When does Maple Leaf hockey “click in” for you?

I realize it may seem just a bit unusual to think seriously about hockey when it's still summer.  But hey, when we're talking about the Maple Leafs, hockey is a passion twelve months of the year.  We all know that. Not that a break from the ups and downs that often accompany being a Leaf supporter is not welcome sometimes, but let's face it, we would miss it if there are no games this fall, eh?

The “boys” will start gathering fairly soon to start informal team practices and before you know it, we’ll be into full-scale training camp mode.  (This pending workout activity assumes progress in the ongoing CBA talks.  While I'm not optimistic at this stage, who knows?  Maybe wisdom will somehow prevail...)

Though we tend—at least in this part of the hockey world, where the Leafs are a daily topic of conversation virtually year-round—to keep the hockey fires alive, it’s just not as top of mind for most sports enthusiasts, especially when baseball is heading into a pennant drive and football training camps in the NFL are already in full swing. But at some point, as Leaf fans, we want our hockey.  Something clicks in us and reminds us that, hey, it’s time for hockey.

I remember, back when I was a kid in the early to mid 1960s, then young Maple Leaf center Dave Keon being quoted in a magazine article saying that, for him, the only time of the year that really dragged was the last couple of weeks in August.  Why?  Well, because, he said, he was so anxious by that time to get back on skates and get to training camp.  He actually loved September, he said, when he finally got back onto the ice for real after a long spring and summer away from the rink. (This was before a few NHL players, including Keon, started holding “hockey schools” for kids.  That provided a little extra income for the NHL'ers and also kept them on the ice for at least part of the summer…)

I've always found Keon's comment interesting.  The “off-season” was much longer in those days, of course, for NHL’ers.  In the early ‘60s, the playoffs (even if you made it to the end of the Stanley Cup finals) only ran until the end of April.  (To provide some context: when the Leafs beat Montreal in 6 games in the 1967 Cup finals, the final game was played on May 2, and at that time, that was the latest an NHL season had ever ran.  Expansion the following season—and the addition of an extra playoff round—meant the season would get much longer.  Nowadays, as we all know, we’re well into June before it finally ends…).  

But still, to hear Keon (seen at right  with the Leafs in action in the early 1960s) say how much he missed playing was revealing.  While I’m sure he enjoyed his time off in the summer, he obviously loved playing, loved being a Maple Leaf, and couldn’t wait for each new season to get underway.  (Whether his teammates felt the same, I don’t know.  Keep in mind that, in those days, a lot of guys tended to get out of shape over the summer, even if they held down a part-time job to make some extra income.  They used training camp to start the process of getting back into hockey shape, so it wasn't a terribly pleasant experience for a lot of them….)

By early August in those days, Keon, though, was thinking hockey.  He and his teammates had been away from it for three months already, with still another month to go before training camp started.  There were no “informal” team workouts like there are nowadays.  (Training camp back then usually started in fairly early September, as I recall, though I could be wrong.  But it was a lot longer than what it is nowadays and there were a ton of exhibition games, too….)

I admit, by this time of the summer, I do start thinking about the Leafs getting back on the ice.  It’s not that I’m wishing summer away or that I’m anticipating a great season for the Leafs every year.  I just like the idea of a new hockey season getting underway.  It’s always fun—and it brings hope.

Setting aside any particular enthusiasm (or not) that you feel for the current version of the Maple Leafs, when do you usually start thinking about hockey—and the Leafs?  Does it not kick in until the regular-season starts, or are you someone who begins to get the itch before training camp even starts?