The Top 5 Grinches in Toronto Maple Leafs History

Grinch #5

The 2013-14 Toronto Maple Leafs were a terrible disappointment. They finished the season in 12th out of the 16 teams in the Eastern Conference. They had a total of 84 points at the season’s end. The roster that year included players like their Captain, Dion Phaneuf, goalie Jonathan Bernier, Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri, Morgan Rielly, and Jake Gardiner. All of them are implicated in the making of the fifth Grinch on our list, the 2014 Leafs roster.

What transformed this group into a collective Grinch were the offensive actions they took at the end of their Nov. 20, 2014 tilt with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In a game that took place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto in front of 19,089 fans, the Leafs played extraordinarily well. Van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, and Roman Polak all picked up a pair of points each in a win.

There was nothing about the way the game itself was played that caused a stir. It was the actions postgame that had everyone talking. The Leafs had stollen their fans’ joy in an act of true Grinchiness.

Normally after a win, the Maple Leafs would gather at center ice and salute their fans. The players would raise their sticks above their heads in unison as a sign of respect to those who paid to see them play. On this day, the group on the ice chose not to proceed with this symbolic gesture.

In what became known as “Salute Gate”, the Leafs were heavily criticized for their decision. Don Cherry called it, “the biggest thing I’ve ever seen in my life with Toronto.”

Cherry has proven that he’s not the authority on ideal behavior, but on this day, he echoed the sentiment of many fans. It’s likely the reason that the players themselves weren’t immediately forthcoming with their reasoning for the defiant act or who was the leader of the protest.