Toronto Maple Leafs 1967: The Last Stanley Cup

The victory of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1967 Stanley Cup was a singular event. It was unexpected then, and who would have predicted that it would not happen again? (With the Leafs not even in the playoffs in 2012, it has been 45 years and counting.) The members of the Leafs that year knew they were flawed. They were mostly old by hockey standards (2 were over 40 and 5 others were 36 or older), lacked scoring, included some erratic personalities and they had endured a season in which at one point they lost 10 straight games. This team was essentially the same team that the previous year had been...

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Klondikers Challenge for the Stanley Cup

“Hanging out in Skagway,” wrote a later observer, “did nothing for the team conditioning. They were in serious liver training.” With our national game played out in the hyper serious world of professionalism, it is comforting to look back to simpler times when hockey was closer to community, and was played for love and glory by amateurs. One hundred years ago, before the Stanley Cup was not the captive of the National Hockey League, any Canadian team with some success at the senior level challenge the current champs.

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