Leafs return to Toronto for 1st home game of 2024 playoffs

As every Leaf fan knows, donning the blue and white to watch the buds go to battle is not for the faint of heart. 

Last April, the team won its first playoff series in 19 years, igniting a wave of optimism that came crashing down in a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Florida Panthers that ended Toronto's season.

On Wednesday, optimism is back in the city. On Monday night, centre Auston Matthews plucked the puck out of the air, stick handled to the right, quickly pulled to the left and snapped a shot into the net to lead the team past the Boston Bruins for the first win of the post-season. 

Now, the Leafs are back in Toronto to continue the first round series against the Bruins, which is tied at one win a piece. The Leafs will face off against the Bruins at 7 p.m. at Scotiabank Arena, with tailgate parties for fans outside in Maple Leaf Square. The game is the first of the series where the Leafs will have home ice advantage. 

Jackie Middleton will be there, a life-long Leafs fan whose had season tickets for three decades. She knows first hand how hard cheering for this team can be. 

"There have been times where I have kind of stepped back a little bit and perhaps not been as full throttle a fan because sometimes it hurts too much," said Middleton, who ran the team's official fan club in the '90s. 

"But then, those old scars fade away. And, you know, it's in your blood. You've grown up with them. You love them."

Middleton describes it as a cycle, with low points and high points. 

Going into Game 3, she said, "I'm at the very top, very top."

'You get mad and angry and yell at the TV'

Middleton said she had a hard time watching the team during the Dion Phaneuf era, who was the team's captain from 2010 to 2016. But after the team added superstar Auston Matthews in 2016, she got excited.

"I think we have what it takes to get the job done," she said of this year's squad. 

Hamilton-native Rob Luscombe said while he's excited for the game tonight, he tries not to let the Leafs dictate his emotions as much as the team used to.

"I remember watching playoff games and stupid stuff would happen…you get mad and angry and yell at the TV," he said, adding that his outlook changed as he got older. 

"I don't want my kids to see that and become like that, right?"

Growing up in the '80s, his own childhood recollections of the Leafs aren't great. 

"Some of my very first memories as a Leafs fan [are] watching them get crushed every weekend as a kid," he said. 

Perched above the ice, there's one fan who also plays a role in making sure other fans keep the energy high in the arena: the organist Jimmy Holmstrom. 

Instead of shouting or cheering, his reactions to what's happening on the ice come in musical form. 

"If it's a goal, I've got to respond. If it's a goal against, I've got to respond. If it's a penalty, I've got to respond one way or the other," he said. "There's different songs for visitor's penalties and there's, you know, more serious songs for Leaf penalties."

Like many fans, he's filled with nervous anticipation up until puck-drop. But once the battle starts, there's no time for nerves, he said, because he can't take his eyes off the ice.

He said what gets people going the most are songs where they can stomp or clap along.

"But what makes people respond to anything is the team," he said. "When the Leafs are out there doing their thing, everything works."