Description
Eleven years on from their surprising Stanley Cup victory in 1967, the Toronto Maple Leafs once again managed to do something special - despite themselves.
By the spring of 1978, the National Hockey League was in chaos and spread thin, feeling the effects of rapid expansion. From the cozy old-boy establishment of the Original Six, the NHL had doubled in size immediately following the Leafs' Cup win in '67 - the largest expansion in professional sports history. And then there was more. By the 1977-78 season, there were eighteen teams competing - not only on the ice, but for talent.
Further depleted by the rise of a serious new rival in the World Hockey Association, the NHL had become the Wild West on skates. This was the time of the Broad Street Bullies and the Big Bad Bruins. The game had descended into violence and teams and the league were in mayhem. Perhaps it was no accident that the movie Slap Shot was released in 1977, emblematic of the fact that the NHL had become a parody of itself.
In Toronto, the Leafs faced their own challenges. Owner Harold Ballard had been released from jail and was back to his meddling ways; star players were traded away or pilfered by the WHA; and the team had to share the sports spotlight for the first time, with the brand-new Toronto Blue Jays.
And yet, somehow, the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to turn the 1977-78 season into one shining moment in the team's history, the only Leaf team to record over 40 wins in the regular season and get to the final four in the playoffs until the legendary 1993 run against Gretzky's L.A. Kings.
At the core of the 1978 Leaf team were young draft picks now coming into their own, including Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Dave "Tiger" Williams, and Ian Turnbull. And in a stunning coup - after haplessly leaking players to the WHA just a few years before - the Leafs had managed to land Swedish stars Borje Salming and Inge Hammarstrom, pioneering talent who would change the North American game.
Bolstered by the addition of veterans Ron Ellis and Jim McKenny, backstopped by acrobatic goaltender Mike Palmateer and led by visionary coach Roger Neilson and GM Jim Gregory, this team was on a mad, memorable ride like no other, delivering the first real season of promise since the 1967 Cup win.
About the authors
Damien Cox is an award-winning sports columnist for the Toronto Star. He has covered the NHL and international hockey since 1989 and has worked extensively in radio and television. He is the author of The Spin, a daily sports blog that appears on the Star’s website, Waymoresports.com, and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He appears weekly on TSN’s The Reporters and regularly as an analyst on TSN NHL broadcasts. Cox has been named three times to The Hockey News’ 100 People of Power and Influence in Hockey. He is co-author of 67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory and the End of an Empire. Cox lives in Toronto with his wife Vicki and four children.
Gord Stellick began working for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1975 and became the club’s General Manager in 1988. In the summer of 1989, he resigned from the Leafs and joined the New York Rangers as assistant GM. Stellick then moved from management to media, working as the Leafs’ colour analyst on their radio broadcasts. In 1993, Stellick joined forces with Cox to co-host an afternoon talk show on the FAN590 all-sports radio station in Toronto. Stellick currently co-hosts the FAN590’s daily morning show, and was previously host of The Big Show, also on FAN590. Appearing regularly as an NHL analyst for Rogers SportsNet TV, and co-hosting Inside the AHL weekly on Rogers SportsNet, Stellick remains one of the most popular sports media figures in Toronto and across the country.
