Jake Gardiner set for an emotional return to Toronto.

Gardiner returns to Toronto today.

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HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Jake Gardiner set for an emotional return to Toronto.
Brian Mcwalters/CSM/Zuma

For as long as many fans in Toronto can remember veteran defenseman Jake Gardiner was, for better or for worse, a staple of the Toronto Maple Leafs blue line. On Monday however Gardiner will make what will undoubtedly be an emotional return to the city of Toronto as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.

It will be very interesting to see how the long time Maple Leaf will be received by the crowd upon his return to the team given that the fans in the city have always had a very love/hate relationship with the talented defenseman. Gardiner has always been an offensively skilled player but became infamous for making big mistakes at the worst possible time, including a notorious -5 performance against the Boston Bruins in a critical Game 7 situation and although I expect a warm reception I would not be surprised to hear a smattering of boos this afternoon either. Gardiner acknowledged that love/hate relationship upon leaving the Leafs organization.

“That’s just the way it is,” said Gardiner as per the Toronto Sun. “If you’re winning, you’re the best player on earth, if you’re losing, you suck. You just have to deal with it, whether it’s fans ripping you or media, it’s part of pro sports. You’ve got to get through it.”

To be fair to Gardiner here he was not simply laying the blame at the feet of the fan base. No, instead the veteran defenseman openly acknowledged that things had not always gone the way the team had expected, but did acknowledge that they were set up to achieve great things in the process.

“I’ve been here a long time, through the ups and downs,” Gardiner said during his final locker clean out as a Leaf. “When I first came, the team was not great. I’ll be pretty proud of what we’ve done here and the way we brought this organization to a team that we can be proud of.

“The playoffs didn’t go the way we wanted to but this team has a real bright future ahead of them.”

Gardiner of course will not only be reunited with the fans but will also cross paths with many men he considered his brothers for the past several years, and that will prove to be an emotional hurdle in its own right. Gardiner played over 600 games under some of the most intense scrutiny in professional sports courtesy of the Toronto media and the Maple Leafs fandom, and hopefully that will earn him some respect from those same fans when he makes his return today.

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