Monday, February 15, 1999
Memories and dreams of Maple Leaf Gardens
BY DAVE HELLER
Enquirer contributor
Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens played host to its last NHL game Saturday night, which may not seem like a big deal to most Americans. But for Canadians, it was the closing of a hockey Mecca.
Before the NHL had a national television contract, Hockey Night in Canada, which airs Saturday nights, was the only window to NHL rinks, other than going to the games, for Canadians. More often than not, games were televised from Maple Leaf Gardens or the Montreal Forum.
“When you're a kid and dreaming of playing in the the NHL, the buildings that I watched most on TV were Toronto and Montreal,” said Geoff Smith, recently reassigned from the Cyclones and sent to the St. Louis Blues organization. “To actually get to play a game in that building (Maple Leaf Gardens) meant a lot to me.”
Said Ducks assistant coach Eddie Johnstone, a 10-year NHL veteran who grew up in the Western part of Canada when there were just six NHL teams: “For a Canadian, it was the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs and "Who were the other four teams?' For a lot of the American kids who weren't brought up with hockey, they'd find that hard to understand. That would be like the first time (an American) went into old Yankee Stadium. It was the biggest thrill of the world (playing at Maple Leaf Gardens). It's sad to see all the old buildings going.”
Ducks center Bob Wren grew up an hour from Toronto, once paying $250 Canadian for two tickets to a Maple Leafs playoff game. “It gives me chills because that's where I wanted to play,” Wren said. “I wanted my parents to watch me play there. It's sad to see it go.”
Cyclones coach Ron Smith, who once served as an assistant coach for Toronto, grew up listening to Leafs games on radio. Smith went to a game at the Gardens with his dad when he was a child and returned 20 years later, still acting like a wide-eyed kid, enraptured by the history of the building.
“It was a shrine,” Smith said. “I grew up listening to it on the radio, imagining it. Often things are better in your imagination than in reality, but this wasn't the case. It was almost everything you pictured it to be, it wasn't disappointing to see it.”
Ducks defenseman Dan Trebil played his first NHL game there. He ended up at the end of the bench by the door where he sat next to a fan. “He just said excuse me a couple of times,” Trebil said. “His kids were trying to get up and get something to eat, and I was in their way.”
Ducks coach Moe Mantha not only played at the Gardens during his NHL tenure, but he played for a Juniors team in Toronto, where he also helped clean up the building. Mantha spent his days with legends King Clancy and Harold Ballard, later cleaning up Ballard's suite and sweeping the floors.
“It's just the mystique, the tradition of hockey,” Mantha said. “The smell of hockey, the history of hockey.” Cincinnati Gardens has the same architectural design, except that Cincinnati has no upper bowl. Mantha said that even the freight elevator is in the same place as it was at Maple Leaf Gardens.
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