NHL – Komarov on Finland With McGran

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Kevin: Leo, what do you love about Finland?

Leo: Summertime. I can’t say anything good about winter. You’ll see a lot of darkness. Helsinki is a good city. But I don’t know what to recommend about wintertime. The only thing you can do is watch hockey.

Kevin: What’s summer like?

Leo: Summer’s great. There’s a lot of restaurants. You can sit outside having coffee, beer. You don’t have darkness at all. It’s sunshine all the time.

Kevin: What’s Helsinki like?

Leo: It’s a busy city. Finnish people love to live. You can go out everywhere and people are out. It’s close to he water. You can take a cruise to Estonia.

In 1996, Stavro took on Larry Tanenbaum, cofounder of Toronto’s new National Basketball Association (NBA) team, the Toronto Raptors, as a partner. Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. was accordingly renamed Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), to be the parent company of the two teams. MLSE has expanded since then, adding the Toronto Marlies (the Leafs’ farm team) of the American Hockey League (AHL) and the Toronto FC of Major League Soccer (MLS) to its stable.

After two years out of the playoffs in the late 1990s, the Leafs made two transactions for the upcoming 1998–99 season. They acquired goaltender Curtis Joseph as a free agent from the Edmonton Oilers and hired Pat Quinn, who had been fired by Vancouver in 1997, to serve as head coach. The Leafs were also moved from the Western to the Eastern Conference as part of a League realignment. In January 1999, the team moved from its longtime home Maple Leaf Gardens to the new Air Canada Centre, shared with the Raptors. During the 1999 playoffs, the team eliminated the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins in the first two rounds of the playoffs, but lost in five games to the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference Finals. Nonetheless it was their best post-season finish since their back-to-back Conference Finals appearances in 1993 and 1994.

In the 1999–2000 season, the Leafs hosted the mid-season All-Star Game, where Wayne Gretzky’s jersey number 99 was retired League-wide. They compiled their first 100-point season and captured their first division title in 37 years. The 2000–01 regular season was less successful, however, as the Leafs could only clinch the seventh seed in their conference. In both of the 2000 and 2001 playoffs, the Leafs defeating the Ottawa Senators in the first round and lost to the New Jersey Devils in the second round. In 2000, the Leafs were limited to six shots as they lost the deciding Game 6 by a 3–0 scoreline, and in 2001 (after sweeping the Senators who were seeded second), the Leafs held a 3–2 series lead over the Devils but lost Game 6, 4–2, and game seven, 5–1.

Kevin: Why do Finns hate Swedes so much?

Leo: It’s not even from sports. They just hate each other, but in a good way. It’s always been a battle with Sweden. They’re our neighbour. Finland-Sweden hockey game is a big thing. It’s Toronto-Montreal.

Kevin: How about Russians?
Leo: You still hate them, but not the same as Sweden-Finland.

Posted by Kevin McGran, Sports Reporter at 10:10 AM

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