You certainly could have forgiven the Toronto Maple Leafs if they didn’t really feel like playing a hockey game Monday night. And fans inside the arena were in anything but a festive mood.
But the players were on the ice and there wasn’t an empty seat in the house.
Really, what else could they do?
Toronto is, thankfully, new to this — new to the type of gut-wrenching, random attacks like Monday’s that leave behind a mountain of questions and a deep well of pain.
A Maple Leaf or Raptor win won’t fill that void or erase that loss. Nothing will.
No playoff victory will bring back the 10 people tragically killed or the 15 others seriously injured when a man drove a van onto a busy sidewalk in the city’s north end.
But in the wake of Monday’s attack, the biggest gathering of Torontonians wasn’t at a church or a synagogue or even at city hall. It was at the Air Canada Centre for the Leafs’ game.
‘Play our hearts out for this city’
The crowd’s mood seemed raw and reflective of what had happened in their city.
Before Game 6 of Toronto’s playoff series against the Boston Bruins, there was a moment of silence. During the national anthem, a tremendous display of unity was made as the anthem performer stopped singing and allowed the voice of the crowd to take over, filling the building.
“We are going to play our hearts out for this city for these great fans,” Leafs defenceman Ron Hainsey said in a recorded message played on the video board before the game, which the Leafs went on to win 3-1.
The players, some of whom grew up here, were clearly affected by the day’s events and seemed eager to play whatever small part they could in what will be a long, slow healing process.
“It’s such a tragedy and it’s terrible,” said winger Connor Brown, a Toronto native. “You see all the people come together in a moment of silence before the game, and to kind of unite a city after something like that is special. But it was a tough day.”
A role to play
Sports have often been part of a city’s healing process in the wake of tragedy. After the 9/11 attacks, baseball played a role in New York City’s recovery as the Yankees went on an emotional run to the 2001 World Series.
“They were all clapping. They were clapping for baseball,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani wrote at the time. “These were all sports fans. It really got their minds off of, ‘Are we going to be attacked again? Are we going to come out of this?’ It gave them a sense that life goes on.”
After the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, the city’s sports teams were front and centre. The Bruins played the first game after the attack, and a video of the crowd singing the national anthem quickly went viral.
A few days later, during a pre-game ceremony at Fenway Park honouring first responders, beloved Red Sox slugger David Ortiz famously told the crowd “This is our f—— city… and nobody [is] going to dictate our freedom.”
Leafs coach Mike Babcock knows his team didn’t save any lives Monday night, but he’s aware that the team is an integral part of Toronto’s fabric and has a role to play.
“It was our job to do what we could here tonight,” Babcock said after his team’s 3-1 victory. “It’s so important that we rally around these people, help ’em, do everything we can. We have a fantastic city.”
And then Babcock paused. He lives here too. This was something he, or any member of Toronto’s professional sports community, could relate to.
“You know, I was just thinking, I live in Yorkville and I walk around all of the time,” he said. “You’re just out here enjoying a beautiful day in Toronto.”
