Maple Leafs enjoying Blue Jays’ success and being in baseball team’s shadow

TORONTO – The Maple Leafs are winless in their first three games, and few sports fans in Toronto seem to notice.

There’s lower expectations on the rebuilding Leafs, but the Blue Jays’ playoff success has overshadowed the start of the hockey season at the perfect time for coach Mike Babcock’s team.

“You just slide around town and no one even knows you’re alive,” Babcock said.

The Leafs are going about their jobs in relative anonymity while Toronto and the rest of Canada bask in the glow of the Blue Jays’ first post-season appearance since 1993. The Leafs’ players are fans themselves, and about a dozen went to the decisive Game 5 of the American League Division Series on Wednesday when the Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 6-3 in a roller-coaster thriller.

Winger Joffrey Lupul, who played for the Philadelphia Flyers when the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, called Wednesday’s game maybe the best sporting event he has ever attended. Friends from the U.S. texted him to ask about the crazy atmosphere inside Rogers Centre.

Leafs players got caught up in it.

“Just to attend was insane,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “I think that’s the only time that, me personally, I’ve ever jumped around and hugged other fans and stuff like that.”

Sitting in the first row of the second deck in left field, centres Nazem Kadri and Nick Spaling were a few feet away from catching the ball Jose Bautista hit for a three-run home run in the memorable seventh inning.

“We would’ve been jumping over the railing maybe to catch it,” Spaling said. “That would’ve been a nice ball to catch, too. I missed it, blew my shot.”

Babcock would’ve had no issue with Kadri or Spaling going for it, saying: “I think you’d want to catch that ball.”

Back at the rink for practice Thursday in preparation for back-to-back games at the Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins, the Leafs were still abuzz about the Blue Jays’ big victory that sent them to the AL Championship Series.

Rielly and Jake Gardiner were talking about how that game compared to others they’ve attended and some they’ve played in. Kadri likened it to games in the Leafs’ first-round series against the Boston Bruins in 2013.

But as the Leafs go about learning how to play for Babcock, the Blue Jays have the lion’s share of the attention. Babcock loves that, and players don’t seem to mind, either.

“All my interviews now I just talk about the Blue Jays,” Lupul said. “I don’t have to talk about hockey, so that’s nice.”

Babcock said after the Blue Jays clinched the AL East that he wanted Toronto’s baseball team to go on a run to take the heat off the Leafs early on. Even though that’s working, Rielly said players aren’t “jealous” of the Blue Jays or treating the situation any differently because the spotlight isn’t as glaring as it usually is.

“We’re going about our business like we always do,” Rielly said. “There’s always a spotlight here in Toronto. … We’re just kind of minding our business, doing what we have to do to get ready for games.”

But Lupul said he doesn’t believe anything bad can come of the Leafs watching the Blue Jays in the playoffs. Babcock agreed.

“I think it’s great for our players to feel how excited the fans actually get when you put together a winner,” the coach said. “You want to be part of winning. It’s more fun and makes you dig in harder and makes you not want to accept anything less.”

Notes — Babcock said goaltender James Reimer will start Friday at Columbus and Jonathan Bernier Saturday at Pittsburgh. … Forward Shawn Matthias is set to return to the lineup after missing one game with a shoulder injury. … Scott Harrington is expected to replace Martin Marincin on the blue line.

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