Anticipation for Maple Leafs fans

Autumn officially arrived nine days ago. But Tuesday evening, Canada’s unofficial favourite season arrives at 7 p.m. when the puck drops, on hockey season.

The NHL begins with a rivalry for the ages the Toronto Maple Leafs in Montreal, to face the Canadiens and here in Southern Ontario, hopes are high for the Maple Leafs.

Scot Urquhart reports from deep in the heart of Leafs Nation at Wendel Clark’s in Burlington.

It’s the longest drought in the NHL between Stanley Cups at 45 years, and as always, Leafs fans are hoping that this year, will finally end that span of futility.

1967 was the last time the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, and we thought we’d show some of that championship season to you, as a large number of leafs fans, are too young to remember it!

I’m not one of them. I remember it clearly.

But there are some good signs for the current crop of Leafs as the team made the playoffs last year, and took finalist Boston to seven games.

And with some new bodies in new places, the team and its fans are looking for more this year.

The team wrapped up a deal with top scoring winger Phil Kessel earlier Tuesday, signing him to an eight year, $64 million contract extension.

They’ve also got Cody Franson and Nazem Kadri signed for the season. And they’ve added some talented newcomers like Morgan Rielly, and Carter Ashton.

But they will start the season without one of their prize acquisitions. Winger David Clarkson is out for the first ten games due to a suspension for his part in a wild brawl with the Buffalo Sabres a week ago.

And in goal, it looks as though the Leafs will start incumbent James Reimer in game one; he took them to the playoffs last year, and posted the best pre-season numbers.

While prize off-season acquisition Jonathon Bernier, who comes over from the Los Angeles Kings, will probably get the call Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

In any case, the Leafs bandwagon is warming up and already some fans are ready to jump on board.

The puck drops on the biggest rivalry in the NHL right after we finish the evening news. And although the teams have played each other more than 700 times, the over all record may be closer than you’d think, especially considering that Montreal has won more Stanley Cups than any other team and Toronto hasn’t won one in 45 years. Despite that, Montreal has the edge 328 wins to 288 losses against the Leafs; remarkably close considering the number of decades these two have been playing against one another and yet another indication that both teams save their best hockey for this incredible rivalry.