Sure Brian Burke and the Toronto Maple Leafs are building towards the on-ice trademarks of playing with truculence, pugnacity, belligerence and testosterone, but who really cares?  The same “on-ice trademark” argument can be made about the 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks who play with speed, energy and cockiness.  The same can be said about the Philadelphia Flyers who, much like the Leafs try to build around toughness, but the difference between the Blackhawks, Flyers and the Leafs is that one of them don’t have an off-ice trademark, or something that makes their place to play unique.  That one team is the Leafs.

Look, even if you go back to 2007-2008, the four teams that have appeared in the finals since then all have something that makes their arena special.  The Pittsburgh Penguins have the white-out (perhaps not original but something to hold onto nonetheless), the Detroit Red Wings have the throwing of the octopus, the Philadelphia Flyers have God Bless America and in addition to that all fans wear orange, and with the Blackhawks they’ve got the large-scale anthem-singing, the Fratelli’s Chelsea Dagger and to add to that, the United Center is more commonly known as the Madhouse on Madison.

So what do the Leafs have?  Burkie dogs?  Excruciatingly long ceremonies?  The most expensive tickets in the NHL?  How about fans with bags on their head?  No, no, no and no, the Toronto Maple Leafs have nothing of significance that makes the Air Canada Center unique, not the way they do their anthems, not the goal song, the goal horn and the place doesn’t even have a nickname.

Some might say, “who cares?”, but the fact of the matter is that we all should.  If the Toronto Maple Leafs truly are the hotbed of hockey, the most fabled franchise and greatest team in all of sport, why is their nothing to separate them from everybody else off the ice?  Now do the Maple Leafs need a trademark of their own to succeed in hockey?  Will they crash and burn without being unique?  Absolutely not, but it can’t hurt to try.

Listen, when it’s all said and done, when the Stanley Cup Finalists are ready to duke it out for hockey’s greatest prize, you’ve gotta think there’s something behind these trademarks.  These are trademarks that the fans feed off of, the players feed off of and the energy in the building rises significantly due to these factors.  These trademarks may in fact give the home team that extra little push, that extra little energy needed to close out a game or come from behind.  These trademarks may very well decide games for the home team, and if the 29th-best team in the league can give themselves an extra advantage to help them win, then why not?

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