but no $2 coins. It's just simpler. I like Canada a lot, but their money, yikes, eh?

This is Canada, the Great White North, but, in spite of it being January, it won't be all that cold. According to the Toronto Star website, the temperature next Tuesday will be in the low 50s during the day, and the high 30s at night. You'll have to wear a Winter jacket, but you might not need gloves or earmuffs. No rain or snow is predicted.

Toronto is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to reset your watch or fiddle with your smartphone's clock.

Tickets. The Maple Leafs were averaging 19,305 fans per game in 2019-20, the last pre-COVID season, a sellout every game. Supposedly, they haven't played to an unsold seat since World War II, over 70 years ago. Of course, they haven't reached the Stanley Cup Finals since 1967, 55 years ago, so what does that tell you about the people who show up? It tells me that it's idiots who are making tickets hard to come by.

But some tickets will be available. As the Leafs' website says:

Every game we have close to 200 tickets that become available within 48 hours of puck drop.

Why is that? The NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) provides both the league and players with a specific number of ticket holds for every Leafs game at Scotiabank Arena. These seats must be held for them up until 24 or 48 hours before puck drop. More often than not, the league and majority of players decide not to use these tickets, so they are released to you!

Do you want to sit in the same seats as NHL executives and players? Follow the steps below to make sure you're the first to find out when tickets become available.

As for ticket prices, expect them to be freakin' expensive, due to the law of supply and demand. Remember also that they will be listed in Canadian dollars, so they won't be as bad as they first appear, but they should be bad enough. Consider that, in the same arena, Toronto Raptors tickets are much cheaper.

In the lower bowl, Leafs tickets go for C$190 between the goals and C$172 behind them. In the upper level, they're C$127 between and C$95 behind. If you want to try for a scalper, they'll be even higher, but, presuming you are ready, willing and able to pay, you may have a better selection.

Getting There. The best way is by plane. (Note that these prices, unlike the preceding, will be in U.S. dollars.) Air Canada runs flights out of Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia International Airport, and the flight to Toronto's Lester Pearson International Airport takes about an hour and a half. Book on Air Canada today, while they're having a sale, and you can get a round-trip flight for under $500, making this one of the cheapest roadtrips-by-plane in North America. (Pearson was Prime Minster from 1963 to 1968, and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.)

Greyhound runs 8 buses a day from Port Authority Bus Terminal to the Toronto Coach Terminal, at 610 Bay Street. (Countries in the British Commonwealth, including Canada, call a local bus a bus and an inter-city bus a "coach.") The ride averages about 11 hours, and is $264 round-trip, but can drop to $152 with advanced purchase -- one of the cheapest Devils roadtrips.

The TCT is big and clean, although a little confusing, as it seems to be two separate buildings. You shouldn't have any difficulties with it. It's one block down Bay to Dundas Street, and turn left to get to the Dundas subway station.

Amtrak, however, runs just 1 train, the Maple Leaf, in each direction each day between New York and Toronto, in cooperation with Canada's equivalent, VIA Rail. This train leaves Pennsylvania Station at 7:15 AM, spends 4:29 to 5:45 PM at Customs, and arrives at Union Station at 7:41 PM, a trip of 12 hours and 26 minutes. The return trip leaves Toronto at 8:20 AM, reaches the border at 10:22, and gets back to Penn Station at 9:55 PM. Round-trip fare is $262. Be advised, though, that this is one of Amtrak's most popular routes, and it could sell out.

Toronto's Union Station, at 65 Front Street West, is one of the world's great rail terminals, and is the heart of the city. It's the centerpoint of the city's subway system, so it's not just in the heart of the city.

UPDATE: Due to COVID restrictions, Amtrak has canceled the Maple Leaf for the time being, so the train is not an option this time.

If you're driving, it's 500 miles – well, 492 miles from Times Square to downtown Toronto. It's 79 miles from downtown to the closest border crossing, the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge at Niagara Falls.

Get into New Jersey to Interstate 80, and take it all the way across the State. Shortly after crossing the Delaware River and entering Pennsylvania, take I-380, following the signs for Scranton, until reaching I-81. (If you've driven to a game of the Yankees' Triple-A farm team, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, you already know this part.) Take I-81 north into New York State. (If you've driven to a game of the Mets' Double-A farm team, the Binghamton Mets, you already know this part.) Continue on I-81 past Binghamton and to Syracuse, where you'll get on the New York State Thruway, which, at this point, is I-90. Continue on the Thruway west, past Rochester, to Buffalo.

What happens next depends on where you cross the border. But first, let's discuss what you should do when you're actually at the border. Because you need to take this seriously. Because Canadian Customs will.

You'll be asked your citizenship, and you'll have to show your passport and your photo ID. You'll be asked why you're visiting Canada. Seeing a Yankees vs. Blue Jays game probably won't (but might) get you a smart-aleck remark about how the Jays are going to win, but they won't keep you out of their country based on that alone.

If you're bringing a computer with you (counting a laptop, but probably not counting a smartphone), you don't have to mention it, but you probably should. Chances are, you won't be carrying a large amount of food or plants; if you were, depending on how much, you might have to declare them.

Chances are, you won't be bringing alcohol into the country, but you can bring in one of the following items duty-free, and anything above or in addition to this must have duty paid on it: 1.5 litres (53 ounces) of wine, or 8.5 litres (300 ounces or 9.375 quarts) of beer or ale, or 1.14 litres (40 ounces) of hard liquor. If you have the slightest suspicion that I'm getting any of these numbers wrong, check the Canada Customs website. Better yet, don't bring booze in. Or out.

As for tobacco, well, you shouldn't use it. But, either way over the border, you can bring up to 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, and 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco. And, on October 14, 2016, President Obama finally ended the ban on bringing Cuban cigars into America. This also applies to rum, for which Cuba is also renowned. It is still considerably easier to buy these items in Canada than in America, but, now, you can bring them back over the border.

If you've got anything in your car (or, if going by bus or train) that could be considered a weapon, even if it's a disposable razor or nail clippers, tell them. And while Canada does have laws that allow you to bring in firearms if you're a licensed hunter (you'd have to apply for a license to the Province where you plan to hunt), the country has the proper attitude concerning guns: They hate them. They go absolutely batshit insane if you try to bring a firearm into their country. Which, if you're sane, is actually the sane way to treat the issue.

You think I'm being ridiculous? How about this: Seven of the 46 U.S. Presidents -- 9 counting the Roosevelts, Theodore after he was President and Franklin right before -- have faced assassins with guns, 6 got hit and 4 died; but none of the 23 people (including 1 woman) to serve as Prime Minister of Canada has ever faced an assassination attempt. John Lennon recorded "Give Peace a Chance" in Montreal and gave his first "solo concert" in Toronto, but he got shot and killed in New York. In fact, the next time I visit, I half-expect to see a bumper sticker that says, "GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, AMERICANS WITH GUNS KILL PEOPLE."

(Another note about weapons: I'm a fan of the TV show NCIS, which airs in Canada on Global Network TV. If you are also a fan of this show, and you usually observe Gibbs Rule Number 9, "Never go anywhere without a knife," you need to remember that these are rules for members of Gibbs' team, not for civilians. So, this time, forget the knife, and leave it at home. If you really think you're going to need it -- as a tool -- mention the knife to the border guard, and show it to him, and tell him you have it to use as a tool in case of emergency, and that you do not plan to use it as a weapon. Do not mention the words "Rule Number 9" or quote said rule, or else he'll observe his Rule Number 1: "Do not let this jackass into your country, eh?" And another thing: Border guards, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, most likely will observe a variation on Gibbs Rule Number 23: "Never mess with a Mountie's Tim Hortons coffee if you want to live.")

And if you can speak French, don't try to impress the Customs officials with it. Or the locals, for that matter. You're going into Ontario, not Quebec. (And even if you were going into Quebec, they're not going to be impressed by your ability to speak their first language.) A, People of French descent are a minority west of Quebec (although singers Alanis Morrissette and Avril Lavigne are both Franco-Ontarians); and, B, They can probably speak English, let alone French, and possibly another language or two, better than you can. If you try to speak French in Toronto, you won't sound like you're from Montreal, and you certainly won't sound like you're from Paris. You'll sound like a smartass.  That's if you speak French well. If you don't, you'll sound like a damn fool.

When crossing back into the U.S., in addition to what you would have to declare on the way in (if you still have any of it), you would have to declare items you purchased and are carrying with you upon return, items you bought in duty-free shops or (if you flew) on the plane, and items you intend to sell or use in your business, including business merchandise that you took out of the United States on your trip. There are other things, but, since you're just going for baseball, they probably won't apply to you. Just in case, check the Canadian Customs website I linked to above.

Precisely where will you be crossing the border? It could be at the Peace Bridge, built to commemorate the U.S. and Canada having "the world's longest undefended border," from Buffalo into the Ontario city of Fort Erie.

The Peace Bridge

After going through Customs, this would take you right onto the Queen Elizabeth Way (the QEW). After the Pennsylvania Turnpike, this was North America's 2nd superhighway, and was named not for the current Queen but for her mother, the wife of King George VI, the woman most people now under the age of 65 called the Queen Mother or the Queen Mum. (You know: Helena Bonham-Carter in The King's Speech.) This road will hug Lake Ontario and go through the Ontario cities of Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Hamilton before turning north and then east toward Toronto. Toronto's CN Tower is so tall that you may actually see it, across the lake, before you get to Hamilton.

The most common route from Buffalo to Toronto, however, is to go north on I-190, the Thruway's Niagara Extension, to Niagara Falls. After you go through Customs, the road will become Ontario Provincial Highway 405, which eventually flows into the Queen Elizabeth Way.

The Rainbow Bridge

At the edge of the "megacity" of Toronto (Montreal is also now a "megacity"), the QEW becomes the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway. ("Big Daddy" Gardiner was a major Toronto politician, and was responsible for getting it built.) The Gardiner does not have numbers on its exits. If you're only going for the game, and are leaving Toronto right afterward (I don't recommend this this: Spend a day in the city), you'll take the York/Yonge/Bay Street exit to get to the Scotiabank Arena.

If you make 3 rest stops – I would recommend at or near Scranton and Syracuse, and count Customs, where they will have a restroom and vending machines – and if you don't do anything stupid at Customs, such as fail to produce your passport, or flash a weapon, or say you watch South Park (a show with a vendetta against Canada for some reason), or call Sidney Crosby a cheating, diving pansy (even though he is one) – the trip should take about 11 hours.

Though that could become 12, because Toronto traffic is every bit as bad as traffic in New York, Boston and Washington. As Canada native (Regina, Saskatchewan) Leslie Nielsen would have said, I am serious, and don't call me Shirley: Toronto traffic is awful.

Once In the City. Founded as York in 1793, it became the City of Toronto in 1834, the name coming from Taronto, a Native American name for the channel of water between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. There are 2.7 million people in the city, and just under 6 million in the metro area; in each case, making it larger than any in North America except New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- unless you count Mexico to be part of "North America" instead of "Central America," in which case add Mexico City to those that are larger.

Since Canada is in the British Commonwealth, there are certain subtle differences from the U.S. Every measurement will be in the metric system. Dates are written not as Month/Day/Year, as we do it, but as Day/Month/Year as in Britain and in Europe. So, for us, this game will be played on "November 9, 2018," but for them on "9 November 2018." We would write the date as 11/9/18, but they will do so as 09/11/18 -- the 9th of the 11th, not November 9th.

They also follow British custom in writing time: A game starting at 7:00 PM would be listed as 1900. Those of you who have served in the military, you will recognize this as, in the words of M*A*S*H's Lt. Col. Henry Blake, "all that hundred-hours stuff." And every word we would end with -or, they will end with -our; and some (but not all) words that we would end with -er, they end with -re, as in "Centre."

Another thing to keep in mind: Don't ask anyone where the "bathroom" is -- ask for the "washroom." This difference was a particular pet peeve of mine the first time I arrived at the Toronto Coach Terminal, although it wasn't a problem in Montreal's Gare Centrale as I knew the signs would be in French.

Every measurement will be in the metric system: Temperatures will be in Celsius, not Fahrenheit; distances will be in "kilometres," not miles (including speed limits, so don't drive 100 thinking it's miles); and gas prices will be per "litre," not per gallon (so don't think you're getting cheap gas, because a liter is a little more than a quart, so multiply the price by 4, and you'll get roughly the price per gallon, and it will be more expensive than at home, not less).

When you arrive, I would recommend buying the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. The former newspaper is local, the latter is national, and both are liberal enough to suit my sensibilities (or, should I say, sensible enough to suit my liberalism). And The Star has a very good sports section, and should do a good job covering the Jays, although, being a hockey city in a hockey Province in a hockey country, you'll see a lot of stuff about the Maple Leafs and nearby minor-league, collegiate and "junior" hockey teams no matter what time of year it is.

I would advise against buying the Toronto Sun, because it's a right-wing sensationalist tabloid, and every bit the journalistically sloppy rag that the New York Post is. (It also has conservative "sister papers" called the Sun in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary, although the Vancouver Sun is not connected.) The National Post, while also politically conservative (and thus a national competitor for The Globe and Mail), is a broadsheet and thus conservative in the sense that it is calmer and more sensible with its journalism.

If you can get to Union Station after leaving your hotel, you may also be able to get out-of-town papers, including the New York ones, as well as Canadian papers such as the Montreal Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen.

Toronto's sales tax is 13 percent -- in 2010, this replaced the former Provincial sales tax of 5 percent and the federal GST (Goods & Services Tax) of 8 percent. In other words, the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted Canadians to think he'd killed the hated GST, when, in fact, Ontarians (who only make up 36 percent of the country) are paying pretty much the same taxes that they did before. See how stupid it is to vote for conservative candidates? It doesn't work in any country. (And now, Harper is out, and Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau is in, making him and his late father Pierre Trudeau the only father & son PMs in Canadian history.)

Toronto Hydro Corporation runs the area's utilities. The city is about 47 percent white, 21 percent East Asian, 13 percent South Asian, 9 percent black, 4 percent Middle Eastern, 3 percent Hispanic, and 1 percent Aboriginal ("Indian" or "First Nations"). About 47 percent of the population is foreign-born, one of the highest percentages in the world. (For comparison's sake, it's 37 percent in New York City.)

But being multicultural hasn't always meant that Toronto is inclusive. There was a riot against Greeks from August 1 to 5, 1918, in the incorrect belief that Greece wasn't fighting Germany in World War I. And on August 16, 1933, there was the Christie Pits Riot. A baseball game between Harbord Playground, with mostly Jewish and Italian players, and St. Peter's Church, which was supportive of the nascent Nazi movement, was interrupted and ultimately ended by a riot between the teams. 

As if being Canada's national media, culture and finance capital wasn't enough, there's another reason why people outside it, and particularly inside the Province of Ontario, hate Toronto: It's the Provincial capital, its Legislative Building located at Queen's Park, just north of downtown. "Queen's Park" has become slang for the government, or for perceived government corruption.

The Ontario Legislative Building.

It looks more collegiate than political.

Union Station is at the intersection of Bay & Front Streets. Bay runs north-south, and divides Toronto's east and west sides, and the street numberings thereof; the lake serves as the "zero point" for streets running north and south, and thus there's no North and South on street names. Bay Street is also Canada's "Wall Street," the center of Toronto's financial district, and is not particularly well-liked by, well, anybody who isn't conservative in Canada. Unlike the New York Stock Exchange at Wall & Broad, however, the Toronto Stock Exchange is at King & York, not on Bay. Toronto has no freeway or tollway that serves as a "beltway."

Toronto has a subway, Canada's oldest, opened in 1954 and known locally as "the Rocket." (I'll bet Montrealers hated that, since it was the nickname of their beloved hockey star Maurice Richard, well before future Blue Jay and Yankee Roger Clemens was even born.)

Along with Philadelphia, it was 1 of the last 2 subway systems in North America that still used tokens, but they have phased them out in favor of a farecard system, in their case known as the Presto Card. The fare is C$3.00 (US$2.29), and a DayPass is C$13.00 (US$9.92).

Toronto also runs a light rail system, calling the vehicles "streetcars" as they always have. The same fare system applies.

The drinking age in Ontario is 19. Postal Codes in Toronto begin with the letter M, and those in the suburbs with L. The Area Codes are 416 for the city and 905 in the suburbs, with 437 as an overlay.

Going In. It's no longer the Air Canada Centre (ACC), a.k.a. "The Hangar": In 2018, naming rights were bought by a bank, and it's now the Scotiabank Arena. It is at 40 Bay Street. Opening in 1999, it has been the home of the Raptors and the Maple Leafs ever since. It is 1 of 10 current arenas to be home to both an NBA team and an NHL team.

The east entrance, with the CN Tower behind it

From the arena website:

The Galleria is a public walkway running east to west at the north end of Scotiabank Arena. It is a covered, climate-controlled walkway that houses the Ticket Office and public entrances to CentreSports and Union Market. The east end Galleria entrance features a display of historical artifacts from the original Canada Post Delivery Building.

Maple Leaf Square is a vibrant global entertainment destination located just outside Gate 6 of Scotiabank Arena. Connected to the city's transit system and underground PATH network, Maple Leaf Square is a touchstone linking visitors and residents to Toronto's vast cultural tapestry. Maple Leaf Square includes: Real Sports Bar & Grill, E11even Restaurant, Hôtel Le Germain and much more.

Both teams, and the arena, are owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The company knows on which side its bread is buttered: The board named the company after Canada's most popular, and yet most underachieving, sports team. It is the successor company to Maple Leaf Gardens, Ltd., founded by Leafs boss Conn Smythe in 1931.

The company also owns the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (named for the Ontario Hockey League's old Toronto Marlboros, a longtime Leafs farm team), Raptors 905 of the NBA Development League (based in adjoining Mississauga and named for their Area Code), and Major League Soccer's Toronto FC.

Having already hosted the NHL All-Star Game in its 1st season, 1999-2000, the Arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 2016, and hosted all the games of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, won on home ice by Canada.

Most likely, you will be entering from the north, through Union Station -- especially if you took the subway, to Union Station subway stop. Hopefully, if you drove into Toronto, you will have left your car in a hotel's parking deck. You could get a space nearby for as little as C$6.00 (US$4.58), but it's more likely to be at least C$10.00 (US$7.63). The rink is laid out east-to-west, and the Leafs attack twice toward the west end.

Food. According to the Arena website:

Forty concessions are featured on the two public concourses, including a food market adjacent to the Galleria that is open to the public on non-event days.

Concessions at Scotiabank Arena offer interesting food choices under the banner of the "Union Market Food Co." The market theme presented at Scotiabank Arena s inspired by Toronto's local St. Lawrence and Kensington Markets, and is evident throughout our selection of fresh, quality foods displayed at our Grill, Deli, Café, Trattoria and Food Co. concepts. 

Local vendors such as Pizza Pizza, Mr. Sub, and Tim Hortons are featured in these locations to provide fans with premium fare and highlight the "crowd pleasing" brands Toronto has to offer. In addition to the normal arena fare of pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, pretzels and candies, we also offer a wide selection of hot carved sandwiches, sushi and kosher foods. 

Crown Corner is a vibrant, modern bar with a view of the arena bowl as well as a western view of the Toronto skyline. Open to the ticketed public at all sports events and many other arena events, Crown Corner features a full concession service of premium menu items and provides a large socializing environment with seating before and during the game. 

• Location: West side of Level 300; accessed via Level 300 concourse and Gate 5 elevators and escalators 

Molson Brew House is located on the south side of the main concourse and has an attached brewery by Molson, under the careful eye of brew master Paul Swindle. The brewery provides the Rickard's Red beer served at Scotiabank Arena. In addition, various grilled and prepared foods from The Carvery complement the energized atmosphere under the copper hooded open kitchen. 

• Location: South side of Level 100 concourse

Team History Displays. Unlike the Raptors, who don't have much of a history even with their 2019 NBA title, the Leafs have nothing but history, and it is getting more and more ancient all the time. Remember how we Devils fans ridiculed Ranger fans for not winning the Stanley Cup for 54 years? Well, the Leafs have now surpassed that. And at least the Rangers made the Finals 3 times in their 55 years. The Leafs haven't.

The Leafs only hang banners for their 13 Stanley Cups, not for Conference Championships (they don't have any -- Finals berths that ended in defeat prior to 1982 don't count), not for Division Championships that fell short of Cup wins (1933, 1934, 1935, 1938 and... 2000; "Playoff Championships" in the old Norris Division don't count, either). And their last Cup was won on May 2, 1967, and the surviving CBS telecast is in black and white. 

I've often compared the Leafs to an underachieving soccer team in London: They're the Tottenham Hotspur of Canada. They're a club that wears blue and white in the biggest city in the country, and the national media loves them, but they're well behind a team in red (although, unlike "Spurs" with fellow North Londoners Arsenal, the Leafs don't have to share a Province, let alone a city or a neighborhood, with the Canadiens), and they haven't won their League since the 1960s. As Arsenal fans taunt Spurs fans, "You won the League in black & white!"

Banners for the Leafs' 6 most recent Stanley Cups.

Still, only 3 other NHL teams have won at least 6 Cups.

Although they've only used the Maple Leafs name, which they took from a minor-league baseball team that played its last season in 1968, since 1927, and were previously called the Toronto Arenas (1917-19) and the Toronto St. Patricks (1919-27), the Leafs have been playing longer in the same city than all but 11 teams in all of North American major league sports. They've won more World Championships than all but 4 teams. And only 2 teams belong to both categories: The Yankees and the Canadiens.

Yet, for all their history, going back a century, until 2016, the Leafs were not loaded with retired uniform numbers. They had a very slim parameter for retiring numbers: It was only for players "who have made a significant contribution to the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and have experienced a career-ending incident while a member of the Maple Leaf team."

Until 2016, they decided that only 2 players met this criteria. On December 12, 1933, right wing Irvine Wallace "Ace" Bailey, a member of their 1932 Stanley Cup winners, suffered a head injury after being knocked to the ice by Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins. Three times, it was incorrectly reported by newspapers that he had died. He recovered, but his playing career was over.

The Leafs held a benefit game for him on February 14, 1934, which became recognized as the 1st NHL All-Star Game, and they announced that no player would ever again wear his Number 6. One exception was made: In 1968, Bailey himself asked that Ron Ellis, a member of the 1967 Cup winners who had previously worn Number 8, be given Number 6, which he wore for the rest of his career, until 1980. Bailey managed to work in hockey until 1984 and live until 1992,

The Leafs players, who beat the rest of the NHL 7-3, were: Goaltender George Hainsworth (better known from the Montreal Canadiens); defensemen Red Horner, Alex Levinsky, Hap Day and King Clancy; left wings Baldy Cotton, Busher Jackson, Hec Kilrea and Buzz Boll; centers Joe Primeau and Bill Thoms; and right wings Charlie Conacher, Ken Doraty and Charlie Sands. (Jackson, Primeau and Conacher were known as the Kid Line.)

On August 26, 1951, just 4 months after his overtime goal against the Montreal Canadiens won Game 5 and the Stanley Cup -- making him hockey's "Bobby Thomson" 38 days before Thomson etched his name into baseball history -- defenseman Bill Barilko was killed in a plane crash on a hunting trip. He was only 24, but had already played on 4 Cup winners. His Number 5 was packed away, and no Leaf has worn it since.

At some point, probably after Bailey's death on April 7, 1992 at age 88, someone discovered that there was never a retirement ceremony for his number or for Barilko's. So, on October 17, 1992, the night of the Leafs' 1st home game of the next season, banners with those numbers were raised to the rafters at Maple Leaf Gardens. In 2000, the brand-new Air Canada Centre hosted the All-Star Game, and those banners, and the newly-announced league-wide retirement for Number 99 of Wayne Gretzky, were raised. 

In 1993, the Leafs announced their Honoured Number program: They would raise banners to the rafters featuring pictures of team legends, but not retire the numbers, as sort of a team hall of fame. But on October 15, 2016, at the start of their 100th Anniversary season, they decided to drop the pretense, and retire the Honoured Numbers.

The honorees (or, since this is the British Commonwealth, "honourees"), along with the 2 previously mentioned, 18 of them with 12 numbers, are:

* 1, goaltenders Walter "Turk" Broda, 1937-52; and Johnny Bower, 1959-70.
* 4, defenseman Clarence "Hap" Day, 1924-37; and center Leonard "Red" Kelly, 1961-67.
* 5, defenseman Bill Barilko, 1945-51.
* 6, right wing Irvine "Ace" Bailey, 1926-33.
* 7, defenseman Francis "King" Clancy, 1931-37; and Tim Horton, 1950-70.
* 9, right wing Charlie Concacher, 1930-38; and Ted "Teeder" Kennedy, 1943-57.
* 10, center Syl Apps, 1937-48; and right wing George Armstrong, 1950-71.
* 13, center Mats Sundin, 1994-2008.
* 17, left wing Wendel Clark, 1985-2000.
* 21, defenseman Borje Salming, 1973-89.
* 27, left wing Frank Mahovlich, 1957-68; and center Darryl Sittler, 1970-82.
* 93, center Doug Gilmour, 1991-2003.

Notice the different color to Bailey's banner,

to show that it was then retired, not merely "honoured."

In contrast, they have had 60 players make the Hockey Hall of Fame, and 37 of them could legitimately be called Leafs Hall-of-Famers:

* From the 1918 and 1922 Cup winners: Samuel "Rusty" Crawford, Harry Cameron, Reg Noble and Cecil "Babe" Dye. Jack Bickell began serving as the team's financier and part-owner during this period, and was elected to the Hall as a "Builder."

* From the 1932 Cup winners: Day, Bailey, Clancy, Conacher, George "Red" Horner, Joe Primeau and Harvey "Busher" Jackson. This was the 1st great team built by head coach, general manager and part-owner Conn Smythe, with assistance from Frank Selke and Smythe's successor as head coach, Dick Irvin Sr. Also Builders Bickell and broadcaster Foster Hewitt.

* From the Cup winners of the 1940s (at least one of 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951): Broda, Kennedy, Apps, Walter "Babe" Pratt, Gordie Drillon, Harry Watson, Max Bentley and Fern Flaman. Also Builders Bickell, Smythe, Selke, Irvin and Hewitt. Bud Poile played for the Leafs at this time, but was elected to the Hall as a Builder for what he did with other teams. Howie Meeker played for the Leafs at this time, but was elected as a Broadcaster.

* From the 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967 Cup winners: Bower, Kelly, Horton, Armstrong, Mahovlich, Allan Stanley, Bert Olmstead, Bob Pulford, Dave Keon, Dick Duff, Marcel Pronovost and Terry Sawchuk.

Also Builders Smythe, Hewitt, head coach and general manager George "Punch" Imlach, and executive Harold Ballard, elected despite nearly destroying 2 great Canadian sports institutions, the Leafs and the other team he owned, the CFL's Toronto Argonauts. Al Arbour played for the Leafs in this period, and was a very good player, but was elected as a Builder for coaching the Islanders to their 4 straight Stanley Cups.

* From the 1970s: Norm Ullman. Also Builder Ballard.

* From the 1978 team that reached the Stanley Cup Semifinals: Sittler, Salming and Lanny McDonald. Also Builders Ballard, general manager Jim Gregory and head coach Roger Neilson, although Neilson is in more for the coaching he did elsewhere.

* From the 1993 and 1994 teams that reached the Eastern Conference Finals: Gilmour and left wing Dave Andreychuk. Also general manager Cliff Fletcher, although he's in more for building the Calgary Flames into a Stanley Cup winner; and head coach Pat Burns, although he's in more for coaching the Devils to a Stanley Cup.

* From the 1999 team that reached the Conference Finals: Sundin. (Gilmour and Clark were traded away, and later reacquired.) Head coach and general manager Pat Quinn, who had also played for the Leafs, was posthumously elected as a Builder, although his most successful tenure as such was with the Vancouver Canucks.

So, only 7 players in the last 55 years. That shows you how things have gone for the Leafs. 

Henderson, Salming, Quinn and Sundin have been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame. Sawchuk, Pulford, Poile, and former general manager Brian Burke have been awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in America.

In 2014, the Leafs dedicated Legends Row, a series of statues outside the Scotiabank Arena. They now include Bower, Kennedy, Apps, Armstrong, Sundin, Salming and Sittler.

Dye, Clancy, Conacher, Primeau, Jackson, Pratt, Apps, Broda, Kennedy, Bentley, Horton, Bower, Sawchuk, Kelly, Mahovlich, Keon, Sittler, Salming and 1930s goalie Lorne Chabot (not a member of the Hall of Fame) were named to The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players in 1998. Mahovlich also played for the Toronto Toros of the World Hockey Association, and was named to the WHA All-Time Team.

Clancy, Conacher, Apps, Broda, Kennedy, Bentley, Horton, Kelly, Bower, Mahovlich, Keon, Sawchuk, Sittler, Salming and Sundin were named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in January.

Horner, Conacher and Jackson also played for the NHL All-Stars in the Howie Morenz Memorial Game in Montreal in 1937. Apps and Gordie Drillon played for the NHL All-Stars in the Babe Siebert Memorial Game in Montreal in 1939.

As defending Champions, the Leafs hosted the 1st official NHL All-Star Game at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1947, losing 4-3 to a team of NHL All-Stars. Their lineup consisted of: Goaltender Broda; defensemen Barilko, Bob Goldham, Wally Stanowski, Vic Lynn, Gus Mortson and Jimmy Thomson; left wings Harry Watson, Gaye Stewart and Joe Klukay; centers Apps, Kennedy, Bud Poile and Fleming Mackell; and right wings Don Metz, Bill Ezinicki and Howie Meeker, who would later be elected to the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster.

Ron Ellis and Paul Henderson, who ended up scoring the winning goal, played for Canada in the 1972 Summit Series with the Soviet Union. So did Frank Mahovlich, although he was no longer with the Leafs at the time.

They are thus members of Canada's Walk of Fame. So are Bower and Sittler -- but not such Leaf legends as Smythe, Conacher, Apps, Kennedy, Armstrong, or even Horton, now better known for baking and brewing and scoring and defending. The Walk has 168 inductees, including 30 athletes, 12 of them hockey figures. In addition to the preceding: Non-Leafs Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and 1 woman, Hayley Wickenheiser. Also a coach, Scotty Bowman; and broadcasters Don Cherry and Ron MacLean.

No member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team went on to play for the Leafs.

The Leafs' ancient rivalry with the Montreal Canadiens has not gone in their favor (or "favour") very often. The Canadiens lead it, 397-326-88. They've played each other in 13 Playoff series, although none since 1979. The Leafs have won 6, including the Finals of 1947, 1951 and 1967; while the Habs have won in the Finals in 1959 and 1960.

The Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, has been won by the following Ontario-based teams:

* Toronto: University of Toronto Schools, 1919; Toronto Canoe Club, 1920; Toronto Marlboros (now Toronto Marlies), a Leafs farm team, 1929, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1967, 1973 and 1975; Toronto St. Michael's Majors (a.k.a. St. Mike's), 1934, 1945, 1947 and 1961; Newmarket Redmen, 1933; West Toronto Nationals, 1936; Oshawa Generals, 1939, 1940, 1944, 1990 and 2015 (but not in 1963, '64, '65 or '66, when they had Bobby Orr); Barrie Flyers, 1951 and 1953; and Peterborough Petes, 1979.

* Hamilton: Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters, 1952; Hamilton Red Wings, 1962; Hamilton Fincups, 1976; Kitchener Rangers, 1982 and 2003; Guelph Platers, 1986; and London Knights, 2005 and 2016.

* Niagara Falls: St. Catharines Teepees, 1954 and 1960; and Niagara Falls Flyers, 1965 and 1968.

* Windsor, across the Detroit River from Detroit: Windsor Spitfires, 2009, 2010 and 2017.

* Owen Sound: Owen Sound Greys, 1924 and 1927.

* Ottawa: Ottawa-Hull Junior Canadiens, 1958; Cornwall Royals, 1972, 1980 and 1981; and Ottawa 67's, 1984 and 1999.

* Sudbury: Sudbury Cub Wolves, 1932.

* Thunder Bay: Fort William Great War Vets, 1922; and Port Arthur West End Bruins, 1948.

* Sault Ste. Marie: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 1993.

Stuff. There is a team store, or rather a teams store, at ACC. From the arena website:

Located at Gate 1, Scotiabank Arena, Real Sports Apparel is 3,000 square-feet of the most authentic sports retail experience outside of the locker room. Located just steps from the ice and from the court, Real Sports Apparel brings fans closer to the action in a 360-degree mecca to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and Toronto Marlies. Specializing in on-site jersey personalization, exclusive merchandise collections and game-worn gear, Real Sports Apparel is as a must-stop shop for Toronto's most passionate fans.

Not surprising, given their long and (non-recent) achievement-laden history, and their place in the national consciousness, the Leafs are very well represented in print and on video. The sports staff of The Toronto Star recently published 100 Years in Blue and White: A Century of Hockey in Toronto. Stephen J. Harper (not the recently-defeated Prime Minister) wrote A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & the Rise of Professional Hockey, about the 1918 and 1922 Cup winners.

Who is the defining figure in Leafs history? From the 1920s until the 1950s, it was Constantine Falkland Cary Smythe. An officer in the Canadian Army in both World Wars, he built Maple Leaf Gardens at the depth of the Great Depression, and built what was (at the time) the greatest dynasty in hockey history.

He was cheap as hell to his players, and even removed a large portrait of Canada's head of State, Queen Elizabeth II, from one end of the Gardens, to install a few thousand more seats. "She doesn't pay admission, does she?" On the other hand, he was a great donor to children's charities and, after his wife's death in 1965, to cancer fundraisers. He didn't found the NHL like George Halas essentially founded the NFL, but he was, pretty much, the Halas of hockey. Kelly McParland wrote The Lives of Conn Smythe: From the Battlefield to Maple Leaf Gardens: A Hockey Icon's Story.

With the Leafs' Cup winners of the 1960s being the touchstone for Canada's Anglophone Baby Boomers, lots of books have been written about them, including Kevin Shea and Paul Patskou's
Toronto Maple Leafs: Diary of a Dynasty, 1957-1967.

Smythe made the mistake of selling the team not to his son Stafford, but to a group that Stafford led, which included Harold Ballard. Ballard ended up ruining the team after the last Cup in 1967. (Unlike that other Connie of a team stuck in the past, Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics, who didn't trust his sons enough, Connie Smythe trusted his son too much.)

Ballard was often compared to George Steinbrenner, with his micromanaging and too-quick willingness to fire everyone from coaches to low-level employees. The difference? When Ballard was taken out of the way in 1990 (by death, not suspension), the franchise's 1990s recovery was far from complete; he was not willing to spend whatever it took to win; he overlooked far worse things (the kind of things Vincent Priore has only alleged in his book Abused by the Yankees, and can't prove), and, when he was indicted, he was unwilling to cut a deal, and actually did go to prison.

And, unlike Steinbrenner, his image has never been rehabilitated. The Ballard era, in which he was sole owner from 1971 until his death in 1990, and still casting a shadow over them, inspired the title of Peter Robinson's 2012 book Hope and Heartbreak in Toronto: Life as a Maple Leafs Fan. Last year, YouTuber and hockey blogger Steve "Dangle" Glynn published a book titled This Team Is Ruining My Life (But I Love Them): How I Became a Professional Hockey Fan.

In 2001, on the 75th Anniversary of the Maple Leafs name (1927-28 to 2001-02), a DVD was released, titled 75, Forever: The Tradition of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As the team hasn't done much since, this is as close as you'll come to a definitive video history.

Toronto Maple Leafs: 10 Great Leafs and Their Most Memorable Games was released in 2009, and includes: Game 6 of the 1964 Stanley Cup Finals, in which Bobby Baun played on a broken ankle and scored the overtime winner to beat the Detroit Red Wings (and played in Game 7, too); the 1967 Game 6 Cup-clincher against Montreal; Game 7 of the Quarterfinals in 1978, won by Lanny McDonald against the Islanders in overtime; Ken Wregget's shutout of the St. Louis Blues to advance in 1987, although calling Wregget a "Great Leaf" is a bit of a stretch, he's usually thought of as a Pittsburgh Penguin from their 1991 and '92 Cups; Nikolai Borschevsky's Game 7 overtime winner eliminating the Wings in 1993, although he's hardly a "great" and probably isn't remembered for anything else; Gilmour's double-overtime winner eliminating the Blues in 1993; Clark's 2-goal performance in a Game 7 against the San Jose Sharks in 1994; an overtime winner by Sundin to eliminate the Ottawa Senators in 2001; Gary Roberts' triple-overtime winner against the Ottawa Senators in Game 2 in 2002; and Roberts' 2-goal performance in Game 6 of that same series, setting up a victorious Game 7. Oddly, Sittler's 10-point game against the Boston Bruins in 1976 is not included, possibly because it was a regular-season game, and these others are all Playoff games.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases. Somebody had to be listed 1st, and they named the Maple Leafs' fans: "No fans show up as faithfully and pay so much money to watch their team lose." Of course, THN is based in Toronto, so there's some bias there.

You do not need to fear wearing your Devils gear to the Scotiabank Arena. Although quite a few U.S.-based crime dramas (and other shows, and films, particularly those that supposedly take place in Chicago) have been filmed in and around Toronto, it's not a particularly crime-ridden city. Just don't remind anyone that the Leafs haven't won the Cup, or even been to the Finals since the Sixties.

Since you're in Canada, there will be two National Anthems sung. "The Star-Spangled Banner" will probably be sung by about half of the few dozen Devils fans who show up, but "O Canada" will be sung by the home fans with considerable gusto. The Leafs have a regular singer for the Anthems, but, in defiance of both their history and Canada's status as an English and French country, it is an 20-year-old Latina, Martina Ortiz Luis, who's already won local and national awards for singing in Canada.

The Leafs have many celebrity fans. Neil Young famously wore jeans with Leafs patches while performing on Saturday Night Live in 1989, and later SNL star Mike Myers, like Young a Toronto native, wore Leafs jerseys as Dr. Evil in Austin Powers in Goldmember and as Guru Pitka in the film that wrecked his career, The Love Guru.

But their most famous individual fan is Jason Maslakow, a.ka. Dart Guy. Apparently, in Toronto, "dart" is slang for "cigarette." He went to games with his face and beard painted in Leafs colors, with an unlit cigarette hanging in his mouth all game long. He says he has since quit smoking, but not -- sorry, Elaine Benes -- the face-and-beard painting.

Martina and Dart Guy

The Leafs' mascot is a polar bear, Carlton the Bear. He wears Number 60, and both his name and his number refer to Maple Leaf Gardens, which is at 60 Carlton Street.

This bear is hugging a redhead, because he's hated blondes

ever since he caught one eating his Tim Hortons porridge.

The Leafs' theme song is "Blue & White" by Jay-Dee. (Not to be confused with Jay-Z.) Their goal song is by, ironically, a band named the American Authors: "Best Day of My Life." The fans' main chant is the rather ordinary "Go, Leafs, go!"

After the Game. Toronto is an international city, every bit as much as New York is, and some of these people may have cut their teeth as sports fans in European soccer. But we're not talking about hooligans here. Canadians are stereotypically polite, and you're not rooting for Montreal or Ottawa. Almost certainly, they will leave you alone.

To the south, if you walk under the Gardiner Expressway, you'll find a pub named The Fox at 35 Bay Street. The Miller Tavern is at 31 Bay Street. And Harbour Sixty Steakhouse is at 60 Harbour Street. To the west, Real Sports Bar & Grill is at 15 York Street, across Bremner Blvd. from the ACC. Hoops Sports Bar & Grill is at 125 Bremner Blvd., 2 blocks west of the ACC.

I would also advise avoiding Jack Astor's, a smart-alecky-named chain of Canadian restaurants that includes one at 144 Front Street West, a block west of Union Station. I ate there the last time I was in Toronto, and the food and service would be mediocre at half the price. They have only one location in the U.S. -- not surprisingly, in nearby Buffalo, at the Walden Galleria east of downtown.

Next-door to Jack Astor's is the Loose Moose Tap & Grill, at 146 Front Street West. There, as they say, you'll "eat like a king then party like a rock star!" You'll be dining like a typical Torontonian, rather than with guys likely to jump into the Monty Python "Lumberjack Song." (If you've never seen that sketch, let me put it this way: Don't ask, and I won't tell.) 

Actually, your best bet may be, as Vancouver native Cobie Smulders of the TV series How I Met Your Mother would put it, "the most Canadian place there is": Tim Hortons. (Note that there is no apostrophe: It's "Hortons," not "Horton's," because Quebec's ridiculous protect-the-French-language law prohibits apostrophes and the company wanted to keep the same national identity throughout the Provinces.)

They also sell sandwiches, soup, chili, and even (some of you will perk up faster than if you'd drunk their coffee) New York-style cheesecake. It's fast food, but good food. I rate them behind Dunkin Donuts, but ahead of Starbucks.

Tim Horton, a defenceman (that's how they spell it up there) for the Maple Leafs, and businessman Ron Joyce started the doughnut/coffee shop chain in 1964, while in the middle of the Maple Leafs' 1960s dynasty. He played a couple of years for the Rangers, then went to the Buffalo Sabres and opened a few outlets in the Buffalo area. He was still playing at age 44, and the only thing that stopped him was death. Specifically, a 100-MPH, not-wearing-a-seat-belt crash on the Queen Elizabeth Way over Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines, Ontario. (In other words, if you're driving or taking the bus from New York to Toronto, you'll pass the location.)

Joyce, whose son Ron Jr. married Horton's daughter Jeri-Lyn, joined with Dave Thomas of Wendy's and merged the two companies in 1995, becoming its largest shareholder, with even more shares than Thomas. Although the companies have since split again, it was mutually beneficial, as Wendy's gained in Canada and Timmy's poked their heads in the U.S. door.

There are now over 3,000 Tim Hortons locations in Canada, including inside the Scotiabank Arena, one at Toronto's Union Station, and several on Canadian Forces Bases around the world. There's now over 500 in the U.S., and they're heavily expanding in New York, including 3 in the Penn Station complex alone (despite Horton himself only briefly having played for the Rangers upstairs at the "new" Madison Square Garden). They are also partnered with Cold Stone Creamery, with an outlet on 42nd Street, a 2-minute walk from Port Authority. These Hosers know what they're doing.

I can find no reference to a bar or restaurant in Toronto where New Yorkers are known to gather. If your visit to Toronto is during the European soccer season, as we currently are, and you want to see your favorite club play, there's the Midtown Gastro Hub, at 1535 Yonge St., Line 1 to St. Clair; and the Madison Avenue Pub, 14 Madison Avenue, Line 2 to Spadina.

Sidelights. Being the largest and most influential city in Canada, Toronto is loaded with tourist traps. This has been spoofed in "The Toronto Song," a bit by the Edmonton-based comedy trio Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. (It's not obvious that 3DTB are from Edmonton until the end of the song, by which point they've said everything in Ontario sucks, as do all the other Provinces, except "Alberta doesn't suck – but Calgary does.")

They're not far off.  Toronto is much cleaner than most American cities: U.S. film crews, trying to save money by filming there, have had to throw garbage onto the streets so it would look more like New York, Boston, Chicago or Los Angeles, and then they have to do it again between takes, because the street-sweepers clean it up that quickly.  But the city does have slums, a serious homeless problem, ridiculous rents, never-ending lakefront high-rise construction (mirroring recent New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg's similar projects), and their share of metalheads, punks, Goths and chavs.

I wouldn't call now-long-parted Mayor David Miller a dork, as 3DTB did, although his predecessor, Mel Lastman, was often a Canadian version of Rudy Giuliani. With better hair. You may have heard about recent Mayor Rob Ford: He was a crook, an alcoholic and a crackhead, who was just barely able, through legal action, to keep his office. Alas, cancer prevented him from running for re-election, and he recently died. The current Mayor is John Tory, and his conservatism makes him aptly-named.

Torontonians can't quite decide whether they want to be Canada's New York (national media, culture and finance capital, home of the CBC and CTV, and Bay Street is their "Wall Street"), Canada's Chicago (a gritty blue-collar "drinking town with a sports problem"), or Canada's L.A. (movie-filming center.) Actually, Montreal is Canada's New York (international city, city of islands, great food city, great neighborhood city), Hamilton its Chicago, and Vancouver its L.A.

Toronto is... Toronto is something else. Scientists have yet to figure out what. But check out these locations:

* Hockey Hall of Fame. If you go to Toronto and you don't go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, they should deport you from Canada and never let you back in. This place is great, and the actual Stanley Cup is there. Well, 2 of them are, the original bowl that was so damaged that they replaced it in 1970, plus some of the bands with old-time winners on it, and a display copy. The one that gets awarded every year is also stored there in preparation for its annual awarding, then gets to go wherever the winning team' players want to take it for almost a year.

You'll also see why Canadians call hockey jerseys "sweaters": They used to be sweaters, as you'll see in the display cases. You'll also see why they're not sweaters anymore: Holes where they were eaten by moths. Hockey eventually got that right.

They also got the location for their Hall of Fame right: While it's not clear where hockey was invented, and the NHL was founded in Montreal, they put their Hall of Fame in an easily accessible city, unlike baseball (hard-to-reach Cooperstown, New York is not where baseball was invented), basketball (Springfield, Massachusetts is where it was invented, but it's a depressing town), and pro football (Canton, Ohio is where the NFL was founded, but it's so drab and bleak it makes Springfield look like Disney World… Sorry, Thurman).

30 Yonge Street, blocked by Yonge, Front, Bay and Wellington. Union Station stop on the TTC subway.

* Rogers Centre. Opening in 1989 as the SkyDome and as the 1st retractable-roof stadium in the world, the Blue Jays and the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts have played here ever since.

The Jays won back-to-back World Series while playing here in 1992 and 1993, while the Argos have won 5 Grey Cups since moving in: 1991, 1996, 1997, 2004 and 2012. The last was won at Rogers Centre. (Like its American counterpart, the Super Bowl, the Grey Cup Final is held at a preselected site, but with only 9 teams in the CFL, it has a far lesser chance of turning out to be a neutral site than the Super Bowl does.)

It hosted the Vanier Cup, the National Championship of Canadian college football, from 1989 to 2003, and again in 2007 and 2012. The Three Tenors -- Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras -- sang there on January 4, 1997.

The official address is 1 Blue Jays Way, and it's bordered by Front Street and the railroad on the north, a walkway separating it from the CN Tower complex on the east, Bremner Blvd. and the Gardiner Expressway on the south, and a walkway leading into Blue Jays Way leading into Peter Street on the west. Public transportation access isn't very good, so your best bet is to walk in from Union Station, nearly a mile away.

* Exhibition Place. The Canadian National Exhibition is kind of a nationwide "State Fair." It was on the grounds, off Princes Boulevard, that Exhibition Stadium, or the Big X, stood from 1948 to 1999. It was home to the Blue Jays from 1977 to 1989 and the Argonauts from 1959 to 1988. It hosted only one MLB postseason series, the 1985 ALCS, which the Jays lost to the Kansas City Royals.

It hosted Soccer Bowl '81, which ended 0-0, and then the Chicago Sting beat the New York Cosmos 2-1 on penalties. It hosted 12 Grey Cups (Canadian Super Bowls), although only one featured the Argos, and that was the 1982 game, won by the Edmonton Eskimos in a freezing rain, with fans chanting, "We want a dome!"

The SkyDome/Rogers Centre project soon began, and Exhibition Stadium never hosted another Grey Cup. Rogers Centre has now hosted 4, including the 100th, in November 2012, which the Argos won over the Calgary Stampeders. Exhibition Stadium hosted the Vanier Cup from 1973 to 1975.

BMO Field (pronounced "BEE-moh"), home of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and Major League Soccer's rather unimaginatively-named Toronto FC, was built on the site of Exhibition Stadium. The parking lot immediately south of BMO Field has plaques embedded in the pavement where home plate and the other three bases were once located at "The Big X."

BMO hosted the 2010 MLS Cup Final, in which the Colorado Rapids beat FC Dallas. It hosted the 2016 Grey Cup, in which the Ottawa Redblacks beat the Calgary Stampeders.

On New Year's Day 2017, in connection with the 100th Anniversary of both the League and the Maple Leafs, it hosted the NHL Centennial Classic, an outdoor game. Temporary seating brought the crowd to a house record 40,148. The Leafs blew a 4-1 lead with 8 minutes to go in regulation, as the Detroit Red Wings came to tie, but the Leafs won 5-4 (shades of the 1945 Stanley Cup Finals between the teams), on an overtime goal by Auston Matthews -- a 19-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area, who nonetheless wrote his name into Toronto's hockey history.

On October 15, 2019, BMO Field hosted Canada's 2-0 win over the U.S., their 1st win over our team since 1985. North America won a joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup. BMO Field was chosen as 1 of Canada's 2 sites, the others being BC Place in Vancouver.

Exhibition stop on the Lakeshore West line of GO, Toronto's commuter-rail service out of Union Station.

* Varsity Stadium and Varsity Arena. The home of the athletic complex of the University of Toronto, it includes the 3rd Varsity Stadium on the site, replacing one that stood from 1911 to 2002 and the one before that from 1898 to 1911. It only seats 5,000, but its predecessor could hold 21,739, and hosted more Grey Cups than any other facility, 29, from 1911 to 1957.

The Varsity Blues have won the Yates Cup, emblematic of supremacy in Ontario college football, 25 times from 1898 to 1993; the Vanier Cup, Canada's National Championship, in 1965 and 1993; and, as with their hockey team, they were once much bigger, or perhaps the competition was much smaller, they won the 1st 3 Grey Cups, in 1909, 1910 and 1911, and a 4th in 1920. 

The current Varsity Stadium, with its blue running track,

and Varsity Arena behind the press box

Unlike Exhibition Stadium, the Argos won 9 of their 16 Grey Cups at home at Varsity Stadium: 1914, 1921, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950 and 1952. (They also won at Sarnia in 1933, Vancouver in 1983, Winnipeg in 1991, Hamilton in 1996, Edmonton in 1997 and Ottawa in 2004.) It hosted the Vanier Cup from its inaugural game in 1965 to 1972, and again from 1976 to 1988.

Varsity Stadium was home to the various Toronto teams in the North American Soccer League, and was the location of the one and only visit to Canada thus far by North London soccer giants Arsenal, a 1-0 over a team called Toronto Select on May 23, 1973. And it hosted what turned out to be the last NASL game, the 2nd leg of Soccer Bowl '84, with the Toronto Blizzard losing 3-2 to the Chicago Sting.

It hosted the 1969 Rock 'n Roll Revival Concert, as shown in the film Sweet Toronto, featuring John Lennon and his Plastic Ono Band (of course, with Yoko Ono, but also with Eric Clapton), the Doors, Alice Cooper, and founding fathers of rock Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. This was the concert where a live chicken was thrown at Cooper from the seats, and he threw it back, thinking it could fly, but it died, thus beginning his legend.

Next-door is Varsity Arena, built in 1926 and seating 4,116 people. The Varsity Blues have won 10 National Championships in hockey: 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977 and 1984. They used to be much bigger, including serving as the Canadian team at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, winning the Gold Medal. The Arena was also the home of the Toronto Toros of the World Hockey Association in the 1973-74 season.

Varsity Arena interior

Museum stop on the Yonge-University Line, or St. George stop on the Yonge-University or Bloor-Danforth Lines.

* Rosedale Park. This is where the first Grey Cup game was held, on December 4, 1909. The University of Toronto defeated the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club, 26-6. There's now a soccer field on the site of the original stadium.

Scholfield and Highland Avenues. Unfortunately, the closest subway stop is Summerhill, on the Yonge-University Line, and you'll have to walk a roundabout path to get there. If you really want to see it, you may want to take a cab. In fact, if your time is limited, and you have to cross some of these off your list, I'd say cross this one off first.

* Maple Leaf Gardens. Home of the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs from 1931 to 1999, this was arguably the most famous building in Canada. The Leafs won 11 Stanley Cups while playing here: 1932, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967 – and they haven't been back to the Finals since.

The Gardens (always plural, never "The Garden" like in New York and Boston) also hosted the 1st NHL All-Star Game, a benefit for injured Leafs star Ace Bailey in 1934, one of the Canada-Soviet "Summit Series" games in 1972, and the 1st Canada Cup in 1976, where Leafs star Darryl Sittler stole the show.

Note the Stanley Cup banners down the middle in blue,

and the Honoured Number banners around the scoreboard in white.

On November 1, 1946, the first NBA game was held at the Gardens, with the Knicks winning 68-66 over the Toronto Huskies, who folded after that first season of 1946-47. It hosted the Beatles on all 3 of their North American tours (1964, '65 and '66), and Elvis Presley in 1957 – oddly, in his early period, not in his Vegas-spectacle era. Keith Moon's last concert with The Who was there, on October 21, 1976.

The Gardens hosted 2 fights for the Heavyweight Championship of the World. On December 4, 1961, Floyd Patterson defended the title by beating Tom McNeeley. (McNeely's son Peter would later lose to Mike Tyson.) And on March 29, 1996, Canadian champion George Chuvalo went the distance, but still lost, against Muhammad Ali.

But somebody who doesn't give a damn about history, only money, decided the Gardens was obsolete, and the Leafs moved into the Air Canada Centre/Scotiabank Arena in 1999. A plan to turn the arena into a shopping mall and movie multiplex, as was done with the Montreal Forum, was dropped because of the way the building was built: Unlike the Forum, if the Gardens' upper deck of seats is removed, the walls will collapse.

Fortunately, it has been renovated, and is now the Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens, part of the athletic complex of Ryerson University, including its hockey team, with its seating capacity reduced to 2,796 seats, down from its classic capacity which ranged from 12,473 in the beginning to 15,726 at the end, with a peak of 16,316 in the 1970s.

A recent interior photo, set up for curling

The Ryerson Rams have never won a significant hockey title. They had a football program, but it was canceled in 1964, and has never been revived.

So, while the old Madison Square Garden, the old Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium, and the Olympia are gone, and the Montreal Forum has been converted into a mall, one of the "Original Six" arenas is still standing and being used for hockey. It also has a Loblaws supermarket. 60 Carlton Street, at Church Street. College stop, on the Yonge-University Line.

* Site of Mutual Street Arena. This arena stood at this location from 1912 until 1989, when condos were built there, and was the home of the Toronto Blueshirts, National Hockey Association Champions and Stanley Cup winners 1914, and the Maple Leafs from 1917 to 1931.

They were known as the Toronto Arenas when they won the 1st NHL Championship and their 1st Stanley Cup in 1918, and the Toronto St. Patricks when the won the Cup in 1922. Conn Smythe renamed them the Maple Leafs, after the city's minor-league baseball team, when he bought them in 1927.

Bounded by Mutual, Shuter, Dundas and Dalhousie Streets. Queen or Dundas stops on the Yonge-University Line.

* Hanlan's Point. This was the home of Toronto baseball teams from 1897 to 1925, and was the site of Babe Ruth's 1st professional game, on April 22, 1914, for the Providence Grays, then affiliated with the Red Sox, much as their modern counterparts the Pawtucket Red Sox are. The Grays played the baseball version of the Maple Leafs, and the Babe pitched a one-hitter and hit a home run in a 9-0 Providence win.

Unfortunately, Hanlan's Point is on one of the Toronto Islands, in Lake Ontario off downtown. The stadium is long gone, and the location is only reachable by Ferry.

* Site of Maple Leaf Stadium, at  Home to the baseball Maple Leafs from 1926 to 1967, it was demolished a year later, with apartments built on the site. The Leafs won 5 International League Pennants here, and it was the 1st sports team owned by Jack Kent Cooke, who would later own the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats and, most notably, the NFL's Washington Redskins.

Stadium Road (formerly an extension of Bathurst Street) and Queens Quay West (that's pronounced "Queen's Key"). Fleet St at Bathurst St station on the city's streetcar system.

The Raptors' D-League team, named Raptors 905 for the Area Code of Toronto's suburbs, plays at the Hershey Centre. 5500 Rose Cherry Place (named for the late wife of hockey coach-turned-broadcaster Don Cherry), in Mississauga, 16 miles west of downtown. It takes 3 buses to get there. The Orangeville A's of the National Basketball League of Canada play at the Orangeville Athlete Institute. 207321 Ontario Provincial Route 9, in Mono, about 50 miles northwest of downtown.

The Canadian Premier League, Canada's "top flight" soccer league, features York United FC, playing at York Lions Stadium, home of York University. Toronto FC II will continue to play in the United Soccer League, the 2nd tier of overall North American soccer. They play at the 9,600-seat Allan A. Lamport Stadium at 1151 King Street West, with some games at BMO Field.

* Woodbine Racetrack. Opening in 1956 and remodeled in 1993, this is the only horse racing venue outside the United States that has hosted the Breeders' Cup, doing so in 1996. It is home to the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame and the annual Canadian International Stakes. 555 Rexdale Blvd., about 14 miles northwest of downtown. Hard to reach by public transit.

Maple Leafs founder Conn Smythe is buried at Park Lawn Cemetery. 2845 Bloor Street W., about 7 1/2 miles west of downtown. Bloor-Yonge Station, then transfer to Line 2 to Royal York Station. Charlie Conacher is at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. 375 Mount Pleasant Road, about 4 miles north of downtown. King Clancy is at Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery. 305 Erskine Avenue, about 5 1/2 miles north of downtown. Both Mount Pleasant and Mount Hope can be reached by taking the subway to St. Clair Station, then Bus 74.

York University in North York, the Lions, play football at Alumni Field at York Stadium, and hockey at Canlan Ice Sports. Neither team has won a significant title. 989 Murray Ross Parkway in North York, 13 miles northwest of downtown. Line 1 to Downsview, then Bus 106 to Pond Road & Arboretum Lane.

* Fort York, Bathurst Street and Front Street West. You should see at least one place that doesn't have anything to do with sports, and with the bicentennial of the War of 1812 having recently concluded, this place has become more interesting. In that war, the 2nd and last time the U.S. seriously tried to take Canada away from the British Empire, the U.S. Army, led by Zebulon Pike (for whom the Colorado Peak was named), burned the fort and what was then the city of York, now Toronto, on April 27, 1813. However, Pike was killed in the battle. In revenge, the British burned Washington, D.C.

Essentially, Fort York is Canada's Alamo. But not their Gettysburg: That would be Lundy's Lane, in Niagara Falls, and I recommend that you make time for that as well.

* Royal Ontario Museum and Gardiner Museum. "The ROM" is at the northern edge of Queen's Park, which includes the Ontario provincial Parliament complex and the University of Toronto, and is, essentially, next-door to Varsity Stadium. It is Canada's answer to New York's Museum of Natural History. 100 Queens Park at Bloor Street West.

The Gardiner Museum, housing the Gardiner family's large collection of ceramic art, is across Queen's Park street. Museum stop on the Yonge-University Line, or St. George stop on the Yonge-University or Bloor-Danforth Lines.

* Canada's Walk of Fame. This consists of stars embedded in sidewalks, similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, except the honorees – 163, including 149 individuals and 14 duos or groups, since the most recent induction in 2014 – are from all walks of life. It is centered on the sidewalk in front of Roy Thomson Hall. 60 Simcoe Street at King Street. St. Andrew station.

* CN Tower, 301 Front Street West at John Street. It rises 1,815 feet above the ground, but with only its central elevator shaft and its 1,136-foot-high observation deck habitable, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) ruled that it was never a candidate for the title of "the world's tallest building." From 1975 until Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai in 2007, it was officially listed as "the world's tallest freestanding structure." The CN stood for Canadian National railways, but with their bankruptcy and takeover by VIA Rail, the CN now stands for Canada's National Tower.

Like New York's Empire State Building, at night it is lit in colors (or "colours") for special occasions, with its usual colors being the national colors, red and white. Admission to the top public level is C$53.00 -- US$40.60, making it pretty expensive, but still a lot cheaper than the Empire State Building, $72.00. It's next-door to the Rogers Centre and accessible via a skywalk from Union Station.

Note that the Rogers Centre is still lit in blue,

the color of both the Jays and the Argos.

Toronto has quite a few very tall actual "buildings." First Canadian Place has been the nation's tallest building since it opened in 1976, 978 feet high, northwest corner of King & Bay Streets. There are 9 other buildings in excess of 700 feet, including, sadly, one built by Donald Trump and named for himself. Commerce Court North, built in the Art Deco style in 1930, was the tallest building in Canada until 1962, at 476 feet, but is now dwarfed by the 784-foot Commerce Court West, a far less interesting structure that went up in 1972.

Being outside the U.S., there are no Presidential Libraries in Canada. The nation's Prime Ministers usually don't have that kind of equivalent building. Of Canada's 23 Prime Ministers, 15 are dead, but only one is buried in Toronto: William Lyon Mackenzie King, who led the government on and off from 1926 to 1950, longer than anyone, and, like Charlie Conacher, is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. 

There have been plenty of TV shows set in Toronto, but most Americans wouldn't know them, so I won't list their filming locations. Probably the most familiar, due to its being shown on PBS, is Degrassi Junior High and its related series. Recently, ABC ran the Toronto-based cop series Rookie Blue.

Because Toronto has a lot of surviving Art Deco structures from the 1920s and '30s, it's frequently used as a filming location for period-piece movies, including the movie version of Chicago (despite Chicago also having many such buildings survive). There were also several scenes from the U.S. version of Fever Pitch that were shot in Toronto. One is the scene of the barbecue in the park: In the background, a statue can be seen. It's a statue of Queen Victoria. I seriously doubt that there are any statues of British monarchs left in Boston.

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The Maple Leafs haven't reached a Final in half a century, yet they remain the most popular sports team in their entire country, and the hardest for which to get tickets. Such is the passion for hockey in Toronto.

Good luck, and remember: You are a guest in their country, so try to match their legendary politeness. If you can't do that, just don't go overboard with your New Yorkiness or New Jerseyness.