Disclaimer: I assume this is okay to post here in the main thread. If not,
feel free to move it, close it, or tell me where to re-post it.
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A poster here (I assume a hardcore Maple Leafs hater) sent me a message
asking if I could find a game in the archives that represented the start of the
decline that has seen the Toronto team fail to win the cup for 54 years and
post it using the same format as for the Flames Stanley Cup Thread from
earlier this year. Since I have these reports for every NHL game from 1961
thru 1992, I looked back and found this game from January 24, 1968 and
chose it because it already had the reference in the game notes.
That "historical note" should pretty much cover what was asked for.
The background is that it was the year of the NHL's big expansion from 6 to 12 teams.
The Leafs were the defending Stanley Cup Champions from their win in April 1967.
The Leafs entered the night 2 points out of first place and with an expansion
team in their home building, expected an easy win to vault back to the top of
the division.
From there, it's all downhill. Like way downhill.
Also, this was one week after the mid-season all-star game that still pitted
the defending champs (Toronto) against the stars from the other 11 teams,
and also one week after the on-ice tragedy that took the life of Minnesota C-
Bill Masterton.
This report was originally written on the night of the game and updated at
the end of that season, then the "Historical Note" was added in 2001 when
this entire project was updated. For this post, I updated the one line in the
Other Notes section for this post to reflect the current reality.
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For Toronto Maple Leaf Haters
<---- stupid
