On the night before Valentine's Day, millions of hearts will be broken across North America.
In this case, it won't be a member of the opposite sex that causes the broken hearts. Rather, it will be a building - a supposedly inanimate, non-living object.
Anyone who has been to Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens might have a hard time with the non-living part.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will call the Gardens home one last time when they face the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 13. A few nights later, the Leafs will move into the spacious, modern, state-of-the-art Air Canada Centre. The new building will feature all the usual amenities of modern arenas, such as luxury boxes, club seating, and wide concourses.
Personally, I'll take the Gardens.
The mystique of Maple Leaf Gardens is hard, if not impossible, to put into words. Perhaps William Kilbourn described it best in his book, "Religion in Canada." "If I were asked by some stranger to North American culture to show him the most important religious building in Canada, I would take him to Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, " Kilbourn writes.
Kilbourn might not be exaggerating. For many years, Canadian youth grew up listening to the radio broadcast from the gondola at the Gardens on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. As the times changed, Hockey Night in Canada became a television show, and from Vancouver to Halifax, Saturday night meant hockey on television.
Until the late 1960s, there were just six teams in the National Hockey League. Those teams were the Maple Leafs, Black Hawks, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, and Boston Bruins. Most Canadian anglophones cheered for the Maple Leafs, while the francophones supported the Canadiens. And the television coverage showed this, as the Leafs were a fixture on Hockey Night in Canada.
In the 1970s, times changed. During this decade, the NHL added five Canadian teams. The Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, and Quebec Nordiques all joined the league, and Maple Leafs were no longer the favorite team of virtually every child west of Ottawa.
Somehow, I was the exception.
In 1985, the Leafs chose Wendel Clark, a rugged left winger who played junior hockey in Saskatoon, as the first pick in the NHL Entry Draft. As a loyal nine-year-old fan of Saskatoon's junior team, the Blades, I became a Maple Leafs' fan.
I had traveled to Maple Leaf Gardens prior to the 1985-86 season, Clark's rookie year in the NHL, but my most memorable experience came in the fall of 1985.
My family traveled to Toronto to watch the Clark and the Leafs play. By this time, Clark was a rookie sensation, being touted as the leading candidate for the Calder Trophy, which is emblematic of being the NHL's top rookie. Clark jerseys were difficult to find around Toronto, and the previously hapless Leafs appeared headed to the playoffs.
After the game ended, my parents and I wanted to talk to Clark, since we'd known him when he played junior in Saskatoon. However, a security guard had other ideas. He moved everyone far enough out of sight of the Leafs' locker room that there would be little chance of talking to anyone that night.
Apparently I was a visibly upset nine-year-old, because an older usher walked over and asked what the problem was. When my parents explained the situation, he told us to stand near the locker room, and he'd handle any problems we'd have with security.
A few minutes later, Clark emerged from the Leafs' locker room. We managed to catch his attention, and he came over to talk for about 10 or 15 minutes, leaving a USA Today reporter waiting in the meantime. After getting my jersey signed, Clark told us not to go anywhere, and he went back in the locker room. A few moments later, he walked out with the stick that he had used in that night's game, and gave it to me.
In the meantime, the usher we had spoken to had taken our home address, just in case we did not get to talk to Clark. A few weeks later, a package arrived in the mail. He had sent a variety of Leafs pictures and memorabilia, including a signed photo of Clark, addressed "To Trevor."
For the next two years, the usher and I communicated by mail, as he would send me various Leafs items, including a record that contained a song called "Clark for Calder". Then suddenly, the letters and photos stopped arriving. The next time we were at the Gardens, we asked if he was still working there, and nobody seemed to know anything. To this day, it remains a mystery what happened. Maybe it's part of the Gardens' mystique.
Even if you have never entered the grand entrance on Carlton Street, if you have never arrived at a game three hours early just to get a parking spot and then go to nearby Younge Street for dinner, or if you have never seen Hockey Night in Canada, Feb. 13 will be a sad night. The closing of the Gardens marks the end of an era, one that will never be repeated.
Of the Original Six buildings, the homes of the six NHL teams mentioned earlier, five of them have closed. Detroit's Olympia is no longer standing, replaced in the late 1970s by Joe Louis Arena. Chicago Stadium was replaced by the United Center earlier this decade. Ditto for the Boston Garden and the Montreal Forum, replaced by the Fleet Center and the Molson Centre, respectively. Madison Square Garden still stands as the home of the Rangers, but it's vastly different than it was in the days of the Original Six teams.
Maple Leaf Gardens is the last of those arenas. When the Gardens closes, the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh and the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles become the NHL's oldest buildings. Anyone who has ever set foot in the Great Western Forum knows it is anything but a grand old arena. Rather, it's a poorly designed, inconvenient, concrete blob that seems to place the viewer in another zip code than the game.
There may never be another building like the original six arenas in the NHL. In fact, unless something drastic happens with arena design, there won't be. Don't miss this chance to see the last NHL game in the type of setting in which the game was meant to be played - in an arena full of tradition, where the fans are close to the game. The final game at the Gardens will be played at 5:30 on Feb. 13, and the NHL's television schedule lists the game as being broadcast on ESPN2.
It would be advisable not to miss this game. After all, it can truthfully be said that after that night, the NHL will never be the same again.
February 1999
