SportsMaple Leafs players with roots in the Toronto area accept the pressure of the playoffs

Maple Leafs players with roots in the Toronto area accept the pressure of the playoffs

Or a Stanley Cup playoff streak in 19 years.

Because for the 10 members of the Maple Leafs born and raised in Southern Ontario, it’s in their DNA.

“When you grow up watching this team, like I did with Doug Gilmores and Wendell Clarks, you understand the passion.” Mark Giordano saying. “He is there, positive or negative, you cannot escape.”

[RELATED: Complete Maple Leafs vs Lightning series coverage]

For these gamers, there is no way to block out white noise. Not when it comes to family, friends and neighbors. The reminders are there, constant. You accept it, or else.

On Tuesday, Toronto opens its best-of-7 Eastern Conference first-round series at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, CBC, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, BSSUN) in the playoffs for the first time since 2004. The Maple Leafs will be looking for redemption after the Lightning swept them in seven games last season, marking the sixth straight season Toronto has lost in the first round, and they will do so with one team. There is no shortage of local flavor.

Giordano is a born and raised Torontonian, and forward michael bunting AND wayne simmonds Hailing from Scarborough, one of the eastern suburbs of Toronto. Forward mitchell marner Markham grew up north of the city. Center John Tavares Born in Mississauga, west of Toronto. Forward Ryan O’Reilly A native of Clinton, near London. defensive player dj brady Ferguson Jenkins, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, hails from his hometown of Chatham, located halfway between London and Windsor. Defender Connor Timmons is from St. Catharines, about 60 miles south of Toronto near the US border.

Two more neighbors are on the injured reserve: a security guard jack mussin, who grew up in Woodstock, 65 miles southeast of Toronto; and guardian Victor MeadHailing from Woodbridge, north of Toronto.

For these players, the question is simple: does growing in the region add more pressure or offer incentives? Especially when everyone knows what a playoff win here means.

“It depends on how you look at it,” Giordano said. “The way I see it is you grow up in your hometown and you dream of winning the playoffs and winning the trophy at home. I mean, there’s no better story than that. So it’s a great opportunity for all of us. «

The 39-year-old says his team should take advantage.

“I mean, look at our team,” he said. “They have been one of the best teams in the league in recent years. Now it’s about winning the playoffs. Yes, there is pressure. Nobody is going to deceive you and say that there is no pressure on us, we just have it. definitely something to wear, but, like you said, I should wear it to take you.

You don’t want to look too far ahead. But if you look at the end of the tunnel and see what’s possible, I mean, it’s pretty special.”

Marner couldn’t agree more.

The 25-year-old grew up soaking up all the information about Maple Leafs history, so much so that he wore number 93 in minor hockey and in memory of former Maple Leafs forward Doug Gilmore with London of the Ontario Hockey League. . Remember, Marner wasn’t even born when Gilmore helped Toronto reach the conference finals in 1993 and 1994.

For some perplexing reasons, he’s often been the scapegoat for fans for Toronto’s recent offseason shortcomings. He averaged 1.09 points per game in his 507-game NHL career in the regular season, but he averaged 0.85 points in 39 postseason games, which is a good source of criticism. At the same time, it is not the main cause of the decline of the maple leaf in recent years.

However, he, like Giordano, is focused on the big picture and envisioning what the Stanley Cup could mean for the team, the city and all of southern Ontario.

“I think a lot of us here probably said it would be a dream come true for a lot of us to wear this jersey,” Marner said. “It’s easy to think that way. At the same time, our mindset here is to be in the moment, in the day, and try not to look ahead.”

Harder to do than to say. Just ask O’Reilly, who was traded to Toronto by the St. Louis Blues noel aciari Feb. 17 as part of a three-team deal that includes the Minnesota Wild.

The 32-year-old helped the Blues win the Cup in 2019 and brought hockey’s holy grail to southwestern Ontario, where he celebrated with his cousins ​​and childhood friends. But it didn’t take him long to understand the emotional environment he now plays in and how many people he’s known over the years live and die with every Maple Leafs turn.

To that end, one of the first things O’Reilly did after being traded was send a text to his father, Brian.

“What if you could help bring the Stanley Cup to Toronto?” Text from son to father. “You can imagine?”

Two months later, he’s still trying to get the idea.

“I think it’s pressure, for sure,” he said. “But it motivates you because it’s special. You can get more people involved and it means more to people.”

“They are talking to my dad and my parents, they stop everywhere. Everyone talks, everyone asks if they can come in.

O’Reilly’s mother, Bonnie, grew up in Toronto in a family of 14 and worked at the Toronto Games snack bar in Maple Leaf Gardens.

“It’s something very special, it’s hard to explain to the guys,” he said. “But it’s different. It means more.

“It’s nice to be able to experience it at this point in my career. I think it would have been a lot more difficult to deal with if he was younger. But now to be around this team and to see the excitement of the people around them and to be a part of a team that they have loved since they were born, to represent them. , the area is very beautiful, very beautiful ».

For Tavares, as for O’Reilly, it’s all about the endgame: the Stanley Cup.

“I think you know what’s special and what’s important and what’s the Toronto tradition,” said Tavares, 32, captain of the Maple Leafs. “It’s good to be a part of this.

“That’s why you know it would be amazing to win here.”

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