Today NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman officially announced that the Los Angeles Kings will host the 2017 NHL All Star Game. This will be held there as the NHL celebrates its centennial and the LA Kings celebrate their 50th anniversary.
This is a huge get for the Kings, and for NHL fans as LA will put on quite a show for the festivities.
However.....next year is the Maple Leafs centennial season. MLSE CEO Time Leiweke said in 2014 that the Maple Leafs expected:
The team with the longest Stanley Cup drought is looking to host every other major NHL event—the All-Star Game, the NHL Draft and the Winter Classic, not to mention the anticipated 2016 World Cup of Hockey—leading up to or during the club’s 100th anniversary, to be celebrated throughout 2017.
Tim Leiweke, CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, recently told Sportsnet that the organization is in the process of bidding for all four events.
"It’s not a splash. I just think Toronto—it’s our 100th anniversary, and this is the greatest hockey city on Earth. I think we owe it to our fans. And we’re telling the league that they owe it to our fans," Leiweke said. "They don’t disagree, but we’ve got to go through a process to win it. I think we’ll win it. I think we’ll get there. But we got to go bid on it."
Many Maple Leafs fans expected to get the same treatment the Montreal Canadiens got for their centennial: The draft and the All-Star game, as well as 90 minute long ceremonies before each game, and retiring every number from 1-67.
The NHL has decided, as they did when Montreal got it's pick of every quality player from Quebec before the draft, and when it assigns french refs to their home games, that The Canadiens get special treatment for their anniversary, while the other teams can deal with less.
"But Toronto gets the World Cup of Hockey!" you cry. Yes, but that's a financial decision, Montreal couldn't sell tickets to the World Juniors last year, proving they are a Habs only town, and the NHL/NHLPA want to make bank on this tournament.
With more announcements to come, like the place of the 2017 Winter Classic and the 2017 NHL draft, keep in mind Leafs fans that the Penguins, Flyers, Stars*, and Blues are also celebrating their 50th anniversary. The Penguins need the money from a winter classic to avoid their 18th bankruptcy and Ed Snider will yank on those puppet strings he has on Bettman to make it Flyers-Penguins, We can probably figure the Blues will get a stadium series game since they'll have an empty NFL stadium just sitting around. Dallas has TWO 50th anniversaries to celebrate because they are both the Minnesota North Stars AND the California Golden Seals.
The centennial year will be special no matter what Leafs fans, you know why?
Your Twitter feeds will be trolled all year with "50 YEARS WITHOUT A CUP LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL 67"
ENJOY!
