On the sixth day of Leafsmas
Burkie gave to me...

Six Years of Cheering

Five In A Row!
Four Years of Brad,
Three Luke Schenns,
Two Special Teams
and
A center for Phil Kessel

A Godd Till Joint

This spring the Leafs will, barring a miracle, miss the playoffs for the sixth consecutive year. I came of age during a period of relative success.  Relative, that is, to the Leafs' overall performance since 1967.  Which is like a good career run for David Faustino since Married With Children ended.

I often dreamt about seeing Wendel or later Mats jubilantly hoisting the Cup. Now I just dream about making the #$&%#$% playoffs.

About having special team rankings that don't begin with "twenty-" About not getting stomped by Vancouver twice a year while "Huey" and "Simmer" high-five in the booth. About winning in Buffalo once a decade. About arguing over "who should run the point on the second power play" or "is the backup goalie playing enough" not "is it disloyal to move to rural Cambodia in the middle of hockey season"?

Six years of competence. Six years of playoffs. Six years of being like all the other teams. Six years of cheering.

Is that too much to ask?