Puttin' on the foil with the Toronto Maple Leafs

What a day!!! On Friday, we decided to take a vacation day off work and head down to Toronto to see if we could catch the Leafs at practice. I heard its a good idea to get there early, so we arrived at the Mastercard Centre for Hockey Excellence at 9am. The practice wasnt until around noon. We stood right beside the door where the players would enter as we had never been to the facility and were unaware of the security procedures.

Before security came, we saw head coach Ron Wilson park and head towards us. He said "Hi guys" and I was thrown right off guard. I though Wilson was a cold guy, so I was surprised when he spoke to us. I quickly asked him if I could get a picture with him and he said "No, no pictures". Again, I was caught off guard lol.

When security finally came they told us that we had to stand at the curb at the end of the parking lot. We would then need to yell to the player and ask if we could grab a signature and if they said yes we would be allowed to go to them. There were only about seven of us waiting for autographs and it was clear that these guys were sellers as I was told they were there everyday.
Many of the players seemed to just ignore us as they walked into the practice facility, as the players that arrived early were closer to the doors and farther away from us. Many of these guys I would try and meet on the way out after practice.

As more and more guys started showing up, they began to acknowledge us and some stopped to sign for us. J.S. Giguere was a great signer as he was the first player I got on that day.

Mikhail Grabovski was a great guy also. He had no problem signing and stopping for pictures.

Phil Kessel on the other hand, was a complete jerk and wouldnt sign for anyone or even acknowledge that we existed as he walked by us. We then saw "The Monster" Jonas Gustavsson who didnt say anything but had no problem stopping to sign and take pictures.


As for the rest of the guys, Dion Phaneuf gave us the old "I'll get you guys on the way out". Same story from Beauchemin. Damn. As all of the players had finally arrived, we heading into the MCE to watch. We quickly noticed that a lot of the guys weren't on the ice. Phaneuf, Kessel, Kaberle, Orr, Beauchemin, and a few others didnt take to the ice. We watched for a short while and then figured we should head back out to see if maybe those guys were going to leave early. Unfortunately, we missed them all. They had all already left. Balls.

I was able to get a few guys on the way out though. I didnt have too many pictures for guys to get signed, but I was able to grab an autograph from Luke Shenn.

I was also able to grab photos with others on the way out. I got a picture with Nikolai Kulemin, Carl Gunnarsson, Wayne Primeau, John Mitchell, Garnet Exelby, Jamie Lundmark. I also was also able to grab a photo with injured Mike Komisarek. On a side note, he is pretty bitter towards the Habs I guess. He wouldnt sign any Montreal stuff.

One last picture I wanted to show was with Notre Dame standout and current Leaf, Christian Hanson, who just happens to be the son of Dave Hanson from the movie Slapshot!!! He said that he won't watch the NCAA Frozen Four now that Notre Dame is out.


Stay tuned for my next blog....the Edmonton Oilers!