ABOVE: Did the Toronto Maple Leafs snub their fans by not saluting them after the game, or did the fans deserve to be snubbed?
TORONTO – It’s been a tradition over the past few years for Toronto Maple Leafs players to salute fans on home ice following a victory.
But the customary show of appreciation was glaringly omitted after the buds defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 Thursday night. According to team captain Dion Phaneuf, they won’t be saluting their fans again and it’s a routine they are going to stick with.
“That was something that we obviously discussed and to be completely honest with you, it was something about the way that we’ve been playing at home, our record, and just changing up routine,” he told reporters after Friday’s practice.
“And at the end of the day, we did a lot of things different throughout the day and that was something we decided to change.”
Phaneuf said the absent salute was “by no means an attack at our fans.”
The players congratulated themselves after the win and skated to the locker room nonchalantly, despite an attempt by defenceman Cody Franson to glide towards centre ice before acknowledging his error.
Leafs’ forward James van Riemsdyk echoed his captain and said the decision not to salute the fans wasn’t meant as a snub.
The missing salute comes just days after a disastrous 9-2 loss at the hands of the Nashville Predators when a fan threw a Maple Leafs jersey on the ice in the third period.
“I mean it’s unacceptable, right? This is embarrassing,” said Leafs’ sniper Phil Kessel following the game Tuesday. “You never want to have this happen. We got beat pretty good two nights in a row.”
The missing salute certainly didn’t go unnoticed by fans who shared their discontent or indifference on Twitter.
It was just last week that the Leafs posted this salute on its official Twitter account after a 6-1 blowout win over the Boston Bruins.
Comments