The last hockey game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens ten years ago yesterday.
I have a lot of great MLG memories, having seen a number of games there during the 80s and 90s. I kept most of my ticket stubs, and here are some of the older style tickets they used to literally tear at the Gardens gate.
You may have noticed the majority of those stubs are from the same pair of Grey seats. We used to buy them from the guy who taught me in grade 5 and grade 7. 95% of the games I saw at Maple Leaf Gardens were seen from the Greys, but I didn't care. I just loved being in the building.
I remember my old man taking me to games in the mid-80s and the sounds of the scalpers and that strange smell on Carlton I'd later realize was marijuana. I remember the euphoria in the building when the Leafs scored, those bright television lights and Harold Ballard and King Clancy checking things out from their box.
My favourite Maple Leaf Gardens memory that I witnessed live was My Game, December 30, 1989. That was the last Leafs game of the 80s and if you click over and read the details, it was a game that this 15-year old would never forget.
When I'm rich, I'm going to buy Maple Leaf Gardens and restore the ice. I want to skate where Bill Barilko scored the game 5 winner in 1951.
