Goodbye to the Baby Leafs!

I am sad to say goodbye to the St. John's Maple Leafs. Their final season in St. John's was 2004-2005.

The Toronto Maple Leafs moved the farm team closer to home and they are now called the Toronto Marlies.

And beginning the 2005-2006 season, St. John's now has the new team called the St. John's Fog Devils. This new team is part of the Quebec Major Junior hockey league. From all reports from people back in St. John's, the fans are really supporting the new teams! Good luck to the Fog Devils!

Growing up in Canada meant a healthy dose of ice hockey, especially on those Saturday nights when the NHL was on Hockey Night in Canada. Growing up with four brothers meant I had to choose between one of a couple of teams. Most Saturday nights, even now, you can see either a Toronto Maple Leafs game or a Montreal Canadiens game. It's real easy to be a fan of a team you can see play at least once a week. And yes, I do have brothers that love the Habs (Montreal's nickname)!

When the Toronto farm team, the St. John's Maples Leafs of the AHL, came to St. John's, it was great for Leaf fans like me. We could see the same players that could someday wear a Toronto jersey if their play was good. People like Felix Potvin and Damian Rhodes started out in St. John's. I will never forget my first St. John's game. I walked into Memorial Stadium and St. John's was playing the Fredericton Canadians (farm team of the Montreal Canadians) and I felt like there was magic in the air. I never missed too many games after that night, at least not until I moved to the United States.

In fact, after that first game, I joined the St. John's Maple Leafs Booster Club. I spent the first of three years in the booster club learning as much as I could about the team and about the Booster Club. I went on to become membership coordinator for a year and then secretary for another year. Those three years were amazing as I helped the community and got a tremendous dose of Leafs hockey too. If you are in St. John's, check out the Booster Club and volunteer a few hours of your time. It can be very rewarding.

Since moving to the United States, hockey has been scarce. In Austin, there was a hockey team. The team is called the Austin Ice Bats. We only got to see two games while we lived there because they were pretty far from our apartment, but they were fun games even if the skill level is not quite up to the AHL or NHL standard. The fans alone were a riot, they were into the game at a level far above what I expected.

Now that we are in Denver, we can hope to see some Colorado Avalanche games. And we hear they have some college hockey teams here too (probably much cheaper). I hope the Leafs make it here to Denver next season, it's been so long since I have seen a live game.

St. John's hockey links:

St. John's Fog Devils =>New Hockey team in St. Johns this year
Mile One Stadium => St. John's new Civic Center, home of the St. John's Fog Devils.
Quebec Major Junior hockey league => Learn about the league that the new St. John's Fog Devils are a part of.

Toronto Maple Leafs:

Toronto Maple Leafs =>Toronto's Official Site
Toronto Marlies =>Toronto's new Farm Team
NHL =>National Hockey League Official Site
Air Canada Centre =>The Toronto Maple Leaf's new home
Fifty Mission Cap => One of the many fans has a tribute page!
Leafs29.com => Another fan has a page that looks at the Toronto Leafs and their prospects!
TML Fever => A great Toronto Fan club site - updated news, Leaf products, and more!!!
TML Forum => Brought to you by the owners of TML Fever, a message board about the Leafs!!!
Toronto Maple Leafs fan page => Formerly, the Penalty Box, this site, run by many mailing list members, is great for up to the minute Leaf News!
Official Tie Domi Homepage => Toronto's tough guy!

Other Hockey Sites:

TSN =>The Sports Network is Canada's source of sports news
Slam Hockey =>Great source of hockey news
Austin Ice Bats =>Austin's WPHL hockey team
The Internet Hockey Database => The site for Hockey Information
NHLFA => The NHL Fan Association is growing stronger to allow fan voices to be heard by the NHL, click on the link below to join up.

NHLTeams by Conference & Division