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Air Canada Centre to be renamed Scotiabank Arena
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 03:32 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 09:25 PM EDT
"Let’s go to the Sco," could become the new game-night gab for fans of the Maple Leafs and Raptors.
In a jaw-dropping naming rights deal, Scotiabank will pay around $800 million, as listed in a TSN report, to rechristen the Air Canada Centre beginning in July 2018 and lasting for 20 years.
Already with its brand on Calgary's Saddledome, home of the Flames, and once in cahoots with the Ottawa Senators, the bank reportedly blew the building’s first title sponsor out of the water when the airline’s name deal approached the renegotiation stage.
The address at 40 Bay St. will be known as Scotiabank Arena, which might confuse the older group of Toronto sports fans who still call Rogers Centre the SkyDome.
Scotiabank and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, in confirming the change in a joint statement Tuesday, preferred to talk about expanding the financial institution’s role in areas such as minor hockey as part of the new union.
But this is being billed as the largest deal of its kind, after investment bank J.P. Morgan’s $30 million US annual costs to be atop the renovated Madison Square Garden in New York and other properties in the city, signed back in 2010. The same bank is behind the Golden State Warriors' new basketball arena, which opens in 2019 at a reported $15-20 million a year for naming rights.
“To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult to find interested suitors,” David Hopkinson, MLSE chief commercial officer, told TSN. “We felt we had a very good sense of what the market would bear.”
Air Canada will get something from the peaceful transfer — a “long-term partnership” to remain the airline of choice for the hockey and basketball teams and some kind of building presence.
But citizens can look for their big logo to come down next year.
“We are thrilled Scotiabank’s name will appear on the side of this iconic building for the next two decades,” Scotiabank chief marketing officer John Doig said. “(We) are looking forward to all the historic moments to come.”
lhornby@postmedia.com
Air Canada Centre to be renamed Scotiabank Arena | SPORTS | Toronto Maple Leafs
Do we call it 'The Vault'?
First posted: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 07:21 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 09:21 PM EDT
Forget about calling it “The Hangar.”
Next summer, the Air Canada Centre will need a new nickname. What’s it going to be?
The Vault? The Bank? The RRSP, The Mortgage or The Loan?
Just what are we going to call this thing?
Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) announced Tuesday that as of July 2018, the home arena for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors will no longer be called the Air Canada Centre as it has since opening in 1999.
MLSE made a deal with Scotiabank to rename the ACC Scotiabank Arena.
“We are grateful to Scotiabank for their continued support and this expanded partnership as we look ahead to what we expect to be 20 of the most exciting years in Toronto sports and entertainment history,” said MLSE Chairman Larry Tanenbaum.
Fitting that this building sits on Bay St.
While MLSE wouldn’t confirm the figure, what a deposit this is reported to be — almost $800 million for the naming rights until the 2028 season.
That’s quite an increase over the $30 million Air Canada paid for the original naming rights.
“For the past 18 years, Air Canada Centre has not only been home to the Maple Leafs and Raptors, it has also hosted hundreds of the most popular concerts and events in the industry, helping contribute to Toronto’s well-deserved reputation as one of the top sports and entertainment destinations in the world,” said Tanenbaum.
He’s right about that.
And you have got to pay to be part of all of that.
Whoever pays the most gets to have their name on the building. This is all about business and the naming rights are part of that business.
This is not the first time MLSE has opened an account with a bank. Of course, the stadium that is home to Toronto FC and last year’s Grey Cup is none other than BMO Field.
The reality of today’s sports world is athletes aren’t the only ones who play for different teams. Corporate sponsors also change.
“Whether it’s an airline or a bank, I don’t think fans have an attachment to one corporation over another,” said Rob Del Mundo, of TMLfans.ca.
Business is business but the names the “Air Canada Centre,” the “ACC” or “The Hangar” have been part of Toronto’s sporting culture for almost two decades.
However, such a thing has happened here before, of course. After 60 years, Maple Leaf Gardens closed its doors to be the Maple Leafs Arena in 1999 and we all remember that the SkyDome was renamed the Rogers Centre, after the cable giant bought the stadium and the Blue Jays.
“People will still call it the ACC because they call Rogers Centre SkyDome,” said superfan Stefan Ottenbrite.
Added Del Mundo: “Gone are the days of corporate-free names of arenas and stadiums. With Little Caesars Arena replacing Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, the only NHL rink without a sponsor on the marquee is Madison Square Garden.”
So what do you think?
And do you have any good nicknames? Feel free to e-mail me.
And don’t worry, there will be no service charges for doing so.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
Do we call it 'The Vault'? | WARMINGTON | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 03:32 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 09:25 PM EDT
"Let’s go to the Sco," could become the new game-night gab for fans of the Maple Leafs and Raptors.
In a jaw-dropping naming rights deal, Scotiabank will pay around $800 million, as listed in a TSN report, to rechristen the Air Canada Centre beginning in July 2018 and lasting for 20 years.
Already with its brand on Calgary's Saddledome, home of the Flames, and once in cahoots with the Ottawa Senators, the bank reportedly blew the building’s first title sponsor out of the water when the airline’s name deal approached the renegotiation stage.
The address at 40 Bay St. will be known as Scotiabank Arena, which might confuse the older group of Toronto sports fans who still call Rogers Centre the SkyDome.
Scotiabank and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, in confirming the change in a joint statement Tuesday, preferred to talk about expanding the financial institution’s role in areas such as minor hockey as part of the new union.
But this is being billed as the largest deal of its kind, after investment bank J.P. Morgan’s $30 million US annual costs to be atop the renovated Madison Square Garden in New York and other properties in the city, signed back in 2010. The same bank is behind the Golden State Warriors' new basketball arena, which opens in 2019 at a reported $15-20 million a year for naming rights.
“To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult to find interested suitors,” David Hopkinson, MLSE chief commercial officer, told TSN. “We felt we had a very good sense of what the market would bear.”
Air Canada will get something from the peaceful transfer — a “long-term partnership” to remain the airline of choice for the hockey and basketball teams and some kind of building presence.
But citizens can look for their big logo to come down next year.
“We are thrilled Scotiabank’s name will appear on the side of this iconic building for the next two decades,” Scotiabank chief marketing officer John Doig said. “(We) are looking forward to all the historic moments to come.”
lhornby@postmedia.com
Air Canada Centre to be renamed Scotiabank Arena | SPORTS | Toronto Maple Leafs
Do we call it 'The Vault'?
First posted: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 07:21 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 09:21 PM EDT
Forget about calling it “The Hangar.”
Next summer, the Air Canada Centre will need a new nickname. What’s it going to be?
The Vault? The Bank? The RRSP, The Mortgage or The Loan?
Just what are we going to call this thing?
Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) announced Tuesday that as of July 2018, the home arena for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors will no longer be called the Air Canada Centre as it has since opening in 1999.
MLSE made a deal with Scotiabank to rename the ACC Scotiabank Arena.
“We are grateful to Scotiabank for their continued support and this expanded partnership as we look ahead to what we expect to be 20 of the most exciting years in Toronto sports and entertainment history,” said MLSE Chairman Larry Tanenbaum.
Fitting that this building sits on Bay St.
While MLSE wouldn’t confirm the figure, what a deposit this is reported to be — almost $800 million for the naming rights until the 2028 season.
That’s quite an increase over the $30 million Air Canada paid for the original naming rights.
“For the past 18 years, Air Canada Centre has not only been home to the Maple Leafs and Raptors, it has also hosted hundreds of the most popular concerts and events in the industry, helping contribute to Toronto’s well-deserved reputation as one of the top sports and entertainment destinations in the world,” said Tanenbaum.
He’s right about that.
And you have got to pay to be part of all of that.
Whoever pays the most gets to have their name on the building. This is all about business and the naming rights are part of that business.
This is not the first time MLSE has opened an account with a bank. Of course, the stadium that is home to Toronto FC and last year’s Grey Cup is none other than BMO Field.
The reality of today’s sports world is athletes aren’t the only ones who play for different teams. Corporate sponsors also change.
“Whether it’s an airline or a bank, I don’t think fans have an attachment to one corporation over another,” said Rob Del Mundo, of TMLfans.ca.
Business is business but the names the “Air Canada Centre,” the “ACC” or “The Hangar” have been part of Toronto’s sporting culture for almost two decades.
However, such a thing has happened here before, of course. After 60 years, Maple Leaf Gardens closed its doors to be the Maple Leafs Arena in 1999 and we all remember that the SkyDome was renamed the Rogers Centre, after the cable giant bought the stadium and the Blue Jays.
“People will still call it the ACC because they call Rogers Centre SkyDome,” said superfan Stefan Ottenbrite.
Added Del Mundo: “Gone are the days of corporate-free names of arenas and stadiums. With Little Caesars Arena replacing Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, the only NHL rink without a sponsor on the marquee is Madison Square Garden.”
So what do you think?
And do you have any good nicknames? Feel free to e-mail me.
And don’t worry, there will be no service charges for doing so.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
Do we call it 'The Vault'? | WARMINGTON | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
Stephane Robidas opens up about end of his Maple Leafs playing days
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, September 08, 2017 11:12 AM EDT | Updated: Friday, September 08, 2017 11:42 AM EDT
TORONTO - Stephane Robidas insists he wanted to come back and play for the Maple Leafs in the last two years of his contract - but couldn’t because of injuries.
In a rare public comment of his sudden departure from the lineup at the start of the 2015-16 season, the club’s newly named assistant director of player development said on a Friday conference call that a cumulative amount of damage to his right knee and leg prevented him from a return.
Robidas had turned 38 during 2015’s training camp and appeared ready to keep his job on defence in the second of a three-year contract approved by former general manager Dave Nonis, paying him US$3 million. Departing when he did gave the Leafs - under new GM Lou Lamoriello - valuable cap relief.
But Robidas said he had been nursing an exhibition game injury to his right knee, part of the twice-broken leg that caused him so much grief in previous NHL stops in Dallas and Anaheim.
“I couldn’t do it,” he said of continuing to play. “I had two surgeries, the fracture, two screws in there ... there was a lot happening with that right leg.”
Robidas’s first season with the Leafs had been cut short by a severe shoulder injury, though he’d had a positive effect on young defencemen Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly. Robidas disappeared from day-to-day Leaf life after the knee issue, though it was known he had permission from the club to undergo part of his recovery at home in the Montreal area where his children live.
“It was not an easy year (to be in limbo), but I’d had my fair share or injuries, surgeries and rehab. The last injury was tough and my body can’t keep up. When you can’t play, that’s how it goes. Things don’t don’t always go your way, so it was a chance to stand back and take care of my body, reflect on all those years I played. I was lucky, I was a smaller guy, but it caught up to me.
“It was sad to not fulfill the whole contract. I wanted to help the Leafs, but there is not much you can do when your body breaks down.”
He says he gave the knee ample time to respond and it never did, to the point where he says it still hurts to even kick a soccer ball in the backyard with his daughter.
“I can live normally, but there are things I can’t do.”
A year ago, Robidas appeared at Leaf rookie camp in a player development advisory role, which expanded during the season to help the farm team Toronto Marlies. On Thursday, he was confirmed as player development director Scott Pellerin’s new assistant and has been prominent at practice with the Leaf rookies ahead of this weekend’s tournament at Ricoh Coliseum against Montreal and Ottawa.
“It has been a great experience for me, working with Scott, the coaching staff of the Marlies, and with (skating instructor) Barb Underhill,” Robidas said. “I’m impressed with the youth we have. There are things to learn, baby steps for some of them.”
LHornby@postmedia.com
Stephane Robidas opens up about end of his Maple Leafs playing days | Toronto Ma
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, September 08, 2017 11:12 AM EDT | Updated: Friday, September 08, 2017 11:42 AM EDT
TORONTO - Stephane Robidas insists he wanted to come back and play for the Maple Leafs in the last two years of his contract - but couldn’t because of injuries.
In a rare public comment of his sudden departure from the lineup at the start of the 2015-16 season, the club’s newly named assistant director of player development said on a Friday conference call that a cumulative amount of damage to his right knee and leg prevented him from a return.
Robidas had turned 38 during 2015’s training camp and appeared ready to keep his job on defence in the second of a three-year contract approved by former general manager Dave Nonis, paying him US$3 million. Departing when he did gave the Leafs - under new GM Lou Lamoriello - valuable cap relief.
But Robidas said he had been nursing an exhibition game injury to his right knee, part of the twice-broken leg that caused him so much grief in previous NHL stops in Dallas and Anaheim.
“I couldn’t do it,” he said of continuing to play. “I had two surgeries, the fracture, two screws in there ... there was a lot happening with that right leg.”
Robidas’s first season with the Leafs had been cut short by a severe shoulder injury, though he’d had a positive effect on young defencemen Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly. Robidas disappeared from day-to-day Leaf life after the knee issue, though it was known he had permission from the club to undergo part of his recovery at home in the Montreal area where his children live.
“It was not an easy year (to be in limbo), but I’d had my fair share or injuries, surgeries and rehab. The last injury was tough and my body can’t keep up. When you can’t play, that’s how it goes. Things don’t don’t always go your way, so it was a chance to stand back and take care of my body, reflect on all those years I played. I was lucky, I was a smaller guy, but it caught up to me.
“It was sad to not fulfill the whole contract. I wanted to help the Leafs, but there is not much you can do when your body breaks down.”
He says he gave the knee ample time to respond and it never did, to the point where he says it still hurts to even kick a soccer ball in the backyard with his daughter.
“I can live normally, but there are things I can’t do.”
A year ago, Robidas appeared at Leaf rookie camp in a player development advisory role, which expanded during the season to help the farm team Toronto Marlies. On Thursday, he was confirmed as player development director Scott Pellerin’s new assistant and has been prominent at practice with the Leaf rookies ahead of this weekend’s tournament at Ricoh Coliseum against Montreal and Ottawa.
“It has been a great experience for me, working with Scott, the coaching staff of the Marlies, and with (skating instructor) Barb Underhill,” Robidas said. “I’m impressed with the youth we have. There are things to learn, baby steps for some of them.”
LHornby@postmedia.com
Stephane Robidas opens up about end of his Maple Leafs playing days | Toronto Ma
Tory proclaims Dec. 19 Toronto Maple Leafs Day
By Mike Zeisberger, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, September 12, 2017 07:18 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, September 12, 2017 07:27 PM EDT
With NHL training camps officially opening this week, John Tory said Tuesday he expects the Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup while he is still serving as mayor.
“I hope to get a second term,” he added.
Under those circumstances, the Leafs have five years to make the mayor’s prophecy come to fruition.
Tory specifically referenced Tuesday’s Toronto Sun as evidence of the city’s optimism concerning the Leafs’ potential to win their first Cup since 1967. The piece in question was penned by Sun sports columnist Steve Simmons, who opined that the Leafs organization is putting the pieces in place to capture an NHL championship in the near future for the first time in half a century.
Speaking at a news conference revealing details for the Maple Leafs “Next Century Game” at the Air Canada Centre, Tory officially proclaimed that Dec. 19 will be Toronto Maple Leafs Day.
The Leafs will host the Carolina Hurricanes at 2 p.m. that afternoon, exactly 100 years to the day that the Toronto Arenas took to the ice for the first game in franchise history. To that end, the Leafs will wear special throwback Toronto Arenas uniforms to mark the occasion.
“The Maple Leafs are part of the heart and soul of our city, and this 100th birthday event is the perfect moment to come together to celebrate what they mean to us,” Tory said. “Generations of fans, young and old, are all excited for what the future holds for our Leafs and Dec. 19 will be a moment that the team and fans alike are sure to remember for years to come.”
Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said the wearing of the Toronto Arenas jersey will be “a one-time thing.” He does hope that the team will receive permission from the league to don Toronto St. Pat’s jerseys each St. Patrick’s Day in future seasons to come.
mzeisberger@postmedia.com
Leafs alumni Darcy Tucker (left) and Mayor John Tory show off the newly unveiled sweater in anticipation of the Toronto Maple Leafs' 100-year anniversary game on Dec. 19, at the MLSE LaunchPad in Toronto on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (DAVE ABEL/TORONTO SUN)
Tory proclaims Dec. 19 Toronto Maple Leafs Day | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto
By Mike Zeisberger, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, September 12, 2017 07:18 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, September 12, 2017 07:27 PM EDT
With NHL training camps officially opening this week, John Tory said Tuesday he expects the Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup while he is still serving as mayor.
“I hope to get a second term,” he added.
Under those circumstances, the Leafs have five years to make the mayor’s prophecy come to fruition.
Tory specifically referenced Tuesday’s Toronto Sun as evidence of the city’s optimism concerning the Leafs’ potential to win their first Cup since 1967. The piece in question was penned by Sun sports columnist Steve Simmons, who opined that the Leafs organization is putting the pieces in place to capture an NHL championship in the near future for the first time in half a century.
Speaking at a news conference revealing details for the Maple Leafs “Next Century Game” at the Air Canada Centre, Tory officially proclaimed that Dec. 19 will be Toronto Maple Leafs Day.
The Leafs will host the Carolina Hurricanes at 2 p.m. that afternoon, exactly 100 years to the day that the Toronto Arenas took to the ice for the first game in franchise history. To that end, the Leafs will wear special throwback Toronto Arenas uniforms to mark the occasion.
“The Maple Leafs are part of the heart and soul of our city, and this 100th birthday event is the perfect moment to come together to celebrate what they mean to us,” Tory said. “Generations of fans, young and old, are all excited for what the future holds for our Leafs and Dec. 19 will be a moment that the team and fans alike are sure to remember for years to come.”
Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said the wearing of the Toronto Arenas jersey will be “a one-time thing.” He does hope that the team will receive permission from the league to don Toronto St. Pat’s jerseys each St. Patrick’s Day in future seasons to come.
mzeisberger@postmedia.com
Leafs alumni Darcy Tucker (left) and Mayor John Tory show off the newly unveiled sweater in anticipation of the Toronto Maple Leafs' 100-year anniversary game on Dec. 19, at the MLSE LaunchPad in Toronto on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (DAVE ABEL/TORONTO SUN)
Tory proclaims Dec. 19 Toronto Maple Leafs Day | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto
'Ultimate Leafs Fan' Mike Wilson says goodbye to nearly $2 million in collectibles
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 04:01 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 08:14 PM EDT
The Maple Leafs don’t just belong to Toronto, they’re part of Canadian lore and a significant slice of the national hockey pie.
That’s what Mike Wilson kept telling himself, so as not to throw himself in front of the truck that carted away a lifetime of Leaf collectibles from his 1,000-square foot midtown Toronto man cave to a new home in the Museum of Canadian History in Gatineau, Que.
Three years of negotiation with museum officials on how to best document, display and of course set a price for the bulk of Wilson’s 2,000-plus items will be finalized at a Friday announcement, believed to be the largest private stock of sports memorabilia ever sold in Canada. The MCH will pay ‘The Ultimate Leafs Fan’ a bit south of $2 million, says Jenny Ellison, curator of sport and leisure for the museum, a figure reached by averaging several independent appraisals.
“We’re thrilled,” Ellison said of its value as a research resource and for exhibition purposes. “The first time I went to Mike’s house and saw he touched on 100 years of Leaf and team history, I identified it as one of the most important collections we’ve seen.
“These are one-of-a-kind items; the original door to the Leafs dressing room, a 1931 turnstile from the Gardens, contracts, Tim Horton’s last sweater and pieces from the Smythe family. It’s like walking into the Gardens when it first opened. But there are also items pertaining to Paul Henderson (his stick signed by all of Team Canada ‘72) and Wayne Gretzky (his contract to appear on Saturday Night Live in 1989). Like Mike, we focus on stories and the years 1920-1960 were an important time in the NHL for teams such as Toronto and Montreal.”
Wilson and partner Deb Thuet had already lent the museum 50 items for a larger show to mark Canada 150 and the NHL’s Centennial. Titled ‘Hockey: More Than Just A Game’ its eight-month run ends in October. Hard as it was when just those 50 pieces went out the door, the 63-year-old stock trader was “emotionally distraught” to see empty spaces where King Clancy’s skates and Johnny Bower’s pads had been for years.
“Whether you collect Leafs stuff, beer cans or shoelaces, that gene will be in you to the day you die,” Wilson said. “Deb and my two kids knew what I was going through the day it all left. I’d had that door signed by 80 present and former Leafs and it was so iconic. They even used it in the Luminato arts festival.
“I used the room for many fundraising events and worried about continuing that and if my role as a Leaf storyteller would become irrelevant. But right after they took it, I had an e-mail from an officer at CFB Borden. He’d seen the show at the museum and said how much people, especially the military, appreciated me preserving it. That must have been a sign for me from the hockey gods. I felt a lot better after reading that.”
The e-mail also underlined why he thinks citizens will want a permanent place in the museum’s plans for his collection, along with celebrating the Canadiens, Senators, Western teams, amateur hockey, women’s hockey, black players, First Nations and sledge hockey.
“The Hockey Hall of Fame covers the sport internationally and does a wonderful job, but Ottawa could focus on the history and future of the game solely from a Canadian perspective,” Wilson suggested. “Especially in a museum that’s our version of the Smithsonian.”
Thuet served six years on the Toronto Historical Board and enjoyed giving tours of Wilson’s Leaf-themed exhibit to all ages.
“Grandfathers would see something down there about Charlie Conacher and get so excited,” Thuet said. “We want to see all that preserved so people can still see it in 20 or 30 years or have it for research.”
Ellison and Wilson are pleased that the museum’s travelling showcase of 300 pieces, much of it Wilson’s, is heading to Montreal and Winnipeg in coming months, though there’s no date for a set display to open in the capital.
“Right now, we’re going through the not-so-sexy process of documenting everything,” Ellison said. “I have an idea of our long game, the story I want to tell and what some of my favourite pieces are, but I don’t yet have a time in mind to show it.”
SOMEONE NEEDS TO STEP UP
Mike Wilson is grateful the Canadian Museum of History wanted his massive Maple Leafs memorabilia collection, but now he’d like to see a patriotic corporation step up to ensure a permanent venue to display it and celebrate the game as a whole.
“Like everything else, it needs funding,” Wilson said. “But if (Scotiabank) can spend $800 million for naming rights of an arena, why can’t some other company spend a fraction of that to preserve our national history?
“Every other major sport; baseball, football, basketball, has a Canadian connection that we love to play up. But hockey still defines us and we should go all-out for our game — with a permanent site.”
While he was depressed to see his award-winning team-themed man cave cleared out when his treasures went to the nation’s capital, Wilson soon filled his empty hooks and display cases with some of the 500 items that remain in his possession. Where 20 Leaf sweaters going back to the 1930s once hung, old pal Brian Ehrenworth of Frameworth Collectibles loaned a set from modern-day Leafs Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, as well as Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby so Wilson could continue fundraisers at his home for causes such as mental health awareness, anti-bullying and amateur athletics.
Sent to the museum:
Door from the Maple Leafs dressing room at the Gardens
Original 1931 turnstile/ticket box
Frank Finnigan’s blood-spattered sweater from 1935
Sweaters from George Armstrong, Tim Horton, Dave Keon
Johnny Bower’s pads and chest protector
Hockey cards dating back to the 1920s
Dick Duff’s Stanley Cup silver service tray
Teeder Kennedy’s 200th goal puck
Player locker from Leafs last season at MLG
Molson Cups
Advertising signs from the 1930s
Game programs and calendars from 1931 onward.
Stick signed by Paul Henderson and Team Canada ’72
Wayne Gretzky’s skates from his record 51-game assist streak
Stick Gretzky scored his 76th goal with to tie Phil Esposito
Gretzky’s SNL contract
lhornby@postmedia.com
'Ultimate Leafs Fan' Mike Wilson says goodbye to nearly $2 million in collectibl
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 04:01 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 08:14 PM EDT
The Maple Leafs don’t just belong to Toronto, they’re part of Canadian lore and a significant slice of the national hockey pie.
That’s what Mike Wilson kept telling himself, so as not to throw himself in front of the truck that carted away a lifetime of Leaf collectibles from his 1,000-square foot midtown Toronto man cave to a new home in the Museum of Canadian History in Gatineau, Que.
Three years of negotiation with museum officials on how to best document, display and of course set a price for the bulk of Wilson’s 2,000-plus items will be finalized at a Friday announcement, believed to be the largest private stock of sports memorabilia ever sold in Canada. The MCH will pay ‘The Ultimate Leafs Fan’ a bit south of $2 million, says Jenny Ellison, curator of sport and leisure for the museum, a figure reached by averaging several independent appraisals.
“We’re thrilled,” Ellison said of its value as a research resource and for exhibition purposes. “The first time I went to Mike’s house and saw he touched on 100 years of Leaf and team history, I identified it as one of the most important collections we’ve seen.
“These are one-of-a-kind items; the original door to the Leafs dressing room, a 1931 turnstile from the Gardens, contracts, Tim Horton’s last sweater and pieces from the Smythe family. It’s like walking into the Gardens when it first opened. But there are also items pertaining to Paul Henderson (his stick signed by all of Team Canada ‘72) and Wayne Gretzky (his contract to appear on Saturday Night Live in 1989). Like Mike, we focus on stories and the years 1920-1960 were an important time in the NHL for teams such as Toronto and Montreal.”
Wilson and partner Deb Thuet had already lent the museum 50 items for a larger show to mark Canada 150 and the NHL’s Centennial. Titled ‘Hockey: More Than Just A Game’ its eight-month run ends in October. Hard as it was when just those 50 pieces went out the door, the 63-year-old stock trader was “emotionally distraught” to see empty spaces where King Clancy’s skates and Johnny Bower’s pads had been for years.
“Whether you collect Leafs stuff, beer cans or shoelaces, that gene will be in you to the day you die,” Wilson said. “Deb and my two kids knew what I was going through the day it all left. I’d had that door signed by 80 present and former Leafs and it was so iconic. They even used it in the Luminato arts festival.
“I used the room for many fundraising events and worried about continuing that and if my role as a Leaf storyteller would become irrelevant. But right after they took it, I had an e-mail from an officer at CFB Borden. He’d seen the show at the museum and said how much people, especially the military, appreciated me preserving it. That must have been a sign for me from the hockey gods. I felt a lot better after reading that.”
The e-mail also underlined why he thinks citizens will want a permanent place in the museum’s plans for his collection, along with celebrating the Canadiens, Senators, Western teams, amateur hockey, women’s hockey, black players, First Nations and sledge hockey.
“The Hockey Hall of Fame covers the sport internationally and does a wonderful job, but Ottawa could focus on the history and future of the game solely from a Canadian perspective,” Wilson suggested. “Especially in a museum that’s our version of the Smithsonian.”
Thuet served six years on the Toronto Historical Board and enjoyed giving tours of Wilson’s Leaf-themed exhibit to all ages.
“Grandfathers would see something down there about Charlie Conacher and get so excited,” Thuet said. “We want to see all that preserved so people can still see it in 20 or 30 years or have it for research.”
Ellison and Wilson are pleased that the museum’s travelling showcase of 300 pieces, much of it Wilson’s, is heading to Montreal and Winnipeg in coming months, though there’s no date for a set display to open in the capital.
“Right now, we’re going through the not-so-sexy process of documenting everything,” Ellison said. “I have an idea of our long game, the story I want to tell and what some of my favourite pieces are, but I don’t yet have a time in mind to show it.”
SOMEONE NEEDS TO STEP UP
Mike Wilson is grateful the Canadian Museum of History wanted his massive Maple Leafs memorabilia collection, but now he’d like to see a patriotic corporation step up to ensure a permanent venue to display it and celebrate the game as a whole.
“Like everything else, it needs funding,” Wilson said. “But if (Scotiabank) can spend $800 million for naming rights of an arena, why can’t some other company spend a fraction of that to preserve our national history?
“Every other major sport; baseball, football, basketball, has a Canadian connection that we love to play up. But hockey still defines us and we should go all-out for our game — with a permanent site.”
While he was depressed to see his award-winning team-themed man cave cleared out when his treasures went to the nation’s capital, Wilson soon filled his empty hooks and display cases with some of the 500 items that remain in his possession. Where 20 Leaf sweaters going back to the 1930s once hung, old pal Brian Ehrenworth of Frameworth Collectibles loaned a set from modern-day Leafs Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, as well as Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby so Wilson could continue fundraisers at his home for causes such as mental health awareness, anti-bullying and amateur athletics.
Sent to the museum:
Door from the Maple Leafs dressing room at the Gardens
Original 1931 turnstile/ticket box
Frank Finnigan’s blood-spattered sweater from 1935
Sweaters from George Armstrong, Tim Horton, Dave Keon
Johnny Bower’s pads and chest protector
Hockey cards dating back to the 1920s
Dick Duff’s Stanley Cup silver service tray
Teeder Kennedy’s 200th goal puck
Player locker from Leafs last season at MLG
Molson Cups
Advertising signs from the 1930s
Game programs and calendars from 1931 onward.
Stick signed by Paul Henderson and Team Canada ’72
Wayne Gretzky’s skates from his record 51-game assist streak
Stick Gretzky scored his 76th goal with to tie Phil Esposito
Gretzky’s SNL contract
lhornby@postmedia.com
'Ultimate Leafs Fan' Mike Wilson says goodbye to nearly $2 million in collectibl
'It's a joke of a process': Bitter Cowen rips Maple Leafs
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, September 15, 2017 09:40 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, September 15, 2017 09:50 PM EDT
Jared Cowen arrived in Denver Friday with nothing good to say about the Leafs.
The defenceman, on a PTO with the Avalanche, is naturally still sensitive about losing his arbitration case with the Leafs last year and roughly $3 million US. The Leafs claimed they shouldn’t have been on the hook for two thirds of the $4.5 million cap hit for buying him out because he was healthy and it was a hockey decision.
Cowen, part of the 2016 Dion Phaneuf trade, maintained he sustained lower-body injuries while active with the Sens. He felt he was entitled to his guaranteed contract.
“I wish teams would have more of interest in taking better care of their players instead of whatever their goal or mindset was there,” Cowen told BSNDenver.com on Friday.
“Basically, they got me, figured out that I was hurt, they didn’t want to deal with it and they got rid of me. It was a joke of a process. But it’s in the past. It was a stressful time in my life, in terms of getting traded, getting bought out, getting waived, finding out I needed surgeries."
Cowen, who never appeared in a single game for the Leafs or AHL Marlies, hasn’t played since the ‘15-16 season.
lhornby@postmedia.com
'It's a joke of a process': Bitter Cowen rips Maple Leafs | MAPLE LEAFS | Toront
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, September 15, 2017 09:40 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, September 15, 2017 09:50 PM EDT
Jared Cowen arrived in Denver Friday with nothing good to say about the Leafs.
The defenceman, on a PTO with the Avalanche, is naturally still sensitive about losing his arbitration case with the Leafs last year and roughly $3 million US. The Leafs claimed they shouldn’t have been on the hook for two thirds of the $4.5 million cap hit for buying him out because he was healthy and it was a hockey decision.
Cowen, part of the 2016 Dion Phaneuf trade, maintained he sustained lower-body injuries while active with the Sens. He felt he was entitled to his guaranteed contract.
“I wish teams would have more of interest in taking better care of their players instead of whatever their goal or mindset was there,” Cowen told BSNDenver.com on Friday.
“Basically, they got me, figured out that I was hurt, they didn’t want to deal with it and they got rid of me. It was a joke of a process. But it’s in the past. It was a stressful time in my life, in terms of getting traded, getting bought out, getting waived, finding out I needed surgeries."
Cowen, who never appeared in a single game for the Leafs or AHL Marlies, hasn’t played since the ‘15-16 season.
lhornby@postmedia.com
'It's a joke of a process': Bitter Cowen rips Maple Leafs | MAPLE LEAFS | Toront
Legendary bench boss Roger Neilson remembered
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, September 16, 2017 05:14 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, September 16, 2017 06:03 PM EDT
No one knew what to make of the curly-topped coach when he first walked into Maple Leaf Gardens, carting his workbooks, scads of paper stats and rudimentary electronics.
Forty years on, coaches around the world wonder what they’d have done without Roger Neilson. He brought the classroom to the dressing room — math, science and phys ed — yet is most revered today for cross-wiring offence, defence and forechecking to record, pause and rewind.
Neilson is gone, but Captain Video lives on, every time someone picks up a remote in a special teams meeting. The old black attache case that once held his tapes, marked with a giant Leaf logo, is now in the Canadian Museum of History’s hockey display.
In 2017, almost every pro team employs a video coach and state-of-the-art tech. Coaches have tablets right on the bench to give immediate feedback on a play or to challenge a call. Analytics nerds also owe Neilson their gratitude.
“All that had to start somewhere,” said Darryl Sittler, who was Leaf captain for Neilson’s first training camp in September of 1977. “We were all packed in a little room under the stands at the Gardens when he showed us those first videos, on a basic TV, going over power play and penalty killing.
“It was new, but refreshing and I was all for it. Roger also introduced us to proper off ice conditioning, got us working on face-off plays and he probably came up with the first (defined chart) of scoring chances. Mostly, he made you accountable, to be prepared for every night like it was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.”
“Roger’s homework is why we beat the Islanders in the ‘78 playoffs (a post-Cup high-water mark for Leaf teams until the Pat Burns era),” Sittler said.
That the cerebral Neilson would get his big-league break with lunkhead owner Harold Ballard was surprising. But almost a decade into his reign as King of Carlton, success-starved Ballard was willing to take general manager Jim Gregory’s counsel and hire the coach who’d excelled in the OHA with Peterborough. Gregory barely beat out Buffalo’s Punch Imlach to hire Neilson.
Gregory’s only request of Neilson was to let Ballard make the big announcement himself during Neilson’s month-long summer holiday trek through Europe and North Africa. Stopping in Vienna weeks later to catch up with Canadian newspapers, Neilson was shocked to read that Ballard, whom he’d yet to meet, claimed Neilson called him from South Africa early one morning to accept the Leaf job. One Toronto daily was ready to fly a reporter over there, hoping to find Neilson on some jungle safari. It was the start of an often strained relationship with the polar opposites that included the infamous paper bag caper.
But Neilson gained instant respect in the Leaf room, helped immensely when Sittler, Tiger Williams and Lanny McDonald became early converts to his methods.
“I was always impressed by how prepared his teams in Peterborough were when I played in London,” Sittler said. “You saw all the good players who came through there, such as Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis.”
Neilson’s oft-repeated blueprint was to take a team with limited offensive capability, infuse it with defensive principles through every means possible and then beat down better skilled teams in a contact chess match. That’s where video often came in.
NHL teams had filmed practices with movie cameras going back to the 1950s and Howie Meeker had just begun chirping Hockey Night In Canada audiences about player mistakes via the Telestrator. Teams could also break down TV highlights.
But utilizing nascent VCR technology to target specific problem areas and use it as a scouting tool dawned on Neilson years earlier, teaching high school in Peterborough, his day job while coaching the Petes. Students loved audio-visuals as a break from boring lectures and Neilson was soon recruiting kids to sneak the equipment out at night for Petes’ games and practices.
As a pioneer, Neilson spent much of his time in the stands before a game explaining to the young film crews what he wanted. Later with the Leafs, he nearly missed the start of a game in Montreal while instructing volunteers from Concordia University on camera placement.
Editing raw footage was his other challenge, particularly with early bulky VCRs. Neilson recalled having to master using both hands and use a pencil in his mouth to reach the needed buttons simultaneously.
Neilson had always been looking for an edge on other teams, going back to his youth in Toronto, playing and coaching baseball, a sport that lent itself to rule bending. The peeled potato trick — an infielder catching a ball then throwing a concealed white spud away to tag the runner off base — was a late-game favourite.
Hockey elders might have thought they’d covered everything in the rule book, but Neilson constantly found loopholes. He encouraged goalies to drop their sticks across the goal line on delayed penalties or when being pulled for a sixth man.
“The NHL stopped us from doing that,” laughed Leaf Mike Palmateer. “But I did one better, knelt on my stick, busted it in two and since I couldn’t play with a broken one, I dropped both pieces in the crease when I left. I did that about a dozen times.”
With the Petes, Neilson once put defenceman Ron Stackhouse in net for a penalty shot and sent him on a disruptive charge at the shooter. While short-handed, he deliberately put too many men out since no amount of further penalties would reduce his defenders lower than three. All his schemes required officials to revise and re-print regulations.
“I lived with him a few years and there were about 1,000 other things he didn’t try,” Gregory claimed.
Neilson hardly saw himself as a saboteur, putting the long bus rides in junior hockey to good use while studying the rule book cover to cover.
“Coaches should read it once a month,” advised Neilson in 2002 at his induction to the Hall Of Fame. “It’s embarrassing in games if you don’t know what’s coming up.”
Yet Neilson, would often be in a fog of an absent-minded professor. He could get lost on the street, wander from the room in the midst of a team meeting or furiously scribble personal notes while someone spoke to him.
There was a method to his madness. Sittler was amazed at how Neilson not only tracked stats such as individual ice time, but applied it to line matching.
“He played the percentages,” Sittler said. “You could be a good face-off guy but not necessarily be on the first line. That was the big thing, he made everyone on our team feel important, whether you were a star or a Pat Boutette or a Jerry Butler.
“He didn’t coach like we were in the army, he knew who your wife and kids were and cared about them. He’d say, ‘Here’s the plan the next five or 10 games.’ There were no mind games or crap like that.”
Neilson held deep Christian values, but had a wry sense of humour and became noted for his selection of loud neckties on game night TV. It was Ballard who truly tested his patience. Neilson’s first-year success, a then-Leaf record 92 points and trip to the Cup semi-final, was quickly forgotten when the Leafs stumbled at mid-season of ‘78-79.
“If the wrong person happened to have Harold’s ear...,” sighed Sittler, “well, you know the rest. It wasn’t Roger’s fault we slipped, but Harold blamed him.”
Ballard fired Neilson, only to hire him back a couple of days later when no one else dared take the toxic position. Sittler and Williams talked Ballard into bringing Neilson back and the boss relented — only if Neilson came out at game time with a paper bag on his head, Neilson refused, the Leafs recovered to make the playoffs, but Ballard had tired of “school boy hockey”. Neilson and Gregory did not return.
“Roger was easily the best coach I’ve had,” Palmateer said. “He was ahead of himself for sure. He was not really a motivator, but he had your respect. I don’t remember good personal stories with him, but I sure remember the bad ones when he left. Everything went in the toilet.”
Neilson didn’t fade away, doing some TV commentary where he took some delight in the struggles of Ballard’s 1980s Leafs, who rushed young draft picks into a no-win situation.
“Playing the Leafs is like eating Chinese food,” he once observed on air during a ghastly game. “An hour later, you want to play them again.”
He was still in high demand to coach, with six more NHL teams hiring him in the next 20 years, clubs that provided all the tech gizmos he needed. In the book Bench Bosses, it was detailed how as Sabres associate coach in the early 80s, Neilson pestered Motorola to speed up development of wireless head sets so the staff could relay info from the press boss to head man Scotty Bowman. Neilson applied to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to use a version of the first set — and received permission.
Neilson later coaxed the Vancouver Canucks to the 1982 Cup final and brought the expansion cast-offs of the Florida Panthers to 83 points their first year. Slowed by the cancer that eventually took him in 2003, Neilson was on Jacques Martin’s staff in Ottawa in ‘02 when he was given the head coaching job for the two games needed to reach the 1,000 miletone.
Those influenced by Neilson or players who went on to coach include Joel Quenneville, Randy Carlyle, Marc Crawford, Bruce Boudreau, Lindy Ruff, Ron Wilson and Martin.
Neilson’s hockey schools and coaching symposiums were always packed and the Leafs alumni named their annual high school scholarships in his honour.
“Roger made you a better player,” Sittler said, “and a better individual.”
LHornby@postmedia.com
***
There was one Maple Leaf who tuned out Captain Video.
“I can’t say those tapes did anything for me,” goalie Mike Palmateer laughed on the 40th anniversary of Roger Neilson’s ground breaking arrival as Toronto’s coach. “I had my own book on shooters — and that was in my head.
“All my career was the same routine — get to the rink, get the heat pack on, grab my coffee, my smokes and the program with the other team’s lineup, then go sit on the can with a couple of the other smokers on the team.
“I’d read the players’ names and say ‘OK, there’s this guy and this guy to watch for.’ That was my pre-game prep. I guess things have changed a little bit.”
- Lance Hornby
Leaf coaching winning percentage
(minimum 160 games)
Pat Quinn .591%
Dick Irvin .574%
Punch Imlach .563%
Joe Primeau .562%
Hap Day .549%
Pat Burns 546%
Roger Neilson .541%
Randy Carlyle .535%
Legendary bench boss Roger Neilson remembered | HORNBY | Toronto Maple Leafs | S
By Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, September 16, 2017 05:14 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, September 16, 2017 06:03 PM EDT
No one knew what to make of the curly-topped coach when he first walked into Maple Leaf Gardens, carting his workbooks, scads of paper stats and rudimentary electronics.
Forty years on, coaches around the world wonder what they’d have done without Roger Neilson. He brought the classroom to the dressing room — math, science and phys ed — yet is most revered today for cross-wiring offence, defence and forechecking to record, pause and rewind.
Neilson is gone, but Captain Video lives on, every time someone picks up a remote in a special teams meeting. The old black attache case that once held his tapes, marked with a giant Leaf logo, is now in the Canadian Museum of History’s hockey display.
In 2017, almost every pro team employs a video coach and state-of-the-art tech. Coaches have tablets right on the bench to give immediate feedback on a play or to challenge a call. Analytics nerds also owe Neilson their gratitude.
“All that had to start somewhere,” said Darryl Sittler, who was Leaf captain for Neilson’s first training camp in September of 1977. “We were all packed in a little room under the stands at the Gardens when he showed us those first videos, on a basic TV, going over power play and penalty killing.
“It was new, but refreshing and I was all for it. Roger also introduced us to proper off ice conditioning, got us working on face-off plays and he probably came up with the first (defined chart) of scoring chances. Mostly, he made you accountable, to be prepared for every night like it was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.”
“Roger’s homework is why we beat the Islanders in the ‘78 playoffs (a post-Cup high-water mark for Leaf teams until the Pat Burns era),” Sittler said.
That the cerebral Neilson would get his big-league break with lunkhead owner Harold Ballard was surprising. But almost a decade into his reign as King of Carlton, success-starved Ballard was willing to take general manager Jim Gregory’s counsel and hire the coach who’d excelled in the OHA with Peterborough. Gregory barely beat out Buffalo’s Punch Imlach to hire Neilson.
Gregory’s only request of Neilson was to let Ballard make the big announcement himself during Neilson’s month-long summer holiday trek through Europe and North Africa. Stopping in Vienna weeks later to catch up with Canadian newspapers, Neilson was shocked to read that Ballard, whom he’d yet to meet, claimed Neilson called him from South Africa early one morning to accept the Leaf job. One Toronto daily was ready to fly a reporter over there, hoping to find Neilson on some jungle safari. It was the start of an often strained relationship with the polar opposites that included the infamous paper bag caper.
But Neilson gained instant respect in the Leaf room, helped immensely when Sittler, Tiger Williams and Lanny McDonald became early converts to his methods.
“I was always impressed by how prepared his teams in Peterborough were when I played in London,” Sittler said. “You saw all the good players who came through there, such as Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis.”
Neilson’s oft-repeated blueprint was to take a team with limited offensive capability, infuse it with defensive principles through every means possible and then beat down better skilled teams in a contact chess match. That’s where video often came in.
NHL teams had filmed practices with movie cameras going back to the 1950s and Howie Meeker had just begun chirping Hockey Night In Canada audiences about player mistakes via the Telestrator. Teams could also break down TV highlights.
But utilizing nascent VCR technology to target specific problem areas and use it as a scouting tool dawned on Neilson years earlier, teaching high school in Peterborough, his day job while coaching the Petes. Students loved audio-visuals as a break from boring lectures and Neilson was soon recruiting kids to sneak the equipment out at night for Petes’ games and practices.
As a pioneer, Neilson spent much of his time in the stands before a game explaining to the young film crews what he wanted. Later with the Leafs, he nearly missed the start of a game in Montreal while instructing volunteers from Concordia University on camera placement.
Editing raw footage was his other challenge, particularly with early bulky VCRs. Neilson recalled having to master using both hands and use a pencil in his mouth to reach the needed buttons simultaneously.
Neilson had always been looking for an edge on other teams, going back to his youth in Toronto, playing and coaching baseball, a sport that lent itself to rule bending. The peeled potato trick — an infielder catching a ball then throwing a concealed white spud away to tag the runner off base — was a late-game favourite.
Hockey elders might have thought they’d covered everything in the rule book, but Neilson constantly found loopholes. He encouraged goalies to drop their sticks across the goal line on delayed penalties or when being pulled for a sixth man.
“The NHL stopped us from doing that,” laughed Leaf Mike Palmateer. “But I did one better, knelt on my stick, busted it in two and since I couldn’t play with a broken one, I dropped both pieces in the crease when I left. I did that about a dozen times.”
With the Petes, Neilson once put defenceman Ron Stackhouse in net for a penalty shot and sent him on a disruptive charge at the shooter. While short-handed, he deliberately put too many men out since no amount of further penalties would reduce his defenders lower than three. All his schemes required officials to revise and re-print regulations.
“I lived with him a few years and there were about 1,000 other things he didn’t try,” Gregory claimed.
Neilson hardly saw himself as a saboteur, putting the long bus rides in junior hockey to good use while studying the rule book cover to cover.
“Coaches should read it once a month,” advised Neilson in 2002 at his induction to the Hall Of Fame. “It’s embarrassing in games if you don’t know what’s coming up.”
Yet Neilson, would often be in a fog of an absent-minded professor. He could get lost on the street, wander from the room in the midst of a team meeting or furiously scribble personal notes while someone spoke to him.
There was a method to his madness. Sittler was amazed at how Neilson not only tracked stats such as individual ice time, but applied it to line matching.
“He played the percentages,” Sittler said. “You could be a good face-off guy but not necessarily be on the first line. That was the big thing, he made everyone on our team feel important, whether you were a star or a Pat Boutette or a Jerry Butler.
“He didn’t coach like we were in the army, he knew who your wife and kids were and cared about them. He’d say, ‘Here’s the plan the next five or 10 games.’ There were no mind games or crap like that.”
Neilson held deep Christian values, but had a wry sense of humour and became noted for his selection of loud neckties on game night TV. It was Ballard who truly tested his patience. Neilson’s first-year success, a then-Leaf record 92 points and trip to the Cup semi-final, was quickly forgotten when the Leafs stumbled at mid-season of ‘78-79.
“If the wrong person happened to have Harold’s ear...,” sighed Sittler, “well, you know the rest. It wasn’t Roger’s fault we slipped, but Harold blamed him.”
Ballard fired Neilson, only to hire him back a couple of days later when no one else dared take the toxic position. Sittler and Williams talked Ballard into bringing Neilson back and the boss relented — only if Neilson came out at game time with a paper bag on his head, Neilson refused, the Leafs recovered to make the playoffs, but Ballard had tired of “school boy hockey”. Neilson and Gregory did not return.
“Roger was easily the best coach I’ve had,” Palmateer said. “He was ahead of himself for sure. He was not really a motivator, but he had your respect. I don’t remember good personal stories with him, but I sure remember the bad ones when he left. Everything went in the toilet.”
Neilson didn’t fade away, doing some TV commentary where he took some delight in the struggles of Ballard’s 1980s Leafs, who rushed young draft picks into a no-win situation.
“Playing the Leafs is like eating Chinese food,” he once observed on air during a ghastly game. “An hour later, you want to play them again.”
He was still in high demand to coach, with six more NHL teams hiring him in the next 20 years, clubs that provided all the tech gizmos he needed. In the book Bench Bosses, it was detailed how as Sabres associate coach in the early 80s, Neilson pestered Motorola to speed up development of wireless head sets so the staff could relay info from the press boss to head man Scotty Bowman. Neilson applied to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to use a version of the first set — and received permission.
Neilson later coaxed the Vancouver Canucks to the 1982 Cup final and brought the expansion cast-offs of the Florida Panthers to 83 points their first year. Slowed by the cancer that eventually took him in 2003, Neilson was on Jacques Martin’s staff in Ottawa in ‘02 when he was given the head coaching job for the two games needed to reach the 1,000 miletone.
Those influenced by Neilson or players who went on to coach include Joel Quenneville, Randy Carlyle, Marc Crawford, Bruce Boudreau, Lindy Ruff, Ron Wilson and Martin.
Neilson’s hockey schools and coaching symposiums were always packed and the Leafs alumni named their annual high school scholarships in his honour.
“Roger made you a better player,” Sittler said, “and a better individual.”
LHornby@postmedia.com
***
There was one Maple Leaf who tuned out Captain Video.
“I can’t say those tapes did anything for me,” goalie Mike Palmateer laughed on the 40th anniversary of Roger Neilson’s ground breaking arrival as Toronto’s coach. “I had my own book on shooters — and that was in my head.
“All my career was the same routine — get to the rink, get the heat pack on, grab my coffee, my smokes and the program with the other team’s lineup, then go sit on the can with a couple of the other smokers on the team.
“I’d read the players’ names and say ‘OK, there’s this guy and this guy to watch for.’ That was my pre-game prep. I guess things have changed a little bit.”
- Lance Hornby
Leaf coaching winning percentage
(minimum 160 games)
Pat Quinn .591%
Dick Irvin .574%
Punch Imlach .563%
Joe Primeau .562%
Hap Day .549%
Pat Burns 546%
Roger Neilson .541%
Randy Carlyle .535%
Legendary bench boss Roger Neilson remembered | HORNBY | Toronto Maple Leafs | S