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Hi to all Toronto Maple Leafs fans.I have been a Leafs fan since I was seven years old. I am now 51 years old. They have gone through lots of ups and downs in all of these years that I have been a fan. They have had great trades and bad trades during the Harold Ballard era.
The first game I watched was in 1964 when the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing against Gordie Howe and the very strong Detroit Red Wings. The mighty Wings were favored to beat the Leafs that year in the playoffs. The Leafs had fought back late in the third period to tie the game to force the game into overtime. The Leafs rugged defenseman Bobby Baun had to leave the game late in the third period with a broken ankle and the Maple Leaf Gardens fan were really quite while Bobby Baun was helped off the ice. With the Leafs returning to the ice to begin the overtime the jammed packed Gardens crowd cheered them on. As both the teams were playing hard nosed hockey the crowd was sent into a frenzy. Bobby Baun returned to the bench and Punch Imlach put Bobby right on the ice along with Tim Horton. With the face off being won by Toronto the puck went back to Bobby Baun and he rifled it past the great Terry Sawchuk and the Leafs had a well deserved 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

As I started cheering for the Leafs I had to put up with my dad and little brother who just happen to cheer for the Montreal Canadiens. My brother and I would have some good wrestling matches arguing over which team was better. As the Maple Leafs were building a stronger team I got to see them have players like Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich,George Armstrong,Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk. The Leafs were getting better with every year bringing them right up to the 1967 Stanley Cup final against the rivals from Montreal. Montreal Canadiens were built around strong players like Jean Beliveau,Henri Richard Yvan Cournyuer. Montreal had Rogatien Vachon in goal for them. Both teams were evenly matched going into the fight for Lord Stanley's cup. The best of seven final would go in six games. The six game was played in front of 17,000 screaming fans at the Maple Leaf Gardens. The final game was back and forth and the crowd was loving it. With Montreal behind a goal the Habs coach Toe Blake would pull Vachon for the extra attacker. The Canadiens had the face off in the Leafs end of the ice to the left of Terry Sawchuk. Bob Pulford would win the draw and get the puck up to George Armstrong and he deposited the puck into

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