They are calling it over-the-top – and premature. Auston’s in.”The reveling drew the mockery of the rest of a nation that loves to hate the Leafs. One of the chain’s billboards cheekily reads: “Boston’s out. The popular Canadian franchise Boston Pizza unofficially changed its name to Auston Pizza, a nod to Leafs superstar Auston Matthews (and the fact that highly touted rival Boston infamously lost in Round 1). “I didn’t think we’d ever do it.”One tattoo shop is offering a promotion for the Maple Leaf logo. For the largest city in hockey-obsessed Canada, the two-decade string of playoff futility was at turns darkly comic and tragic but always a subject of deep civic angst.Yesterday’s game was like the first sunny, balmy day after a dark Canadian winter.
Instead, it was only the first game of Round 2 of the playoffs – the quarterfinals.So why all the fuss? It was the first time in 19 years that the Maple Leafs made it even this far.
But the crowd was exultant, their faces smeared blue as they cheered on their Maple Leafs amid the high-rises of downtown Toronto.The unknowing would be forgiven for thinking Tuesday night’s game was to clinch hockey’s famous Stanley Cup. It was unseasonably cold, with a miserable rain that hadn’t let up for days.
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