Black Saturday

Saturday June XXth 1994



I was 14. The NHL season had just ended with the New York Rangers ending a 40 year drought with Mark Messier hoisting the Stanley Cup at MSG after defeating the Vancouver Canucks in 7 games. (Little did we know it would be 10 long years befor another Canadian team even reached the finals.) The Canucks had defeated a scrappy Maple Leafs team in the Western conference finals, and this is where our story begins. As you may recall, Pat Burns had led a (what in truth was a really) crappy Leafs team to within a Wayne Greztky high stick (FUCK YOU, KERRY FRASER!) of going to the stanley cup finals. They then restocked somewhat for the next year, somehow beating Chicago and San Jose before being knocked out by Vancouver. So, to recap, two years in a row in the final 4 with a subpar team. So Cliff Fletcher gets it in his mind it's time to re-tool since the Potvin-Gilmour-Clark triumvirate has taken them as far as they could. And what better time than the NHL entry draft?

So I'm sitting on my basement couch, relaxing and watching the draft unfold, as is my tradition. Nothing major had really happened, as seems to often be the case at the draft...lots of rumours, very little action. But then the camera cuts to Paul Romaniuk and Bob MacKenzie in the booth...I'll never forget what followed:

Paul: We're getting word of what may be a major trade between the Quebec Nordiques and Toronto Maple Leafs....we'll let you know more as it transpires.

(My thought bubble: anyone but wendel. Anyone but wendel.)

2 minutes later:

Paul: Bob, any word on that trade?
Bob: What we're hearing is that Quebec will trade Mats Sundin, Garth Butcher and the rights to Todd Warriner to Toronto for...Wendel Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre and...(there was someone else involved in the deal, I just can't recall who...maybe a draft pick.)

You probably could've heard my anguished scream from several miles away. Wendel Clark was my hero. Captain of the Leafs, hardnosed power foward, fought back from numerous back injuries, and finally had a breakout season in 93/94 with 46 goals and another inspired playoff performance. And this was how they repaid him? By trading him to QUEBEC for a SWEDE? And not only that, they trade one of the best defensive defencemen in the NHL for Garth Butcher? Garth fucking BUTCHER???? Goddamnit, it riles me up writing it even now, 11 years on. It was wrong on so many levels.

So I'm watching it, with tears streaming down my cheeks (imagining poor saskatchewan farmboy Wendel trying to deal with those damned frenchies in Quebec City) when my grandfather decides that would be a good time to call us.

Me: Hello?
Him: How're you doing?
Me: ....(sigh)Not so good.
Him: What's wrong?
Me: ....(sigh) The Leafs just traded Wendel.
Him: (silence for about 10 seconds) What?
Me: Yeah, to quebec.
Him: Oh...my god. Where'd you hear that?
Me: Turn on TSN.
Him: (to someone else in the room) TURN ON TSN...NOW!
Me: I don't even know what to say right now.

After he got up to speed and we commiserated for a few minutes, he got onto telling me the story of when the Leafs traded Mahvolich in 1967. That didn't really help, considering the leafs haven't won the cup since. It was right then I realized this really was the end of this Leaf team. The team that I loved wholeheartedly, as only a 13-year old who'd never even seen his team have a winning season, let alone get so close to the cup, could. And it never was the same after that. I watched Doug Gilmour don the 'C' above the blue maple leaf, and lead the team into the playoffs over the following years, never with much success. And I watched Wendel from afar, as he played in Quebec and Long Island, knowing (as did pretty much everyone else in the NHL) that one day he would come home. And when he did, it was like the prodical son returning and donning the old #17...but it just was't the same. These weren't the scrappy Leafs I'd loved as a pre-teen...these Leafs were expected to win. And when they didn't, it was a disappointment. Of course, Wendel would leave again, only to make one final return, scoring the clinching goal of the first Leafs-Senators series, but injuries had taken their toll...he was a shadow of his former self. And the man they'd traded him for, the tall, lanky Swede Mats Sundin, was the one with the 'C' on his chest and is still there today, and the Leafs are no closer to winning it all now than they were on Black Saturday, all those years ago.

Thanks for the memories, Wendel.