Leafs Face Criticism for Missing Traditional Victory Salute to Fans

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Although The Toronto Maple Leafs ended their ongoing three game-losing streak on Thursday night with an unexpected win over one of the NHL’s top teams, Tampa Bay Lightning, they still somehow managed to put off Leafs Nation and send them hope unhappy. The team knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 at the Air Canada Centre last night.

Earlier, the team was being harshly criticized due to its number of losses but now it is facing criticism for not raising their sticks to fans at centre ice as per their tradition after every home ice win over the last number of seasons. Instead, the players celebrated the victory amongst themselves and then skated off to their dressing room. Prior to last night’s match, the team lost 9-2 on Wednesday in which a fan threw his jersey onto the ice in frustration. In response to the act, often reserved Leafs forward, Phil Kessel, alleged that “it’s disrespectful, right? Not just to us but to the organization, to all of the Leafs players that have ever played for Toronto.” Kessel mentioned on Thursday that “I think that’s pretty classless to throw your jersey on the ice like that.”

It is not yet clear what made the Leafs chose to break the tradition and forgo the usual salute on Thursday night, but TSN’s Darren Dreger claims that it was a players-only decision and that the coaching staff was not involved. Quite noticeably, the move drew widespread criticism on social media as fan often called it everything from “disrespectful” to “ignorant”.

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