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This past day after Christmas (Canadians read: Boxing Day), I had my first opportunity to see a NHL hockey game at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. Ironically, it was the 301st and final visit for the Montreal Canadiens to Gardens ice.

My impressions of Maple Leaf Gardens had previously been shaped only by broadcast games, primarily on Hockey Night in Canada. The Gardens did not disappoint by any measure.

The first thing you notice about the arena from the outside is its size. Compared to other arenas, it is small. It seems like just another building in the crowded streets of downtown Toronto, eclipsed in size by many other structures. Maple Leaf Gardens is hardly just another building.

Inside the arena itself there is not much space. The concourse areas are narrow. The crowded lobby reminded my father of the old Detroit Olympia, an arena before my time.

Spectators access the gold seats behind the benches by walking directly behind the players. The narrowness of the building dictated the steepness of the seating areas. The red and blue areas behind the goals almost hang over the ice.

There are a limited number of "luxury boxes" behind the nets and in the gondolas overhead. Lack of more numerous and larger luxury boxes and a seating capacity of less than 16,000 are the two primary reasons the Maple Leafs are moving into the new Air Canada Centre on February 20, 1999.

We arrived early for the game, and sat and watched most of the warmups. During this time my eyes scoured the arena. The rafters of the arena are unforgettable. Some sort of smoke was exhausting in the far reaches, among the lights and cables hanging from the roof.

From the rafters hang two retired numbers, along with several more "honoured" numbers. In addition to these numbers hang 11 banners, one for each year the Maple Leafs captured the Stanley Cup. And that's all. Unlike other cities like Detroit and Edmonton, Toronto does not hang meaningless banners for winning their division or conference, or for the President's Trophy.

The audio experience at Maple Leaf Gardens is unrivaled. The P.A. announcer, Paul Morris, is outstanding. I will forever remember his introduction before the final Leafs-Canadiens game. His delivery is basic yet riveting. After a goal, there is no delay in his announcement. By the time they are dropping the puck, he's announcing the scoring play. Morris is simply the best in the business.

The scoreboard at the Gardens might be the most antiquated in the league, but that's sort of a blessing in disguise. The four different colored light bulbs produce grainy pictures, not nearly close to the video scoreboards standard at most arenas these days.

Thankfully, this cuts down on the constant distractions scoreboards provide at other arenas. In Detroit, where I attend most of my hockey games, scoreboard diversions are constant. Intermission is one commercial after another, not to mention during TV timeouts, when it's either Animal House, make some noise, or the ever-favorite panning of the crowd for some fool willing to dance on camera.

During the first intermission, a cartoon was featured on the scoreboard. It was about a boy who asked Santa for a Maurice Richard #9 Canadiens sweater for Christmas. To his dismay, he received a blue Toronto Maple Leafs sweater. Forced by his mother to wear it, the boy found himself ostracized by his friends at the next game of hockey on the pond. Ah, that was fun stuff. The mixed Hab-Leaf crowd was certainly entertained by the piece.

The music selection at Maple Leaf Gardens is also top rate. In Detroit, after every whistle some tune is blasted at the crowd. It's as if they think we all have no attention span and would suddenly find hockey boring without music to fill every second of every timeout.

At the Gardens, much less music is played, and when it is it never reaches the obscenely loud levels of other arenas. Much of it is old school clapping music, which gets the enthusiastic Toronto crowd going. An unfortunate blot on the evening's activities occurred with just under three minutes remaining in the game. True, the Habs had just gone up 2-1, but that's still no excuse to play "Cotton Eyed Joe." That was painful to sit through.

Unlike many of the cavernous arenas of today, all of the seats at Maple Leaf Gardens are near the ice. I was seated in the greens, about three fourths of the way up. When the crowd wasn't loud, I could even hear the players yelling to each other on the ice. That's pretty cool, and rare in today's buildings.

The crowd itself was unlike any other I had been in before. The Canadian crowd was obviously very knowledgeable, and there weren't any out of control drunks. That's odd, considering it was Boxing Day and all.

There were some zany guys up in the greys (highest section) instigating the Leafs chants. One fellow started many of the chants, but sometimes he failed. Once in the third period, he kept screaming "Go Leafs Go," in hopes of the crowd catching on. It was pretty apparent that the rest of the arena wasn't joining in after his fourth solo "Go Leafs Go." He continued on for something like 15 times, his voice cracking and dying, to no avail. I couldn't decide if it was heroic or pathetic.

There were hordes of Canadiens fans in attendance, and they made their presence known. The two fans to our left, to our right, and directly behind us were all Montreal supporters. There were many "Go Habs Go" chants, which were immediately eclipsed by calls of "Go Leafs Go."

The Zamboni drivers were unique in their own way. They stood up while resurfacing the ice. Interesting. However, as one of them pulled off the ice during the second intermission, he was decapitated by the player's tunnel. That was odd.

It is hard to describe, but the setting, atmosphere and crowd noise at Maple Leaf Gardens are all magical. It's the sort of place that you never want to leave. Legends played there, rivals battled there, and many memories have been made there. Maple Leaf Gardens is the stuff dreams are made of.

Recap of Final Canadiens-Maple Leafs Game at the Gardens

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