The Toronto Maple Leafs season is only hours away and the team scrimmage showed us how special this team really is.
I know it was only a team scrimmage, but the intensity was higher than most exhibition games, as the Toronto Maple Leafs got ready to start their journey towards a Stanley Cup championship.
Everything about the scrimmage was weird, but at the same time, things felt normal again. It also helped by having Joe Bowen on the call, who is Leafs royalty to me. He’s not typically on TV anymore, so it was great to see him in person during a live Leafs broadcast again.
Since it’s been this way for nine months now, the empty seats don’t bother me anymore. If you watched a Leafs game in the past, those same seats were always empty after the first and second period anyway, so I just pretend that everyone is stuck in Platinum Club for the entire game now.
With the fake crowd noise introduced to the broadcast, the game was actually less realistic than normal. If you ever attended a Leafs game at Scotiabank Arena before, it’s one of the most dead rinks in hockey. Once the Leafs start trailing, you can hear a pin drop in that place. There’s always that one drunken fan that starts a “Go Leafs Go” chant when the team is down 4-0 in the third period, so until they pump that into the crowd noise, it won’t ever be as realistic.
Like many other people, I wish I could be making my way down to the rink for opening night, but instead I’m just thankful to be able to watch it on TV. This Leafs team could be something special and we should all try to soak it in as much as possible. In a 56-game sprint, anything can happen.
Let’s take a look at three things the Toronto Maple Leafs need to do ahead of their opening night match against the Montreal Canadiens.