The Blue Revolution:
A Manifesto
The History of Hockey is the History of Struggle. Forward and defenseman, sniper and goalie, goon and journeyman; combatants standing in opposition of each other, neither side giving, only taking. These opposing sides face each other in constant struggle, a fight between sworn foes – a fight that either ends in a Stanley Cup or the common ruin of a team and its fan base.
At this point in our history, We, the Citizens of Leafs Nation are at a crossroads. We can shirk our duty as Citizens of a great Nation and cower in the face of Adversity, or we can stand with pride at our Nation’s past and hope for our Nation’s future. We have the need to change, the strength to reconstruct, and the courage to start over. I propose to you, Dear Brothers and Sisters, that we institute this change. We need to become the means of a Revolutionary Shift in the way this Nation remembers its proud hockey past, how we see ourselves in our impoverished state of hockey present, and how we can impact our own hockey future.
I do not necessarily know much about being a revolutionary, nor am I a terribly political person; however, the silence of our humility at the hands of our keepers from Bay Street has become too much to bear. The Air Canada Centre needs to roar in triumph just as Maple Leaf Gardens once did. Therefore, The Blue Revolution must begin.
Any movement at its inception must provide a strong and unified front, lest it become a fractious and divided group. It needs to have clear goals and demands by which the success of the revolution may be gauged. Those goals, my friends, are easy to identify: Our Revolution will end only when our Nation is in the hands of a Wise and Just ruler who has outlined an acceptable path by which to govern Leafs Nation, so that we will best be able to ice a team that is capable of not only competing for, but winning Hockey’s Holy Grail.
As Citizens of this Great Nation, our Oppressors have distracted us from the ultimate objective for too long. For three seasons, we have failed to make The Playoffs. This fact is ultimately irrelevant. The greater problem is that for Two Score and One Year we have failed to make Lord Stanley a guest in our Home and Native Land. This is no easy task; however, teams without our numbers and strength of support continue to accomplish this feat each and every year.
Whether or not our Oppressors change name is inconsequential. They are all cogs in the same wheel – Pat Quinn is Cliff Fletcher, just as the citizens of Soviet Russia received no respite from Khrushchev to Brezhnev. For too long have we sat idle under the yoke of ineptitude while Larry Tanenbaum and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan lounged fat on their thrones made from the tithes of the hard-working citizens of Leaf Nation.
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Brothers and Sisters, Unite! Join the Legion as we tell Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, ‘This has gone on too long!’ Let us declare in One United Voice that The Playoffs are not good enough! Let us knock down the walls of 40 Bay Street and rebuild in the image of Greatness from days of yore.
Pick up the Refrain of The Blue Revolution as your own, as we seek to reclaim the Fertile Lands of The Playoffs under our Banner! We will not be deterred by Bruins, Lightning, Senators or Canadiens! We demand more from our Toronto Maple Leafs! .
