Hi everyone! Full disclosure, I’m not a Leafs fan. Never have been. Think of my hatred of the Leafs as being similar to how you would feel if a hockey team of Ted Cruz’s skipped out on a game you bought a ticket for because they had to escort their kids to Mexico. You know, because they’re just being a “good Dad”. Think Michael Jordan sitting in the same cab as Isaiah Thomas, or Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin circa 1997. In fact, if the Leafs made it to the Stanley Cup Final and had a chance at becoming the first Canadian team in 28 years to bring the silver chalice home to the Great White North where it belongs, I still wouldn’t cheer for them. Not a chance. I would dig through my box of childhood memories, find my old rosary beads which I was given somewhere around grade one, and start praying the looming Apocalypse away. FYI… I’m not religious. At. All. But I’d willing to be if it meant keeping the Stanley Cup out of Toronto for one more year. My friends think I’m nuts not wanting to jump on the bandwagon and cheer on Canada’s team whenever they are up against the Boston Bruins. Nope. Not gonna do it. So, long story short, am I biased against Canada’s second greatest hockey team? Ab-so-freakin-lutely! Have I developed an irrational hatred for this obviously evil Blue Man Group knock-off. Oh Hell Yeah! Am I putting my hard-earned reputation as a credible, objective hockey writer at risk? Oh, come on, if you’ve ever read anything in the Hockey Hall of Shame, you know as well as I do that that ship has long since sailed.

That being said, I’ll give the Leafs some credit for putting together an exciting young hockey club these last few years. It certainly took long enough for them to draft all these hot-shot youngsters considering the almost unparalleled mountain of losses the team has accumulated the last 50 years. You would almost expect them to win a couple of double-digit games here and there, but those things are actually pretty rare these days. And they were rare back in 1972 as well, although not as rare as a unicorn sighting. Case in point, the Seals were involved in two double-digit games that season: the famous 11-3 thrashing they heaped onto the Vancouver Canucks in January 1973, and this week’s article subject, the somewhat less famous 11-0 drubbing at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In fact, the eleven-goal margin of defeat was the worst in Seals/Barons history, and you can read all about it here.

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Just a small update, I’m afraid. Took me a while to come up with that intro this time. Until next time, stay gold!