With the enormous box office success of the new Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the Toronto Maple Leafs jumping into the playoffs, it seems like the perfect timing for a mashup.
That doesn’t mean skating goombas, just the next in series of re-imagining the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This time, it’s as characters from the Super Mario Bros. franchise.
Mario Bros. dates back all the way to 1983 when the original game was released as a spin off from Donkey Kong.
The game was published for arcades by Nintendo. The same year that the world learned of twin brother plumbers, the Maple Leafs’ leading scorer was John Anderson. It may not be a coincidence that he shares an almost identical mustache as Mario.
Re-Imagining the Toronto Maple Leafs as Characters in Super Mario Bros
Auston Matthews as Mario
Anderson may have had a good duster, but Matthews has one of the best mustaches in team history. Mario, has one of the best in the world of video games. There’s a lot of other attributes the pair share.
Both Matthews and Mario are Americans who are passionate for their craft. Matthews fills goals and Mario clears bowls. Some have even said that Mario’s plunger shares the same flex as Matthews’ Flexspeed FT2 hockey stick.
Both men also stay focused on their goal, while staying fashionably dressed. Mario is always jumping onto flag poles to conquer new worlds, while Matthews does what he needs to put him and his team in position to finally win the Stanley Cup.
The NHL is lucky that Matthews and Mario are two different people. There would be no stopping Matthews if he had access to power ups.
Nick Robertson as Luigi
It’s not easy to have a superstar brother. As talented and helpful as Luigi is, his brother is clearly the star of the pair. That’s why, Nick Robertson is Luigi.
Over in Dallas, playing with the Stars, Nick’s brother Jason had a SUPER season. He recorded 46 goals and 63 assist and he didn’t miss a single game of action. Poor Nick. He may always be a Luigi to Jason.
Timothy Liljegren as Princess Peach
Timothy Liljegren is a smooth-skating defenseman who can sometimes be forgotten. In our Super Mario version, Liljegren would be transformed into the elegant Princess Peach, who can glide across the ice with effortless grace. Only Liljegren has the grace to swiftly move his dress aside and avoid it getting in the way of slapshots.
Just like Peach, Liljegren is a fierce defender, who’s always ready to use his quick reflexes and sharp instincts to thwart the opposing team’s attacks.
Sam Lafferty as Yoshi
Sam Lafferty is the perfect match for Yoshi and not just because they both have smooth heads and love eating apples. Actually, that’s exactly the reason. Lafferty isn’t ever opposed to gobbling up his opponents on the ice.
Bowser
There are a lot of enemies in the Super Mario universe. The biggest and baddest of them all is Bowser. From the Toronto Maple Leafs perspective, that would be the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, or Montreal Canadiens. However, from the vantage point of the rest of the league, they’ll be looking at Michael Bunting. What everyone’s forgetting is that the true Bowser in the NHL is commissioner Gary Bettman.
To catch up on the rest of the re-imagining series, read about who the Toronto Maple Leafs would be if they were WWE Wrestlers, they were Disney Princesses, if they were the cast of Seinfeld, if they were dinosaurs or if they were hot peppers.