Cheers to tradition as Maple Leafs revive Molson Cup three-stars award

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That old silver cup has come back to the Maple Leafs.

Not the big one the city’s been missing since 1967, but still, a trophy with a half-century connection to excellence among the Leafs.

The club has revived the Molson Cup this season, its three-star award first created in 1973-74 when it was plugged constantly on TV broadcasts and other media and first won by a shy Swede named Borje Salming.

Salming was picked a game star in his Maple Leaf Gardens debut, a season opener that owner Harold Ballard was allowed to attend while on parole from a fraud conviction. Assisting on a Darryl Sittler goal in the 7-4 win over Buffalo, the post-game ritual of skating out to acknowledge the honour mystified Salming.

“They stopped me from going into the dressing room and pointed me back out on the ice,” the late defenceman told the Sun in a 2013 interview. “I had no clue what they wanted me to do. So I just watched the player ahead of me circle and wave and I did the same.”

The award, based on a point system from first to third star, was shared between Sittler and Salming its first eight years. The duo and 2000s-era captain Mats Sundin share the record of four Cups each.

All three Canadian teams in the ‘70s began Molson Cup promotions, with Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa following. But Ballard exploited the deal with the team’s title beer sponsor, not just to squeeze more money from Molson, but to cancel its existing in-house award, the J.P. Bickell Cup.

Created in 1953 in memory of the team’s first chairman in the Gardens era, the Bickell was given to the team MVP. But Ballard resented the Leafs’ successful past and the Bickell was mothballed, until revived after his death in 1993 for playoff hero Doug Gilmour.

A sidebar to the Molson Cup was its often-raucous luncheons, also known as ‘Meet the Leafs’ events held everywhere from the Hot Stove Club in the Gardens, to downtown Toronto eateries to the John Molson Room at its former brewery on Fleet Street. Players, media, management, alumni, agents, fans and free beer made for some colourful interactions.

“One year, we had the late comic actor John Candy as a head table guest,” recalled Bob Stellick, the club’s former business manager. “We were something like 2-10 to start that season and we almost had to drag players to come.

“But Candy got up in character as the Melonville goalie from SCTV. He told the guys that Melonville also began 2-10 one year. He said ‘the most important lesson we learned? Don’t get overconfident’. That broke everyone up and the elephant in the room of our losing streak was forgotten.”

The Leafs plastered the Molson Cup everywhere, including team pocket schedules and once included the winner on the cover of the annual team guide.

“I remember watching the presentations as a kid,” said former Leaf Mark Osborne, now a scout for the L.A. Kings. “You saw Borje, Darryl and Lanny McDonald all part of it.

“When I got there (in the late ‘80s), the only problem I had with it was that a player like me could never win it. But you definitely recall the lunches and the Molson guys, such as Fergie Devins and Buddy (Rick Sutcliffe), everyone who really took care of the players.

“Molson and the Leafs were close back then. I was just working a game at the Bell Centre, with their (ownership) connections to Molson, and they were awarding it to their player.”

Back in Toronto, the Cup, with a charity component for the winner to donate to his favourite cause, was not highlighted often up to 2019-20, when put on hiatus because of the COVID pandemic. The Leafs missing the playoffs all but one year between 2004-17 didn’t help.

This year, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, in conjunction with Molson’s, brought it back. A winner was named monthly with Molson and one of its reps or retailers meeting the player after the game, with a photo posted on the club’s social media platforms. William Nylander won two of the segments for October and March, while in between Mitch Marner took it in November, followed in order by John Tavares, Matthew Knies and Anthony Stolarz

April’s and the overall winner will be determined after games next week.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

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