Leafs Fans are jumping ship to the Seattle Kraken
Loyal fans are leaving the storied Toronto Maple Leafs franchise for good- and the social stats don’t lie. More than a few are adopting the Seattle Kraken as their new team of choice.
With the top spot in the North Division, the blue and whites lost their Game 7 on Monday to the lowest-seeded and most hated rival Montreal Canadians. That makes five straight years of first-round exits for Toronto and one playoff appearance (2013) in the previous 11 years. They are tied with the New York Rangers for the longest drought between championships in NHL history at over a half-decade and counting. The Seattle Kraken? Hello, clean-slate fresh start.
19,754 days since a Cup.
0 days since blowing a 3-1 series lead.
6,251 days since winning a Playoff series.
464 days since losing to an AHL Zamboni driver.
33 days until setting the record for the longest Stanley Cup drought in NHL history. #LeafsForever
— Since Leafs Last Cup (@LeafsIastCup) June 1, 2021
By the numbers
The Seattle Kraken Fan Page on Facebook started in February 2018, amassing 4,875 members until the team name was revealed on July 23, 2020. Since that date, membership has grown by over 291 percent. Since the end of Monday’s Game 7, membership has increased by 0.55 percent, which is the largest single-day jump in over eight months.
That was the same day the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals began on September 19th in the Edmonton bubble. The fan page now has more members than 19 NHL clubs, all without a single game yet in the books. Also in the same one-day span, fan page members living in Canada increased 14 percent.
In their own words
One of the newest members of the Seattle NHL fan page is Roger from Oshawa, Ontario. He says he won’t be watching the Toronto Maple Leafs for the foreseeable future:
“Might as well start brand new, rather than deal with decades more of heartbreak. I’m sick of the toxic relationship. I didn’t wanna become a bandwagoner of the Avalanche, and the (Seattle) name and logo are awesome! It’s not soft like a leaf, and maybe that will show on the ice too. This year I thought there was enough grit, but clearly- I was wrong. No amount of changes can fix that franchise.”
Mike, who grew up and lives 90 minutes north of Toronto, wants a fresh start after being raised to dislike all other teams. Yesterday he went to Lids Canada and bought a Kraken hat and shirt:
“53 years without the (Stanley) Cup. 3-1 series lead to a team we had no problem within this crazy COVID season, and they blew it. I’ve been fortunate enough to see every one of my favorite teams win their respective championships. I only wanted to see them win once and then- I’m happy. Haven’t made it into the 2nd round in 18 years and the last 5 years in a row! This season was their best to actually make it to the semi-finals, and they choked.”
To be very clear, as I see this interesting migration- I’m not condoning nor condemning it. This exodus may be small, and we don’t have access to Kraken-esque analytics for fandom, but I didn’t see a push like this on Vegas fan pages before the team started play.
My personal hockey story is rooted in the Toronto Maple Leafs. It started by watching Felix Potvin on ESPN’s National Hockey Night while living in Louisiana. I grew up skating in Northern California, and during those later broadcasts-, I decided to become a goalie in the future. Toronto’s team gets some credit for my 20 years in hockey, but various moves across the country couldn’t hold me to just one team…until now.
Seattle Totems anthem singer and local wine steward Dan White hails from Nova Scotia, but the lifelong Toronto fan has lived on the West Coast for the last seven years:
“Some fans are not leaving Toronto, but rather backing the Kraken and will still support the Leafs. The truest of our fans will die bleeding blue and white, no matter what jersey they have on. The real evaluation of how many people jump ship will be when Toronto comes to Seattle for the first time. How many visiting colors will be in the stands?”
@SeattleKraken I formally give up after 47 years of following the @MapleLeafs please adopt me as a Kraken fan pic.twitter.com/RTdjIDwuV5
— Tom Spencer (@csspostal) June 1, 2021
Mike was a Toronto Maple Leafs supporter his whole life. And Roger was 25 years in before now:
“Best way I can put things is- I was in a toxic relationship, and now I’m free. Maybe I did it out of absolute rage, but it felt good the next day. Eventually, you gotta stop staring at the car accident and drive off.”
From what I’ve seen in my two decades of hockey, this sport never says you can’t go home. Now that phrase might include finding a new one.⚓