Huh? When's the last time Leafs fans had something to be excited about?

Don't be silly, Selley. It's because Toronto and everything about it is teh evil.

Not to defend the sentiment as anything more than petty (although, in sports, I'm not sure you need any more reason than that), but I believe the resentment of the Leafs stems from the perception that we (those of us non-Leafs fans) are subjected to every soap operatic drama about the Leafs for the entire year. It's a relief, more than anything, when it's over.

That, and I think the Leafs fans' collective demands that JFJ (would I know that acronym if it wasn't foisted upon me all year long?) or Pat Quinn (when he was the GM) sign every available free agent and make every blockbuster trade at every opportunity (are they really so hurt that they didn't get Sergei Gonchar or Brian Leetch?) For the outside observer, the dance becomes tiresome.

Not that it isn't understandable. I mean, obviously the CBC and TSN need to talk about the team that most of their viewers follow. The sentiment is just the end result of that fact.

I think we saw the same thing with the Red Mile (well before the final) and with riots in Vancouver. Montreal has won one round in God knows how long, and nobody can cheer on the Sens. It's all the same as Toronto, except that Toronto is the place everyone loves to hate, and in hockey, especially. The plight of the Leafs is just easier for everyone to pick on than the city itself.

I don't think the grudge is directed towards the average fan in North York so much as the outsize amount of attention paid to their team. If you live in Toronto, the ink and air time the Leafs get doesn't seem skewed at all; they're the local team. But consider that they get nearly the same amount of attention from the CBC (and the rest of the national media to a lesser extent) in every anglophone corner of this land. They're on the nationwide broadcast every Saturday -- no matter how bad the team is, no matter how meaningless the game -- and the less said about their treatment during the playoffs, the better. The Mothercorp is just chasing ratings and getting the easy shots -- the crowd shot that's within a 10-minute drive of Front St. HQ -- but for those otuside the GTA it feels rather like a religion someone's trying to cram down our throats. It's like my relationship with the Toronto smog; it's only when I'm outside it -- on the islands, say -- that I fully perceive it.