Maple Leafs players with Toronto-area roots embrace playoff pressure

TORONTO -- Try as they might, a significant number of Toronto Maple Leafs players can't hide from the beleaguered history of a franchise that has not won the Stanley Cup since 1967.

Or a Stanley Cup Playoff series in 19 years.
Because for the 10 members of the Maple Leafs who were born and bred in southern Ontario, it's in their DNA.
"When you grew up watching this team like I did with the Doug Gilmours and Wendel Clarks, you understand the passion," defenseman Mark Giordano said. "It's there. Positively or negatively, you can't escape it."
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For these players, there is no way to block out the white noise. Not when it comes from the family, friends and neighbors. There are reminders, constant ones. You either embrace it, or else.
On Tuesday, Toronto will open its best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning at home (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, CBC, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, BSSUN) attempting to advance in the playoffs for the first time since 2004. The Maple Leafs will be looking for redemption after the Lightning eliminated them in seven games last season -- marking the sixth straight season that Toronto lost in the opening round -- and will do it with a team that has no shortage of local flavor.
Giordano is a born and bred Torontonian, and forwards Michael Bunting and Wayne Simmonds are from Scarborough, one of Toronto's eastern suburbs. Forward Mitchell Marner grew up north of the city in Markham. Center John Tavares was born in Mississauga, just west of Toronto. Forward Ryan O'Reilly is from the town of Clinton, near London. Defenseman TJ Brodie is from Chatham, the hometown of Baseball Hall of Fame member Ferguson Jenkins, located about halfway between London and Windsor. Defenseman Connor Timmons is from St. Catharines, about 60 miles south of Toronto near the United States border.
Two other locals are on injured reserve: defenseman Jake Muzzin, who grew up 65 miles southeast of Toronto in Woodstock; and defenseman Victor Mete, who's from Woodbridge, just north of Toronto.
For these players, the question is simple: Does having grown up in the region add more pressure or supply motivation? Especially when they all know what playoff success would mean here.
"It depends on the way you look at it," Giordano said. "The way I look at it is that you dream growing up in your hometown of getting through the playoffs and winning the Cup at home. I mean, there's no better story. So for all of us, it's a great opportunity."
One the 39-year-old says his team must take advantage of.
"I mean, look at our team," he said. "This has been one of the top teams in the League for the last so many years. Now it's about playoff success. And yeah, there's pressure. No one's going to kid you and say there's zero pressure on us and we've just got to go play. Sure there's some, but, like you said, you have to use it to drive you.
"You don't want to look too far ahead. But if you look at the end of the tunnel and you see what the possibility is, I mean, it's pretty special."
Marner couldn't agree more.
The 25-year-old grew up absorbing any and all information about the history of the Maple Leafs, so much so that he wore No. 93 in minor hockey and with London of the Ontario Hockey League in honor of former Maple Leafs forward Doug Gilmour. Keep in mind that Marner hadn't even been born when Gilmour helped Toronto reach the conference final in 1993 and 1994.
For some head-scratching reason, he's often been made the scapegoat by fans for Toronto's recent postseason shortcomings. He's averaged 1.09 points per game in the regular season for his 507-game NHL career, but averaged 0.85 points per game in 39 postseason games, which is a legitimate source of criticism. At the same time, he's hardly been the main reason the Maple Leafs have fallen short in recent years.
And yet he, like Giordano, continues to focus on the big picture and imagine what a Stanley Cup would mean to the team, the city and all of southern Ontario, for that matter.
"I think a lot of us in here have probably said wearing this jersey is a dream come true for a lot of us," Marner said. "It's easy to think like that. At the same time our mindset here is to stay in the moment, in the day, and try not to look too far ahead."
Easier said than done. Just ask O'Reilly, who was traded to Toronto by the St. Louis Blues with forward Noel Acciari as part of a three-team deal that included the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 17.
The 32-year-old helped the Blues win the Cup in 2019 and brought hockey's Holy Grail to southwestern Ontario, where he celebrated with his relatives and his childhood pals. But it hasn't taken him long to understand the passionate environment he now plays in and how many people he's known for years live and die with each and every Maple Leafs shift.
To that end, one of the first things O'Reilly did after being traded was text his father, Brian.
"What if I help bring a Stanley Cup to Toronto?" the text from son to father said. "Can you imagine?"
Two months later, he's still attempting to wrap his head around the idea.
"I think it's pressure, sure," he said. "But it also drives you because it's special. You're able to engage more people and it just means more to people.
"Just talking to my dad, my parents, they're getting stopped everywhere. Everyone's talking, everyone's asking if they can come by and get the inside scoop."
O'Reilly's mother, Bonnie, grew up in a family of 14 in Toronto and worked at a snack bar for Toronto games at Maple Leaf Gardens.
"It's something that's so special, well, it's tough to explain to guys," he said. "But it's different. It means more.
"It's nice at this point in my career I get to experience it. I think if it was younger me it would be a lot more difficult to deal with. But to be around this team now and see people's excitement around it and being part of the team they've loved since they were born, well, to represent them and the area is just so awesome, so cool."
For Tavares, like O'Reilly, it's all about the endgame: the Stanley Cup.
"I think you recognize what makes Toronto so special and the significance and tradition," said Tavares, 32, the Maple Leafs captain. "It's great to be part of that.
"It's why you know winning here would be amazing."