Road Trippin’: Toronto Maple Leafs Rookie Tournament

Road Trippin’ with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Take a deep breath ladies and gents, yup, sports trippn’ season is in the air.  Your first weekend getaway starts with the Toronto Maple Leaf Rookie Tournament.

Yes, you probably are asking “Is it worth travelling for a rookie tournament?” or maybe it’s more like “How am I supposed to convince my significant other that this tournament is worth seeing?”.  

I mean selling them on young talented rookies dueling it out in an attempt to make an impression on management might work?  But Hey! Summer is over and you need an excuse to get out of dodge. Plus you’re tired of watching CFL and Tennis highlights on Sportscentre and are anxious to see some blue and white hockey.

Toronto Maple Leafs Tournament

Well, let’s sell them on the experience! This year the tournament is being hosted at Place Bell the home of the Laval Rocket.  For those not up to speed on the locations of arenas in Quebec this is about a 20 minute drive from downtown Montreal.

What was that?  Montreal you say?  Now we have the attention of your significant other OR some of your friends who “only want to watch NHL hockey”.

So, the tournament starts on Friday September 7th, lucky for us the first Leafs game starts Saturday September 8th at 3pm.

This means you could leave Toronto around 8am and get there just before puck drop (pending traffic).  But here’s my recommendation. You leave the city at about 630am. Right now my breakfast routine consists of a half hot chocolate half coffee along with an everything bagel, double toasted, with plain cream cheese, and to keep the body in lean shape I add tomatoes and cucumbers to it.  

Honestly, it’s a great combo, kind of like a veggie dip in a bagel. So I’d make a stop roughly around 7am to get one of those in me. 

You should be able to get into Montreal around 1 o’clock.  Yes, that’s a long time to go between lunch and dinner so pack some food for the drive.  But also, who doesn’t pack food for the road trip?

Food!

Anyways, you’ve got time for lunch.  This recommendation comes from Mikey Babs and it’s the famous smoked meat sandwich joint named “Schwartz’s”.

Dang that’s a good sammy!

  You might have enough time to you check into your Airbnb/Hotel before the game.  I’d recommend staying near St Catherines Street or Crescent Street. The last time I went out in Montreal we ate dinner at two restaurants the first Dundees Bar and Grill, I had the Cowboy burger.  It was your standard burger, not the best I’ve ever had and definitely not the worst. I’d have no issues going back.

The second was Ye Olde Orchard Pub and Grill. This place is right near the Bell Centre so if you are going to a game later this year I’d definitely recommend.  I started with a french onion soup which was everything I hoped for then had the beef dip which was “meh”. Still the atmosphere was awesome as the bar was packed with people headed to the game.

At night there are dozens of pubs to go out on St Catherines Street and if you are more into the club scene “Club Ecole Privee” is a popular one for McGill students which will be packed as this is their first week back at school.

After your night out.  Hit up Eggspectations for a nice breakfast.  Do a little sight seeing. Check in to the 3pm Leafs game.  Then hit the road back to Toronto. What a weekend: Great food, a nice drive and some Toronto Maple Leafs hockey. You can’t go wrong! 

Stay tuned for your next weekend getaway.