Did Fleury's save change hockey?

Is this the save that cost Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock his
job? Well, truthfully, yes and no. No in that Babcock was already on his
way out. My prediction was by Christmas at the latest. But when I saw
the Leafs play the Golden Knights in Vegas on November 19th, goalie
Marc-Andre Fleury make this incredible save with the Knights up by just
3-2 late in the third - a sure-thing goal that would have tied the game -
well, let's just say it hastened Babcock's departure. Unbelievable to see.
But what happened in the aftermath of this save? Another story there.

Again to be clear, I write two blogs. The main one I've written for six and a half years ("Brew Ha Ha") is about beer. This secondary one ("61 Turning 16") is the one that's NOT ABOUT BEER... but rather people, places and things. Today, it's about Las Vegas. Oh, and hockey. That said, people and things are incredibly likely to pop up in here. And quite possibly beer at some point. Because it's Vegas. And hockey.

Most people go to Las Vegas to gamble. I don't think I'm telling anyone's dirty, little secrets here. Pretty much a fact. And hey, that's fine by me. I'm not much of a gambler but it's a lot of fun for me to watch. The noise. The neon. The cheering at the Craps tables.

That's basically what the city is built upon - a structural bedrock of gambling. Cool, cool, cool. Enjoy, have a blast, play to win, just don't lose your damn house.

Even in the nosebleed seats at T-Mobile
Arena in Vegas, you'll see the occasional
cheerleader pop by to say howdy. Just
part of the raucous atmosphere inside
the arena. A complete blast being there.

Okay, so I was down there from November 13 to 20 but the big reason was to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Las Vegas Golden Knights on November 19th.

This caused the American Customs agent some confusion at Pearson Airport in Toronto. When he asked why I was going to Vegas, I told him it was to see the Leafs game. It was on the Tuesday night. I was flying down there six days before on the Wednesday.

"The game isn't until next Tuesday," he noted, "Why are you going now?"
"Pre-game party," I smiled.
"But the game's on Tuesday," he insisted.
"Yup, sure is," I smiled.
"But that's still six..." He then stopped, handed me my passport and simply said, "Have a good time."

I mean, it's Vegas. No one's heading there for Prayer Circles or spiritual rounds of Kumbaya singing and hand-holding. Get a grip, Mr Customs Man. (They never smile, do they?)

Now since I've started with the end of the trip - the Leafs game - I may as well continue on in that vein and then maybe backtrack to the beginning. It'll be like that 2000 movie "Memento," just not as entertaining. However, I can promise you equally confusing.

The new Viva Vision canopy on Fremont Street Experience
is frikkin awesome. It's so bright and colourful that even a
colourblind dude like me can appreciate it. However, it does
seem to be sending me a message here. Am I looking for a
sign to drink? In Vegas? I woke up!!! THAT'S my sign to
drink. But thank you for the reminder, Fremont St canopy!

So, anyway, the big game. Neither Toronto nor Vegas had been doing particularly well, both having lost five-in-a-row. Vegas snapped their losing streak, shutting out Calgary at T-Mobile Arena just two days before meeting Toronto but still, neither team was shining.

My good (and award-winning) buddy, Rob (@drunkpolkaroo), and I were messaging while I was down there, talking about what a dire situation it was in Leafs Nation. He suggested Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock could be on the chopping block if they dropped the match to Vegas. I knew Babcock was eventually going to be a goner but his big contract was always in the back of my mind. But if the Leafs continued down the same road, I figured he's gone before Christmas.

So I'm at the game and it's close. (And rowdy good fun.) Vegas is up 1-0 after two periods. In the second intermission, I'm at the queue at the guy's washroom. Finally make my way up to the urinal. Guy in a Vegas jersey beside me sees my Mitch Marner Leafs jersey and echoing Polk's thoughts, says to me, "If you lose tonight, I think Babcock's gone." Just in case you don't think Vegas fans are in tune with what's going on in the rest of the NHL.

With about four minutes left and Vegas up 3-2, a Leaf rattled one off the post. Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is caught completely out of position when the puck lands on Leafs Nic Petan's stick, who, in turn, send a backhander towards the open net. Perfect placement, three feet off the ice, headed to the top left corner. Should be a tie game.

Except Fleury miraculously scrambles back, dives and just gets it in his glove mesh. My seat was just behind the goal-line in the second tier. At full speed, it looks like a good save.

Walking up to the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas on November
19, I had no idea the events that would unfold during the
week afterwards. Suffice it to say, I attended a hockey
game that would completely shake up the landscape of
the NHL and erode some of its old-school hockey culture.

I look to the couple beside me in the Vegas jerseys and say, "Yeah, that was a nice grab."

But then they start showing the save repeatedly on the scoreboard replay screens. We get the sense that this wasn't a "nice grab" or a "great save" or whatever any of us - Vegas and Leafs fans alike - thought it was. This was... THE SAVE. Vegas fans rose out of their seat to applaud, followed very quickly by Leafs fans. This save was different, distinct, once-in-a-lifetime. A save that realistically, Fleury had no business making... but did.

After the game, a 4-2 loss for the Leafs, I found the top photo online quite easily and posted it both on Twitter and a private Facebook group I belong to called "Hockey Should Be Fun." I mentioned how the save was so uncanny that even Leaf fans were up on their feet. Social media, being what it is, what I said was confirmed quickly. Dozens of Vegas fans posted that the Leafs fans around them all stood up to applaud.

A single save, as spectacular as this was, brought us all together in appreciation of the game we all love so much.

This was my vantage point in Section 217 when Marc-Andre Fleury made
that save. To be honest, it just looked like a good save at first. It wasn't
until that scoreboard started showing the slow-motion replay that we all,
Vegas and Leafs fans alike, got a sense of what we had just seen. Insane.

After the game, I hopped in my cab and headed back to The D Hotel and Casino in Downtown Las Vegas, posting thoughts on the game the entire time. Also beer and Vegas/Leafs fan party pictures because, well, I'm in Vegas.

Eventually, I went to sleep (I was likely up until 3 am Vegas time, enjoying post-game libations) and on Wednesday morning woke up to the news that Leafs coach Mike Babcock had been fired. To quote a very indifferent Jerry Seinfeld, "That's a shame."

Now naturally, my friends were all over me. To them, I was the last Leafs fan to actually see Babcock coach. (Truth to tell, there were quite literally thousands of us there.)

Okay, this is the blog that's NOT about beer. However,
a local Vegas brewery, Bad Beat Brewing, has a great
name for their latest Pale Ale. It's called "Garbage Idea
To Put A Team In The Desert," a clever nod to all the
naysayers who squawked when Vegas got a hockey team.

So, of course, I had to confess that from Section 217 in T-Mobile Arena, I had little to do with the decision. If I did have that kind of influence, Babcock's time-card would have been punched out on the clock last April after the Leafs' third consecutive first-round playoff loss.

So Babcock loses his job... end of story, right? Well, no, turns out it was just the beginning of the story. Within a day or two, stories started to surface about his bullying ways, particularly one story about Mitch Marner as a rookie. It seems that Babcock had young Mitch, just 18 at the time, write a list of his teammates with the hard-working at the top right down to the biggest slacker at the bottom. (Mitch wisely put himself at the bottom.) If that wasn't bad enough, Babcock then presented the list to a couple of players at the bottom, specifically Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak. Were they pissed? Oh hell to the yeah. But not at Marner. No, they were pissed at the coach who would put an 18-year-old rookie in this untenable position. And rightfully so.

Mike Babcock: "Look, Mitch, I know we just drafted you
but I want you to start ratting out on your teammates as
soon as possible. I'm sure this won't be uncomfortable for
you to do. Trust me. I know what I'm doing." Stupid asshat.

There were a few other Babcock bullying stories but that revelation brought about another tale. That Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters, a protege of Babcock's, was as racist as hell. During his Junior coaching days, Peters had a black player, Akim Aliu, and one day, he unleashed a torrent of n-words directed at Aliu for his choice of music in the dressing room. Yes, he decided that the music being played was reason enough to utter the n-word countless times. Because he's a racist asshole.

The issue dragged on for a full week (I believe intentionally on Calgary's end), giving Peters a chance to apologize before the two sides at the table decided it was time for Peters to tender his resignation. To me, that was some clever stickhandling on Calgary's end. The apology and eventual resignation greatly lessen the odds of a wrongful dismissal suit from Peters' camp.

Anyway, the week just got worse and worse for the coaches, as well as others like former coach Darryl Sutter and former Carolina Hurricane player Zach Boychuk. Just a mess.

When I saw this group of Cody Ceci fans at the T-Mobile Arena on
November 19, I was a little surprised. I mean, he's a good player but
the majority of the Leafs jerseys were either Matthews or Wendel
Clark. After posting it on Twitter, one sharp-eyed tweeter found an
Instagram pic of the entire Ceci family on a plane headed for Vegas.
She noted, "I think you caught the family out front of the arena..."

Probably the saddest story I heard was that Marner under Babcock used to draw a little happy face on his glove. Why? To remind himself that hockey should be fun. Geezuz.

But Babcock's firing and the subsequent breakdown of the old school hierarchy in the NHL over the space of one single week reminded me of that old German proverb, lamenting the loss of a single horseshoe nail and the bigger effect that small incident had. It is commonly referred to as "The Nail" and goes something like this.

"For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the knight was lost. For want of a knight, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost. So a kingdom was lost, all for the want of a nail."

Except this time, it wasn't a nail. It was a brilliant save that began unraveling the old-school mentality surrounding the NHL in the space of just one week. All for the want of a goal.