Go Back To Your Igloos.

The 2001/02 Toronto Maple Leafs team would see the buds equaling the franchise record 100 point season. The last time the team hit the triple digit mark in points had been just two years earlier.

The Leafs were led by their Captain and leading scorer Mats Sundin, Alex Mogilny, Darcy Tucker and elder statesman Gary Roberts. Curtis Joseph was stellar, providing solid goaltending in net. Head coach Pat Quinn had chalked up his fourth winning season behind the Leaf's bench. As the Leafs wound down the regular season that spring, so much more would now be expected heading into the playoffs. Afterall, the prior two seasons had both ended in dismal conference semifinal defeats. Leaf Nation was now expecting and demanding much more from their forever underachieving original six team.

The Leafs first round opponent would be the New York Islanders.

It was a good thing the Leafs had the home ice advantage as the series would go the full seven games. After blocking a shot on his wrist in game one and struggling through the next two games, Sundin was scratched before game four. It was revealed that he had indeed fractured his wrist blocking the shot back in game one.

The series had been a feisty affair with each game getting more mean spirited as the series progressed. Darcy Tucker had quickly become public enemy number one on Long Island. Tucker became notorious after he low bridged the Islanders' Captain Michael Peca during game five at the Air Canada Centre. The check blew out Peca's MCL and ACL on his left knee, ending his playoff campaign. No penalty was assessed to Tucker who just continued on with his usual getting under your skin antics for the rest of the series.

Previous to the Tucker hit on Peca, Gary Roberts had already knocked out Islander defenseman Kenny Jonsson with a dirty hit from behind. Roberts was assessed a five minute charging penalty and Jonsson like Peca was out for the year. The Leafs went on to win that nasty game five, but would lose an even nastier game six back in New York. They went on to knock out the Islanders in a much more subdued game seven with the home crowd seventh man back at the ACC.

The Leafs had no time to recover from such a grueling series and two nights later the much anticipated battle of Ontario began. The Senators were much more rested having knocked off the Flyers in five games six days earlier. After having lost the previous two seasons to the Leafs in the quarter finals, Ottawa desperately wanted to end the buds season. The task should now be a bit easier playing the unrested Leafs without their Captain Sundin in the lineup.

Or so they thought.

It was also around this time when I had gone through a few big changes in my life. My eighteen year marriage to Bonnie ended back in October 2000. After spending a couple years as a bachelor, I was now in a new relationship and living with another woman Janine. As I write this story it still amuses me how couples in new relationships will do things that years later they will look back on and think.

"What the fuck was I thinking?"

There is no doubt that Janine would still be shaking her head should she ever think back to the spring of 2002. It would be her first hockey playoffs experience after what would have been her first regular season of hockey overload. She never had a hockey guy in her life up to the day she met me. I don’t think she ever grasped just how the Leafs transcend everything else for a diehard, card carrying member of Leaf Nation.

The Battle of Ontario had lived up to its billing and after six games the series was tied.

Janine was working at a job where she would receive occasional concert tickets for choosing to deal with a certain freight provider. It was a kind of under the table kickback and she had seen some pretty good shows over the years. Going into game seven, tickets at the ACC would be impossible to find. If you were lucky to find a pair, you would have to literally pay a small fortune. Like game seven in the Islanders series, I was just looking forward to watching the game on television.

Janine was able to score a pair of center ice reds for the game. The tickets had cost her freight guy over a thousand bucks, but he would now be seeing a lot more business coming his way in return. One could only imagine how surprised and excited I was to find out that I would now be going to game seven. It was an unforgettable evening as the Leafs shutout their Provincial rivals 3-0 to advance to the conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Thank you very much Janine.

Just like the Leafs, Carolina also had the home ice advantage in both of their previous series. Although, the home ice advantage was not needed since the Hurricanes had disposed of both the Devils and the Canadiens in six games. Carolina now once again for the third straight series had the home ice advantage against Toronto. The first two games would be played at the RBC Center in Raleigh where the Leafs would win the first game 2-1.

The second game would be played on Sunday afternoon which would also be on the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada. Janine and I had just finished running some errands and were sitting around the house watching television late Saturday afternoon. It was being reported that hundreds of Leaf fans were expected to make the trek to North Carolina for game two in less than 24 hours.

I casually mentioned how I wished that I could make the trek also for the game. I had absolutely no expectations of the conversation going any further.

“Let’s go” she replied.

“Are you kidding me?” still not believing what I had just heard.

Janine was dead serious and within two hours we were in her car heading to Raleigh. We had no tickets, no hotel and with the exception of a detailed Google printout with our directions, no idea where we were going. By the time we left Mississauga, it was just past 7 pm. We had a thirteen hour non-stop drive before we would be arriving at the arena.

We drove right through the night stopping only for gas.

We arrived at the RBC Center just before 8 am and there was already a long lineup of cars all with Ontario plates that had also made the trip ahead of us. There were a couple Sheriffs on patrol letting us know where we needed to go once the gates opened. One of the Sheriffs who looked like Sheriff Rosco from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show approached our car.

“All you people from Canada are going to have to stand on the ledge,” he said in his southern drawl accent.

Not only did he look like Sheriff Rosco, he talked exactly like him also.

The game was sold out, there were no seats left and I had no idea what standing on the ledge meant.

“The ledge is the area where everyone has to stand to watch the game.” The Sheriff explained after I inquired as to what the ledge was.

In other words, the ledge was standing room tickets.

Within a half-hour, we had purchased two Ledge tickets at $110.00 US each and within twenty minutes the Ledge had completely sold out. There were no more tickets available for the game. As we drove over to the only hotel in the area, we passed the lineup of cars all with Ontario plates which was still getting longer by the minute. There would be no tickets for any of them.

The whole complex around the arena was still in the early stages of development back in 2002. There was literally nothing around the arena except one single hotel that had just opened a few months earlier. Both the arena and the one hotel stood out like sore thumbs from the highway we had arrived on. I thought for sure we would be heading back into Raleigh, a twenty minute drive looking for a hotel. After driving thirteen hours the last thing either of us wanted to do was drive around looking for a room in Raleigh.

We walked into the lobby and got the keys to the last available room for that night. The Leaf fans wearing jerseys and hats who had followed us into the lobby and were right behind us were told that the hotel was now sold out for the Sunday night. Whew, were we ever lucky. We had just driven all night straight from Mississauga. We now had our tickets to the game and a hotel room that was just a ten minute walk from the arena.

It was mid-morning and we were both exhausted. All we wanted to do was go to sleep for a few hours then walk over to the arena for the 4 pm puck drop. It wasn't long before we were awakened by a noisy sea of blue and white in the parking lot. There were dozens of Leaf fans milling about all around the hotel. Everyone staying at the hotel must have been like us and had driven down from Canada for the game. There were so many Leaf fans that had gathered outside and I could not wait to join them in the parking lot.

When I got outside it was obvious that the hotel had become a meeting place for Leaf fans. Leaf fans who were not even staying at the hotel were gathering and the crowd seemed to swell with each passing minute. There were well over a hundred of us Leaf fans all wearing jerseys, hats and carrying flags. I too had my huge Leaf flag mounted on a hockey stick which I was proudly waving around. One guy had a marching snare drum and another guy had a large marching bass drum decorated with Leaf logos. There were also a few guys with loud horns. Someone had even brought a life-sized Don Cherry cardboard cut-out to the party.

On this Sunday afternoon, we were all strangers brought together in a foreign land for one simple reason. We were all members of Leaf Nation.

The RBC Center was a ten minute walk from the hotel. The arena was clearly visible from the hotel with the parking areas not so visible. Walking over to the arena meant cresting a small grassy hill then walking down into the massive parking areas on the way to the rink. Just after 3 pm all of us Leaf fans would begin our march while making as much noise as possible. The parking areas would be full of tailgaters drinking beer, having bar-b-ques and playing road hockey. We would be marching right through all of their tailgate parties on our way to the rink. But, before they could see us we made damn sure they would all be hearing us coming up and over the grassy hill.

It must have been quite the sight as the sea of blue and white approached. We marched down into the arena parking lots like the cavalry on that Sunday afternoon. I’m pretty sure many who were half tanked after drinking too many beers probably thought they were under attack. There were lots of high fives and good intention jabs thrown by both sides as we walked amongst the revelers.

Afterall, marching to the arena on that afternoon we were up 1-0 in the series. With Mats Sundin returning back after his wrist injury for that game, we had full intentions of marching back to our hotel up 2-0.

Well, that was our game plan anyway.

By the time we arrived at the rink, there were well over a thousand Leaf fans that had made the trip and could not get tickets for the game. A couple of large mobile Jumbotrons were trucked in so fans without tickets could watch the game on television just outside the arena.

I was so damn proud to be a member of Leaf Nation on that afternoon.

Once inside the arena, the Ledge was a great spot to watch the game. There were a few high tables with chairs, but they were already taken. There were many other round high tables for drinks that one could easily lean on while overlooking the ice from the end of the rink. I was pleasantly surprised at just how good standing on the Ledge actually was.

The game was a rather dull affair with no scoring until the third period. Pro wrestler Nature Boy Ric Flair was in attendance that afternoon rousing up the hometown crowd with his even more than usual ‘Woo Woo Woo’ chants from his lower bowl seats.

The Hurricanes scored in the seventh minute of the third period and heading into the final minute looked like they had the game won. The Leafs tied the game with eight seconds left, but went on to lose in the first period of overtime.

The series was now tied 1-1 heading back to Toronto for game three.

I remember it being so incredibly stifling hot while walking back to the hotel after the game. Our huge group that had boisterously marched together full of vim and vigor just over three hours earlier had now dispersed. We were now quietly walking with our heads lowered.

I was one of them.

Rowdy Hurricane fans leaving the arena took numerous jabs at anyone wearing a Leaf jersey.

“Go back to your fuck’n igloos” I heard at least a half dozen times on the walk back to the hotel.

Igloos?

Seriously?

I saw a few beer cans and bottles being hurled at Leaf fans from cars leaving the parking lots that early evening.

Once back at the hotel, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and went right to bed. We were both exhausted and decided we would head back home with a 4 am wake-up call. We drove back at a more leisurely pace that included a little detour into Washington DC.

As we rounded the cloverleaf exit off the highway we were right beside the Pentagon. Multiple heavy cranes and scaffolding were still visible, rebuilding after American Airlines flight #77 was hijacked and crashed on 9/11. It had only been eight months earlier and I can only imagine the sheer terror for those people sitting in their cars on the exact same ramp going to work on that Tuesday morning.

We finally arrived back home in Mississauga at around 9 pm still exhausted from our spur of the moment two day jaunt. It was one of those life events when looking back on years later I'm sure both of us would have a totally different perspective. For me, it was a great spontaneous little road trip to see the Toronto Maple Leafs play a playoff game in a city I had never been to before. For Janine it will forever be a 'what the fuck was I thinking' moment. Driving 2500 km over the course of two days just to watch the Leafs lose a stupid hockey game.

The Leafs missed out playing in the Stanley Cup final that year as the Hurricanes went on to eliminate them in six games. The Hurricanes would finally be defeated in the finals by the Detroit Red Wings who would be Stanley Cup Champions that spring.

You know, come to think of it an igloo would have been a great idea on that Sunday while walking back to the hotel after the game in Raleigh.

Why?

Because it was so incredibly stifling hot that evening.