Flip phones and partying on Yonge Street: Look at Toronto the last time the Leafs won a playoff series

The curse has – finally – been broken.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have advanced past the first round of the NHL playoffs for the first time in almost 20 years after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of their best-of-seven series Saturday night.

Before then, the Leafs hadn’t won a playoff series since April 2004, when Toronto knocked off Ottawa in Game 7 at what was then called the Air Canada Centre, and was about five years old.

“It was a really fun team,” TSN radio host Matt Cauz said of the 2003-2004 Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It wasn’t the most talented. They were never this elite team, what they were was a good team with a great coach in [Pat Quinn], with a veteran goalie, Ed Belfour, and a star player, Mats Sundin.”

The team was eventually eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers in six games in round two. The Lightning would go on to defeat the Flyers in the conference finals en route to their first-ever Stanley Cup.

Cauz said that at the time, Leafs fans were happy to embrace the team as a scrappy underdog that exceeded expectations against the more talented Senators.

“When they won that round against Ottawa, that was the fourth time they’d beaten the Senators,” he said.

“In so many of those years, Toronto was the underdog and then they'd always beat this [Senators] team that had more talent, so that's one of the first things I remember is just how much fun it was because you got to beat this inter-province rival and you got to do it often as an underdog.”

As is the case today, the passion of Leafs fans was felt across the city when the playoffs rolled around, and the more they won, the more it grew.

“We were just going crazy. I mean, especially with the [Senators], there was always that hatred,” Peter Kalamaris, owner of Peter’s Barber Shop and Museum, told CP24.com.

“During the regular season, Ottawa would be bragging about beating the Leafs and they would do the same thing when it came down to the playoffs, and then the opposite happened; the Leafs kicked their butts, which was great for the fans and great for the city.”

TORONTO IN 2004

It’s been almost 20 years since Leafs Nation has been able to enjoy a first-round victory like they did in the spring of 2004, and needless to say, Toronto looked a lot different then.

David Miller had been elected mayor of Toronto less than five months earlier, defeating John Tory by almost 40,000 votes.

Toronto, as we know it today, had only been around for about six years back then. In January of 1998, the previously independent municipalities of North York, Scarborough, York, East York, Etobicoke and Old Toronto were amalgamated, forming the new City of Toronto.

Torontonians were also getting used to a brand new addition to the city’s transit map.

The TTC’s Line 4, running along Sheppard Avenue East from Yonge Street to Don Mills Road, had been open for less than two years. It’s still the newest of the city’s subway lines.

Canada’s Prime Minister was Liberal Paul Martin, who had replaced Jean Chretien just a few months prior.

George W Bush was the U.S. president, and Queen Elizabeth II turned 78 the day after the Leafs beat the Senators in Game 7.

There are some similarities though, perhaps most notably that Torontonians in 2004 were also recovering after a recent coronavirus outbreak.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was brought on by a virus that spread to Toronto and other parts of Canada in 2003, resulting in 44 deaths.

Toronto’s tourism industry was hit hard as a result, and in an attempt to revive it, a fundraising rock concert was organized for July of 2003. Headliners included the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Justin Timberlake.

Much like today, Torontonians gathered in 2004 to watch the Leafs in the playoffs, although it was a different experience in many ways, with no large fan zone outside the arena.

Instead, fans celebrated along Yonge Street. Footage from CTV News Toronto’s cameras showed one group of rowdy fans hopping on the top of a red hummer stopped in the middle of the street and another marching up Yonge with a mock Stanley Cup. The party lasted for hours.

“There was no real social media, so you know what you had to do? You had to get together. And almost all those games I would watch with my cousins and family and we always ordered tons of pizzas and everyone would just be hanging out; it was an event,” Cauz said.

“It kind of forced you to be together and it was a little bit more innocent, we just had flip phones and maybe someone had a Blackberry but it was just a really fun time. And that Leafs team, for all those games, kind of brought us all together. It was a lot of fun.”

Some Leafs players may also look back fondly on those days, though it may be difficult for some of them to remember.

Toronto’s stand-out rookie Matthew Knies was one year old.

SINCE THEN

What Leafs fans in 2004 didn’t know, is that the team was about to go on a streak of futility that would see it miss the playoffs for the next seven seasons.

“It was dark days for Toronto Maple Leaf fans, there’s no questions about that,” said lifelong Leafs fan Jason Maslakow, colloquially known as ‘Dart Guy.’

“But you always remained hopeful that we were going to be able to right the ship sooner rather than later and as the years kept adding up, adding up, adding up, there obviously is a frustration that built, but these fans are loyal and you stick with your team through thick and thin, no matter what.”

Cauz said Leafs fans started to become apathetic towards the team after a while, but the appetite for hockey remained.

“Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and all of Leafs’ ownership should thank god that the team is in Toronto,” he said.

“Because what they gave this city for over a decade was just bad drafts, bad decisions, bad spending, being impatient and just not realizing that the game was changing.”

When the Leafs finally reached the playoffs again in 2013, they held a 4-1 lead against the Boston Bruins in the third period of Game 7 in the first round, but conceded three unanswered goals in regulation, followed by the overtime winner, in an infamous playoff collapse.

“I was actually watching that game up at my camper out around the bonfire, and I'm pretty sure the beer bottle I threw when we lost the game hasn't landed yet,” Maslakow said.

And until Saturday night, the Leafs had been unable to get past that first round hurdle, despite qualifying for the playoffs for six straight seasons, and being one win away from advancing in the last five.

But even after 19 miserable years, the spirit of Leafs Nation seems to be stronger than ever.

“It's a roller coaster. You've got the extremes of emotions going on, but there's always hope,” Kalamaris said.

“Every time that the Leafs are playing, there's always that chance that they're going to take it to the next level.”

Saturday night, the Leafs finally did, and they may get a chance to exorcise another demon in round two.

If the President’s Trophy winning Bruins make it past their first round opponent, the Florida Panthers, Boston and Toronto will face off in the conference semifinals.

The Leafs will be out for revenge after losing to the Bruins in Game 7 in 2013, 2018 and 2019.

“Let’s go to big Beantown,” Kalamaris said, “we’re going to bust their balloon.”