Former Maple Leafs Gary Roberts, Alyn McCauley fondly recall Battle of Ontario
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Fitting, the way it has worked out for Gary Roberts.
The former Maple Leafs forward shares season tickets with three friends, and as such, each gets the first Leafs home game of the Stanley Cup playoffs every four years.
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Former Maple Leafs Gary Roberts, Alyn McCauley fondly recall Battle of Ontario Back to video
It’s Roberts’ turn on Sunday.
An instrumental performer for the Leafs in the Battle of Ontario in the early 2000s, Roberts will ensure he is in his seat for the warmup at Scotiabank Arena for Game 1 between the Leafs and Ottawa Senators as the provincial rivalry kicks into high gear again.
“I like to be there for warmup, it gets me in the game,” Roberts told the Toronto Sun on Saturday. “There is nothing worse for me than walking into a hockey game late. You miss the feeling.
“And I like to be there for the national anthem because I was that guy standing on the blue line before the game thinking to myself that I was going to be one of those people watching one day. No doubt, I enjoy being in the building.”
Little wonder. Roberts can look down to the ice and re-live some of his significant moments with the Leafs, a tenure that lasted from 2000-04.
In three of the four years that the Leafs eliminated the Senators, Robert wore blue and white and his role with the club was pivotal.
His biggest goal with Toronto, naturally, came in the Battle of Ontario.
In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal against the Sens in 2002, Roberts slipped the puck past goalie Patrick Lalime in triple overtime. Instead of heading to Ottawa down 2-0 in the best-of-seven, the Leafs tied the series 1-1 and would go on to win in seven games.
“For me, it was probably the No. 1 highlight as a Toronto Maple Leaf,” Roberts said. “There’s not many better feelings for me. I remember coming flying across near our bench, everybody jumping on me. It would have been nice to win (the Stanley Cup), but I don’t remember too many better feelings in my time in Toronto.”
The goal came after some tense moments between Roberts and coach Pat Quinn during the intermission following the second overtime. Quinn was intent on matching lines, as Roberts recalled, and twice the Leafs nearly were penalized for too many men in OT.
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With the urging of captain Mats Sundin, who had suffered a wrist injury in the first round against the New York Islanders and was not in the lineup, Roberts made his way to Quinn’s office.
“I went and kind of raised my voice at Pat,” Roberts said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Robs, just relax, it’s just a game.’ I walked back in the dressing room and said ‘Boys, just relax, it’s just a game.’
“It was probably good I scored the OT winner. Pat was not quite as angry with me after we won it.”
That spring, Alyn McCauley stepped up and was crucial with Sundin on the sideline. The play of the line of McCauley between Roberts and Jonas Hoglund was key in the Leafs’ charge to the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes, where Toronto lost in six games.
McCauley, now an assistant general manager with the Philadelphia Flyers, had no trouble remembering Roberts’ triple-overtime goal and what happened afterward.
“There was a long line of us to get IVs after the game to replenish the fluids,” McCauley said this week. “And then we were starving hungry and nothing was open. We came outside at 2 a.m., to a dark Toronto, a quiet atmosphere.”
McCauley, who played four seasons with the Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League before embarking on his NHL career with the Leafs in 1997, is glad to see the Battle for Ontario being engaged again in the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I think it’s good for the game,” McCauley said. “Any kind of rivalry is great. It gets the fans invested. There are more eyes on it.
“The hockey, the intensity is going to be raised on the ice, which I think makes it a more attractive brand of the sport.
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“The Battle of Ontario was fun to be a part of before, and I’m sure it will fun to be a fan from afar this time around, with new names to carve out their own narrative.”
Roberts and his wife will be in their seats on Sunday night, eager with anticipation as the puck drops in Game 1.
Roberts’ mind, undoubtedly, will go back to those days 20-plus years ago when the Leafs ruled over the Senators in the playoffs.
“The chanting in the arenas, there was not much of a better feeling for me than hearing my name chanted in the Toronto/Ottawa series in 2002,” Roberts said. “That was a memory I’ll never forget.”
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