As Richard J. Brennan of the Toronto Star points out, the Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup 45 years ago today.
Yes, that’s right -- it was May 2, 1967 when the Leafs beat the Canadiens 3-1 in the sixth and deciding game of the finals. Jim Pappin scored the winning goal, Terry Sawchuk stopped 41 shots and Dave Keon won the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP.
Since then, a few things have happened (yeah, just a few).
Brennan was kind enough to point out a few of the more notables.
The Beatles released their Sergeant Pepper album in June of 1967 and three years later broke up.
Life expectancy has climbed to 80.66 years in 2009 from 72.21 years when the Leafs last drank from the cup.
The first countertop microwave was introduced in 1967.
Man landed on the moon in July 1969.
The bar code scanner, ATM and the first Internet were introduced in 1969.
Republican U.S. President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974 before being impeached; Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1980.
Toronto’s CN Tower, completed in 1976, has won and lost the title of the tallest structure in the world.
The dreaded Berlin Wall that divided East Berlin and West Berlin came tumbling down in 1989, spelling the beginning of the end for the once mighty Soviet Union.
The World Trade Center in New York was built and opened in 1973; it was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Wonder if Leafs fans are worried about this list eventually featuring things like “Man buys house on Mars” and “Teleporter changes face of transportation.”
Or, “Vancouver wins Stanley Cup.”