It feels like just yesterday the Toronto Maple Leafs were in pursuit of Steven Stamkos days before he re-upped on an eight-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Fast forward to 2024, the Maple Leafs have John Tavares instead, and Steven Stamkos is in his first season in a jersey other than Tampa’s.
Stamkos was the big ticket of the 2024 free agency class and signed a four-year contract worth $8 million annually with the Nashville Predators on July 1. While losing their captain was a big loss, they made up for production by signing Jake Guentzel to replace him. While the replacement has worked nicely so far, the Bolts were largely kept off the board in Monday night’s tilt in Toronto, especially on the power play.
So much so, in fact, that the crowd decided to acknowledge the hole in Tampa’s power play through the power of a chant.
“Where is Stamkos?” Chants emerge! #leafsforever pic.twitter.com/i5oSKsGXpE
— Steph the Fanalyst 🏒🍁 (@FanalystSteph) October 22, 2024
“Where is Stamkos” the crowd chants again. Toronto, this is unlike you. #Leafs
— Terry Koshan 🇺🇦 (@koshtorontosun) October 22, 2024
Only a few weeks after the crowd at the home opener was criticized for being too quiet and lacking the energy from other teams’ home openers, they’ve seemed to respond. It’s almost as if, when the tickets are halfway affordable and the team is putting together a good performance, the crowd might be a little bit louder than usual.
The Maple Leafs have played arguably their best game of the season against a team they’ve developed some bad blood with in recent years. One can’t help but think about the Maple Leafs’ first two matchups against Tampa Bay in 2023-24, both of which saw Ilya Samsonov pulled from the game before the Leafs fought their way back and won in overtime.
The chants continued later into the game, even after Nikita Kucherov scored on the power play to cut the lead to 5-2. For a crowd that’s been scrutinized for years, whether that’s an effect of expensive tickets, loud music drowning out the crowd noise during player introductions, or a general distaste for the play of the team, tonight they showed up and did their jobs, much like the Maple Leafs themselves did.
