The Shrine to Hockey @ 60 Carlton Street

                                    

Maple Leaf Gardens opened November 12, 1931 with a game between the Leafs and Blackhawks, a  2-1 Leaf loss. Surprisingly, according to a report in the Toronto Star, opening night was not a sell-out. Fans stayed away thinking it would be too crowded and they wouldn't get a seat.

Maple Leaf Gardens closed on February 13, 1999, with another Leaf loss, also to the Blackhawks.

The Gardens was a part of my life for more than 50 years.

The building created great memories for me as a kid. It was the place to go for the circus and wrestling and Sunday afternoon Junior hockey double-headers featuring NHL future stars.  And, it was the home base for my team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

 Can you smell the roasted chestnuts?

When I was fortunate enough to go to a game as a kid, my experience actually started outside on the street ... the smell of the vendors roasting chestnuts, scalpers shouting above the crowd, fans jostling for position to get through the doors ... "Get your program ... get your Leaf program ... tonight's hockey line ups". If you were meeting a friend for the game and had his ticket, the only place to meet was "under the clock" in the lobby directly in front of the main Carlton St. doors.

My Leaf game in the 1950s wouldn't be complete without a Coke, served flat and in a wax-coated cup for 10 cents ... the wax would come off in your mouth. And, of course, a 15-cent hot dog that wasn't really hot -- sorta tasted like it had been left in a warm room the night before the game. And, of course, the Cracker Jacks box had a special note inside ... "prizes are not included in this box because some people may throw them on the ice".

To an 8-year-old like me, everything was delicious.

The 48th Highlanders played every "Opening Night"

When I took my seat, I was always distracted by the Leaf Stick Boy.  How'd he get that job? Is he related to someone? D'you think he knows all the players?  D'they know him? D'ya thinks he gets to travel with the team.  I wondered how old he was?

What I wouldn't do to get that job.

On the second floor of MLG, the mezzanine - at the top of the escalator, there was a large, wide-angle, black and white framed photo of the Leaf team in the parade up Bay St. to city hall following one of their 1960s Stanley Cup wins. I'm the kid in the lower corner of the photo hanging off the lamppost. I hope that photo will eventually make its way to Scotiabank Center - I'd like to show it to my grandchildren.

In 1970, a cop friend invited me to play a game of shinny at the Gardens with him and others from his station.  I was beyond excited. This was the arena I'd been to 100's of times - always in the seats.  Now, I was getting a chance to skate on that sheet.  I didn't sleep the night before.  I arrived at the Gardens well in advance of the 6 am start time.  The back door on Wood St. was open - like they were expecting me.  I found the dressing room behind the penalty box and got dressed as others started to file in. I couldn't wait for someone to give me the go-ahead. I just pretended I was supposed to be there and walked down the corridor to the gate. 

The Gardens was in total darkness.  When I reached for the latch on the gate, it was magic.  Someone, coincidentally, pulled the light switch and the whole building came to life - it was like one of those old camera flash bulbs going off in your face. Wow!  I stepped onto the surface and started to skate around the perimeter.  My blades cut into the ice and made that wonderful sound... and it echoed.  Once around, then again and again.  I looked up to the cantilevered ceiling - it was a mile away.  I was just inhaling the place when I noticed a puck - sitting directly on the Maple Leaf logo at centre ice. 

I skated over, flipped the puck onto my stick and started to move toward the net for a shot.

When I got to the blue line I mustered together the hardest slap-shot I could.  It sailed toward the mesh, clipped the crossbar with that fabulous pinging sound sailed up over the glass, over the End-Blues and settled in the second deck.

What a glorious feeling.  I should have left the ice, got dressed, went home and never played again. Nothing would ever match the hockey feeling I just had.

I'm not sure how it happened but in 1972 I joined a group of players from Molson's and Hockey Night in Canada who had an hours' ice-time every week at Maple Leaf Gardens.  We played at noon from September to April for 13 consecutive years. Ice time at the Gardens was not available to the public.  Only the aforementioned police from the local station and the Members of Parliament from the Ontario legislature were permitted and us. 

During our 13 years there we had more than 350 players join us. Business associates, relatives, former NHL'ers, buddies, and present-day injured Leafs that the team left behind on road trips. Quite a group.  All of us shared the same experience - this building was a hockey shrine. 

We had one hockey-playing visitor to our weekly match on Gardens ice who was most certainly not welcomed. He was the super scalper who was positioned outside the main doors of the building on Carlton Street. He was at his selling post day and night, whether there was a game or concert in the building that night, or not. He seemed to be there 24/7 and he was Ballard's Kryptonite. Pal Hal tried everything to get rid of the guy but he was a magician who had a system for avoiding the police.

I'd met with him a few times to buy tickets. - He told me that his scalping job was better than a real job ... "I put two kids through university".

One day, he showed up on the ice with us as a guest of Harold Ballard Jr. Young Harold (used the replacement name, "Bobby", so as to distance him from the guy nobody seemed to like) was obviously in the mood to piss off his old man and this was a subtle way of accomplishing that. Fortunately, no one from the hockey office checked our lineup that day and our visitor was told not to return. If his history with the building isn't familiar, his name was Mike Wassilyn and directly after Harold passed away, claimed he was the big guy's illegitimate son - looking for a piece of the inheritance gravy. Ballard's "other son", Bill, was a lawyer and put an end to that claim in a hurry.

We always knew when a good team was in to play the Leafs - often on the same day we played. Gardens ice-making guru, Doug Moore (who invented Jet-Ice) could "adjust" its quality to give a little advantage to the home side. When the "Flying Frenchmen" showed up, the Garden's ice surface resembled a pond early in the morning - very, very bumpy. It played havoc with their tape-to-tape passing. 

National Hockey League Rookie of the Year, Kent Douglas 
Did the Leaf goalie think everyone was looking over his shoulder?

This is a Howard Barkley photo taken 60 years ago ... do you think a better quality snap could be taken with today's digital cameras?

In the 1980's owner, Harold Ballard resurfaced the rink floor and put in new pipes. Before the final coat of concrete, the big man couldn't resist putting his hand and footprints in the wet muck, exactly where the Maple Leaf logo would be at center ice. The ice never set properly on that most famous Leaf logo.

#1 Bruce Hood at work

I'm not sure how it happened but around that time I became pals with NHL ref, Bruce Hood.  He had just worked his 1,000th game -- the first to do so.  When asked for a fond memory of Maple Leaf Gardens, Bruce didn't hesitate. "There was nothing like moving into the Leaf logo circle for the opening face-off at the Gardens at 8 pm on Saturday night for Hockey Night in Canada and hearing Dave Keon snap his bubble gum."

David (don't call me Davey) Keon

I'm not sure how it happened but in the 1980's I joined the publishing company that produced all of Canada's sports magazines, including the game day program for the Leafs. 

Ballard had some serious flaws, especially as a miserly owner with no regard for die-hard fans. He could have been considered a legendary Toronto hero but he chose to be a mumbling, fumbling blowhard and an embarrassment to our team and our city.  I watched a recent documentary on him. I thought it was odd that the doc researchers didn't uncover the guy who Harold depended on most for all of his decision-making because he couldn't do it on his own. Ballard couldn't start a day without checking first with Ted Hough, the president of Canadian Sports Network. 

Ballard understood only one thing, money, and how to make more of it. Every day he woke up with that focus. One day, he had a brain wave ... He was going to turn over all of the signage in the Gardens to one company and decided that his corporate target would be Molson's.

He offered his idea to them with a one million dollar price tag.

The year was 1983 - that was a lot of money. They declined.

Harold promptly delisted Molson products from his building ...

"From this day forward ... we only sell Labatt's" became the Garden's method of operation.

As a goof, Molson's produced a first-ever premium beer, Ballard's Best. 

I didn't open my sample bottle ... I could only guess what the contents may be.

Toronto media referred to the Gardens as the Carlton Street Cash Box with good reason.

At a post-game session in the Maple Leaf Gardens Hot Stove Club  Restaurant/Bar following the dismissal of coach Roger Neilson, I asked Harold if either Don Cherry or Fred Shero were potential candidates for the vacant coaching job ... "No, to both ... one's an entertainer and the other is a drunk" was his response.

The fabulous Harry "Red" Foster recruited Wayne Gretzky to be a supporter of the Special Olympics when he was a rookie. In the '90s when Gretzky skated for the LA Kings, he agreed to pose for a photo for me which I could sell by auction to support the charity.

I staged a photo at the HHOF with him that had never been taken before. He sat on a row of wooden seats from the original Madison Square Garden with a wonderful snap of his 10-year-old self with his childhood idol, Gordie Howe -- and, I surrounded him with all the NHL trophies he'd earned.

Gretz with all the trophies he earned.
Smiles like a 10-year-old... doesn't he?

(I asked him about wearing Hush Puppy shoes for the photo. He claimed they were actually some Italian designer shoes that set him back hundreds.)

I had only 15 copies of the photo enlarged and Wayne agreed to sign and number them. I had them spectacularly framed by an artist in museum quality. By the time the last one sold, Gretzky's pose earned more than $90,000 for Canada's Special Olympian athletes.

The autograph signing session for his exclusive portrait was interesting. I waited for him under the seats at the north end where they kept the Zamboni following an LA Kings/Leafs game-day skate. 

I watched when he came off the ice. He was met by a dozen sports journalists and radio/TV reporters. I stood off to one side as they formed what they call a "scrum" with him in the middle. 

It was interesting to see him work the media. He looked at no one.    He picked a spot on the wall and stared at it while answering every question, directly and politely then on to the next.  When they had no more questions, they dispersed as quickly as they had assembled.  Then, Gretzky turned and walked over to the corner where Toronto Star columnist, Jim Proudfoot was waiting for, I guess, the real interview with the "Great One". 

Incidentally, so much has been written about Gretzky. Most hockey fans wouldn't have any trouble writing an essay about him and his hockey exploits. But, the very first person to interview him and write about it was Toronto Sun hockey specialist, John Iaboni, when Gretzky was only 10 years old.

As I watched the scrum, I wondered if he would ever become a Maple Leaf. That question would be answered a short time later when Ballard passed away and Steve Stavro took control. The Gretzky move to Toronto was almost signed but Stavro couldn't justify his multi-million dollar salary. 

The Gardens/Leafs had been sold out since 1946. Advertising and TV sponsorships had been maxed out.  Why pay Gretzky millions to finish his career in Toronto reasoned the new owner ... 99 moved on to St Louis.

Over the years, Maple Leaf Gardens had been a very friendly building to Wayne Gretzky.  He performed some of his best magic there even though his Oilers only visited one time each regular season.

Incidentally, at that time, there were exactly 99 steps to get from the main floor of the Gardens to the top of the Greys.  I know because I used the Hot Stove Heath Club as home base as I'd run five times around Queen's Park at lunchtime and finish my workout which included those MLG steps.

Following the 1992 Blue Jay World Series win a friend with the club told me a few non-skating players would love to take a few spins at Maple Leaf Gardens. 

I made the arrangements of Turner Ward, Kelly Gruber and Series MVP, Pat Borders and gathered a few other players to be able to play  a little shinny -- I had Les Miserables star, Michael Burgess, sing the national anthem in front of his very first-ever, empty house. 

Michael Burgess

Once they were fully dressed in Leaf equipment, Borders and Gruber couldn't stop punching, whacking and smacking each other.  When they stumbled out onto the ice, I couldn't help but notice that same "Wow" look on them that I had a few years before.

One day in the 80s, I arranged a lunch meeting at the Gardens Hot Stove restaurant with former Leaf captain, Ted "Teeder" Kennedy who had earned 5 Stanley Cups for the team. I arrived a little late to find him standing in the lobby waiting for me. I asked him, "Why didn't you just go to our table"? He said, "I didn't think I was allowed". I said, "You built this place, I'm pretty sure you're allowed".

5 Decades of Leaf Captains - Sittler - Kennedy - Keon

Several books have been written about the Gardens ... a fabulous Toronto landmark.  Years ago it was declared a heritage site.  Its look and historical significance would be preserved, or so we thought.  

Today, the facing of the original building along with the Maple Leaf Gardens marquee is still in place.  But, the building's main floor (which was the original ice surface) is now a grocery store.  It's sad.  Historical importance for people/fans like me went out the window as soon as someone came up with the right financial offer.

I visited the grocery store for the sole purpose of trying to figure out where centre ice might be among the bananas and kumquats.  After a half hour, I abandoned the search and was about to leave.  I asked a shelf stocker, "Do you happen to know where centre ice from the old Maple Leaf Gardens would be in this store?" ... he pointed to a tiny, nondescript red dot on the floor in the aisle. 

Disgraceful.

I'm not sure how it happened but my son Sean became the stick boy for the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey club for 4 years beginning in 1984. 

My infant grandson, Jordan and I have a "last skate" to close the building. I am so happy we made the trip and I have this photo

In 2018, my now 6' 3'' grandson, Jordan, joined the varsity volleyball team for Ryerson University. Their home games are played at the new Gardens complex, called the Mattamay Centre.

To explain ... the Mattamay Center/Maple Leaf Gardens is made up of a grocery store on ground level, a spectacular fitness, basketball/volleyball facility on the second floor and an NHL-sized hockey rink on the third floor.

In the early 1970s, our Gardens' hockey playing group described earlier included a very young Jim Hughson (nicknamed "Albert" after the Canadian Tire character at the time) 

"Albert"

and City TV sports guy, John Saunders, who'd go on to be the lead guy on ESPN.

John Saunders - his brother played for the Nordiques

Can you imagine your childhood Leaf favourite, retiring, then coming back to the Leafs to play 5 years later ... my favourite did ... Carl Brewer.

When goofy owner, Harold Ballard, decided to go fetch former Leaf GM/Coach, "Punch" Imlach from the scrap heap, he successfully destroyed the franchise. Imlach tossed Lanny McDonald and a few other key Leaf pieces just to show the players "who's boss".  Nobody wanted to play for him or the Leafs - nobody.

In 1979, he signed former Leaf all-star, Carl Brewer who would play 20 games. Brewer's play aside, Imlach/Leafs predictably didn't honour the contract and Brewer took the club to court to recover his salary. When he filed his claim, Brewer found out the TORONTO MAPLE LEAF HOCKEY CLUB name was never registered. Brewer quickly registered the name and made himself President and sole shareholder. Leaf owner, Conn Smythe successfully defended his position of ownership of the team name at a cost of $250,000 in legal fees (Brewer admitted he would have settled with the team for much less).

Incidentally, not one member of Brewer's Leaf team welcomed him to the club. In fact, during his 20 games, his defence partner, Borje Salming, wouldn't pass him the puck - he was 7 years older than the oldest Leaf at the time, Ron Ellis. The players made him dress down the hall in another room along with any other player who was a call-up or temp ... originating the term, 'Black Aces". 

If you remember the original seating layout of MLG, the rink is at the same level as what would have been the first row of the Grey seats in the old MLG building.

See what the cantilevered ceiling does? You must visit.

Hockey Buddies from Florida made the pilgrimage to Toronto to play a tournament in 2018. Following our 3 games, every player could claim they'd scored at least one goal at Maple Leaf Gardens. 

"The Florida Leafs" make their debut appearance at MLG

The owners of Mattamay did the best they could to preserve a tiny bit of the history of the building. You should visit. Go to the top-floor rink ... they've surrounded the standing-room section with fabulous photos of historic Leaf games and entertainment superstars who've played Maple Leaf Gardens.

"FAB"

"Typical Leaf Fan" ... a very young Shania Twain

Do you remember the writer, Scott Young? He was one of Canada's most famous journalists who contributed to all of Canada's major publications. He wrote 45 books of fiction which included several that were hockey related. During the Leaf's Stanley Cup run of the 1960s, you had to read his column every day because he had the inside scoop on the team from the owner to the players.

As a writer, he often wrote about and perfectly captured the sense that many Canadian fathers have about their sons and the hope that one day they may play in the NHL and if it could just be his team ... The Toronto Maple Leafs.

At his son's early age, he admitted to himself that his son would never, ever become a hockey player. But, his son is Neil Young and became one of the most famous Rock n Roll singers/songwriters in the world.

Scott Young, Hockey Writer   Neil Young, Rocker 

He wrote a fabulous newspaper column about every father's dream mentioned above but the last two sentences of the piece were the most important.

"I realized my son would never become a Leaf. But, now I find myself walking down Church Street and as I turn the corner onto Carlton Street, I look up at the Maple Leaf Gardens marquee and it says"

TONIGHT

NEIL YOUNG   

  8 pm

If you're like me, you'll have a great rush of memories from that old building but the only thing that remained the same was one of the most famous addresses in Canada ...  60 Carlton Street.  

The Leaf logo on the front of the 1967 Stanley Cup practice jersey