Dan O.
I' ve been cheering for the Leafs since I was a little kid (went to my first game at the Detroit Olympia Staduim in 1957). I grew up watching nothing but origianl 6 teams on channel 9 out of Windsor (terrible black and white reception) long before helmets and goalie face-masks. I' m real sorry I never got to see a game at the old Leaf Gardens). Whenever there was a hockey game on I watched whoever was on. But I always held my alliegance to the Wings and/or Toronto (depending on how the Wings were doing). However, if both the Wings and the Leafs were out of it in the finals, I always had to pick to root for whoever I disliked the least at the time. Never really could root much for the old Rangers though.
I' ve been seeing the Leafs struggle back the past 4 seasons and they have a real shot this year, especially if they get through this series with Philly. I am most definitely rooting for Toronto over Philly.
When I was about 5 years old my dad bought a table-top hockey game in Windsor. This goes back so far that the men were actually stationary and only spun in a cirlce. You used a marble for a puck. The little metals players were from which 2 teams??????... The Leafs and the Canadians of course!!