‘Oh God, that hurt’: Toronto Maple Leafs insider can’t bring himself to celebrate Oilers OT win

You don’t get much more deep into the Toronto Maple Leafs sports scene than Sam McKee, a prominent Toronto sports producer and media personality, who co-hosts ‘Leafs Talk’ on YouTube and is a producer and part-time host on ‘The Real Kyper & Bourne Show’ on Sportsnet 590.

McKee is an engaging and interesting hockey commentator, but he’s having a hard time right now getting on the Edmonton Oiler bandwagon. I suspect he’s not alone in this when it comes to Leafs, Flames, Jets, Habs, Sens and, especially, Canucks fans. There’s been a massive push from everyone from politicians to TV advertisers to frame the Oilers as Canada’s Team. It’s good for ratings, good for business.

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It’s also part of the so-called ‘Elbows Up’ approach to Trump’s USA, but with added impetus when it comes to hockey because a Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since Montreal did it in 1993.

On Friday’s Real Kyper and Bourne show, McKee told a heart-felt story of his own muddled half-hate, half-love response to Edmonton’s historic 5-4 comeback win over Florida — the first time since 1919 that an NHL team has come back from three goals down to win a game in the Final.

Edmonton’s push for the Cup comes after Florida beat the Leafs in seven in Round 2, an embittering loss that now sees the Leafs franchise in disarray, with star forward Mitch Marner reported to be wanting out of Toronto now.

“What a hockey game,” McKee said of Edmonton’s Game 4 win. “I just, I can’t… I’m having a hard time with this. Because I think a lot of Leaf fans listen to the show. And it is such an electric final. And these are two unbelievable teams. But there are like two, it’s very like directly connected to Leaf fandom and like, just because I want to root for the Oilers, okay? I really do.”

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He said he watched the game on his phone at rapper Kendrick Lamar’s show in Toronto, then watched over-time a packed bar, where most people were cheering for the Oilers.

“It’s an electric atmosphere in there… People are fired up. The drinks are flowing, whatever. And Leon Draisaitl scores. And I got to tell you, man, the bar erupted. And I was wearing my Leaf bucket. And, you know, I was disgusted. Yeah, I was a little bit upset… A roar at a Toronto bar, it was like it was a big pop. I was like, ‘Oh, God, that hurt.’

Show host Justin Bourne said, “Fans love hearing that. Oilers fans love that.”

Said McKee: “If you’re an Oilers fan, and if the Oilers go on to win this series, that game will be talked about for generations.

My take

1. Bourne is correct — I loved McKee’s take. I also think it’s high time that a Canadian team won the Cup. I would know in my head it might well make sense for the Leafs to win or Montreal or Winnipeg to win if the Oilers did not, but I doubt I could bring myself to root for another Canadian team over the Oilers.

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Why? Because part of the fun of having our own Canadian team win is to have bragging rights over other Canadian hockey fans.

For example, if the Panthers beat the Oilers in five games, Leafs fans and media would be crowing that the Leafs are better than the Oilers, that they are the second best team in the NHL after Florida. That is the indisputable fact of the matter.

2. That said, I think the hatred of the Panthers is so fierce in Toronto that many Leafs fans are on board with Edmonton winning. They hate Trumpy Matt Tkachuk. They hate Sam Bennett, who took out Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz in a borderline collision. They hate Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand and all the Panthers bully boys.

In this unique case, for many Leafs fans, the enemy of your enemy is your friend, which makes it easier to root for the Oilers.

It’s also why there’s been so much more criticism of any borderline rough stuff from Florida Panthers in the Final. Leafs media wants to keep getting their digs in on the dirty Panthers.

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3. It’s also the case that so many Oilers are from Ontario, including star Connor McDavid. That makes it’s easy for Leafs and Sens fans to see the Oilers as Ontario’s team as much as it is Alberta’s team or Edmonton’s team.

And there is also the Stanley Cup drought for Canada, which is depressing and it starting to become a thing, a cloud of doom hanging over all Canadian teams.

I suspect the majority of Toronto fans and sports enthusiasts are like those who exploded in cheers when Draisaitl scored.

But I relate to the ones like McKee who simply can’t do it.

4. Legend now has it that 40-year-old Corey Perry made an epic speech to his team in the dressing room after the first period of Game 4. I’m glad that the Oilers were one of the teams willing to take on Perry after his troubles in Chicago.

Were the Leafs willing to do that?

Of course, it could be Perry didn’t want to go to Toronto. I don’t know.

But maybe Perry was out of second-chances with some NHL management groups.

Too pure of a team and a fanbase to take him on?

“Just win, baby,” the legendary Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis used to say about bringing in players that not everyone loved, that had fallen out of favour in other cities.

Might be something to that way of thinking when it comes to pro sports, no?

At the Cult of Hockey

Staples: ‘Not the ref’s fault’: Florida Panthers country reacts to historic Stanley Cup Final collapse in Game 4

LEAVINS: Game grades in historic Oilers win

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