More than 3,000 kilometres separate Toronto and Vancouver, but Trans-Canada hockey connections bring Hogtown and the ‘Wet’ Coast much closer together.
It goes back to 1918, the first Stanley Cup final involving the new NHL, with its champion Arenas defeating the Pacific Coast titlist Millionaires in five games (all played in the East, given the distance and infancy of air travel).
Four years later, the Toronto St, Patricks did the same against the Millionaires, while the Canucks won the only modern playoff series between the cities, the 1994 Western Conference final.
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Saturday, the Canucks making their once-a-year visit, (barring a Cup final, for which a fan can always hope), the Leafs are a little behind in a close cumulative record of 68-69-22-4 since 1970.
The rivalry has been driven by the long-held grudge from old-timers over the mountains that the Leafs, in cahoots with the Montreal Canadiens, delayed Vancouver’s entry to the NHL for years to protect broadcast and beer monopolies and ignore anything the Canucks do beyond 11 p.m. ET.
British Columbia does retain a strong Leafs Nations vibe from the grandchildren of the dynasty years and transplanted Torontonians. It adds to a shared shinny history of prominent names and popular players on both teams that endures.
GENERAL MANAGERS
The Canucks chief expansion exec was Leafs Cup-winner Bud Poile, a low-key future Hall of Famer in the builder category.
Compare him to the two most bombastic bosses to run both teams, Pat Quinn and Brian Burke.
While Burke is well known for engineering the drafting of the Sedin Twins that eventually set the table for a Canucks’ Cup run, his Toronto tenure didn’t produce a playoff appearance.
He worked for the cigar-chomping Quinn, the GM/coach and one-time player, who brought the Canucks within one win of the Cup in 1994.
Quinn’s machine beat the Leafs to reach the final against the Rangers, then five years later he took the dual position in T.O.
Splitting his off-season time in his British Columbia residence, Quinn’s .559 points percentage as GM ranks second in Leafs history (300-game minimum) to Kyle Dubas.
Quinn’s Vancouver mafia still has a Toronto presence with scouting operations director Reid Mitchell and pro scout Mike Penny. Quinn was named to the Hall after his passing in 2014.
Former Leaf Jim Benning ran the Canucks for seven years, though they didn’t get very far in spring. Now there’s a GTA tandem of brief Leafs goalie Jim Rutherford and scrappy Scarborough native Rick Tocchet as director of hockey operations and head coach, respectively.
HEAD COACHES
Canucks captain Trevor Linden remembered an angry Quinn busting a heavy plastic whiteboard with a single punch during an on-ice workout when he sensed players’ attention was lagging. Linden said the players later tried hitting the board with their sticks to replicate Quinn’s force and barely dented it.
Once spotting Calgary Flames mascot Harvey the Hound, playfully wiping his costumed arse with a Canucks jersey in a road intermission, a livid Quinn took a few steps onto the ice, nearly giving Harvey a heart attack.
He peppered Leafs practices and media briefings with World War II military references such as the Norden bombsight and box-plus-one defence, part of informative insights on how he hoped to revive the game’s ‘dead puck’ era.
In another branch of the cerebral scale, eccentric Roger Neilson ran both benches in the 1970s and ‘80s. He brought the Leafs the furthest in playoffs since 1967 as a pioneer of video pre-scouting and his 21 playoff games with the Canucks en route to the 1982 final would be the most pre-Quinn.
Both have statues outside Rogers Arena, Quinn with his trusty lineup card, Neilson hoisting a defiant stick and towel.
Neilson’s team included winger Marc Crawford, who’d get his pro coaching start with the St. John’s Maple Leafs, winning a Cup in Colorado and taking the Vancouver post soon after.
The first former Leafs player behind the Canucks’ bench was heavyweight centre Orland Kurtenbach, member of their inaugural ‘70-71 team. He’d be cross-referenced through Toronto with his friend and teammate Quinn, as well as assistant Rick Ley.
More recently Travis Green and Bruce Boudreau, both who of whom had worn Blue and White, were hired.
University of Toronto legend Tom Watt also worked Vancouver in ‘86-87, eventually landing back home at the Gardens. Post-Watt, Mike Murphy was an assistant under Bob McCammon, then with Watt in Toronto, before two years as Leafs headmaster prior to Quinn.
THE PLAYERS
More than 80 have laced up for both teams, an A-to-Z list from Claire Alexander to Peter Zezel, right back to Quinn as the Canucks’ first pick from Toronto in the expansion draft.
There’s a pair of ex-Canucks on today’s Buds’ blueline: Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Two also have played for both teams and been captain for one: A very young Rick Vaive via trade, reaching his 50-goal zenith three times as a Leaf, while Mats Sundin had a very unfortunate exit from being Toronto’s franchise scoring leader to a free-agent playoff bit player.
While each club has made many questionable deals through the years with other teams, their own insider trading record can be scored a draw. Vaive and linemate Bill Derlago did have instant chemistry as Leafs, but vital Vancouver pieces who ended up in Toronto, Alex Mogilny and Bryan McCabe, did so in roundabout fashion.
The Vaive trade did see perhaps the most colourful Leaf of all time switch to that radical black-red-gold scheme the Canucks adopted in the early ‘80s. Leafs and NHL penalty king Tiger Williams was broken-hearted at being moved out by vindictive GM Punch Imlach, but his return next season to the Gardens was one for the ages.
The 8-5 Vancouver win on Dec. 10 saw Williams score in the third period and ride his stick like a bronco around the rink, right by owner Harold Ballard’s bunker to centre ice amid wild cheering.
Leafs team photographer Graig Abel caught the exhuberant moment and decades later was still getting requests from Williams to send him more prints he could autograph for his fans.
But the fun at his old team’s expense done with, Williams vowed never to show up his old team again in such a manner.
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