Why Stompin’ Tom deserves Leafs’ goal song

Stompin Tom Connors sings before NHL action between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators in Toronto on Wednesday October 5, 2005.

Hello out there, Leafs Nation.

Now, I know you love you some “Harlem Shake,” the current meme soundtrack that fills the Air Canada Centre atmosphere when Nazem Kadri scores another goal.

But in the wake of Canadian icon Stompin’ Tom Connors’ death Wednesday — not to mention watching crowds in Chicago and Boston go bananas for their red-light bliss tracks –- it is high time the Toronto Maple Leafs elevate the great Connors’ “The Hockey Song” (a.k.a The Good Old Hockey Game) to official goal-song status.

Here are 20 reasons why:

1. Stompin’ Tom spent part of his childhood growing up in a prison. How’s that for truculent?

2. “The Hockey Song” is short (clocking in at a hair longer than a minor penalty at 2:06), and everyone knows the words already.

3. His first name is a damn verb.

4. The anecdotes of Stompin’ Tom’s life read like a “Bill Brasky” sketch, only kinder.

5. At age 15, Connors left his adoptive family to hitchhike across Canada, a journey that consumed the next 13 years of his life. “I’ve seen the country blade of grass by blade of grass,” he once said in a black-and-white TV interview with CBC:

6. Talk about young prospects. Connors was 11 when he wrote his first song.

7. He once opened up the 2008 NHL Awards just moments after Ron MacLean made a “sexy back” reference:

8. Connors once wrote an entire song in less than 13 minutes (“Maritime Waltz”).

9. His passing sent Canadian comedian Norm MacDonald off on a spontaneous 34-tweet tribute Wednesday night:

10. Anything is better than the inappropriate “Harlem Shake,” which is going to sound like “Who Let the Dogs Out?” soon and has already earned the Leafs at least one nod for “worst goal song” in the league.

11. Stompin’ Tom once made Conan O’Brien cover up his trademark ginger coif with a red winter toque (which, according to legend, had a maple syrup stain on it):

12. Although released back in 1973, the popularity of Connors’ tune in NHL rinks began when the Ottawa Senators started playing it during their inaugural season, so if the Leafs’ adopted Tom for good, it could add another dirty wrinkle to the Battle of Ontario.

“It wasn’t really considered cool, or even popular but I listened to the song and thought this has some possibilities,” Randy Burgess, who was in the Sens’ front office at the time, told 1310 News. “Everybody in the crowd clapped along with it as if they had been born and raised listening to the song.”

13. During a ’97 Sens-Leafs game in Ottawa, then Toronto head coach Pat Burns heard it and started pushing to have it played at Leafs games. Thus, playing it could serve as tribute to two legends passed.

14. The Leafs’ game operations crew is already all-in on Stompin’ Tom, whose signature puck anthem plays every third period of home games. Fitting that the 77-year-old passed during a Leafs-Sens game:

15. Despite being open to licensing the anthem to CBC when the network lost its indelible “The Hockey Theme” that opened up Hockey Night in Canada until 2008, the Connors song went unclaimed.

16. The Hanson Bros. covered it:

17. Dude also has a CFL song, a fact which is arguably more Canadian than writing “The Hockey Song.”

18. Stompin’ Tom is all about the fans. Knowing he was at death’s door, he wrote a letter to his:

Hello friends,

I want all my fans, past, present, or future, to know that without you, there would have not been any Stompin’ Tom.

It was a long hard bumpy road, but this great country kept me inspired with its beauty, character, and spirit, driving me to keep marching on and devoted to sing about its people and places that make Canada the greatest country in the world.

I must now pass the torch, to all of you, to help keep the Maple Leaf flying high, and be the Patriot Canada needs now and in the future.

I humbly thank you all, one last time, for allowing me in your homes, I hope I continue to bring a little bit of cheer into your lives from the work I have done.

Sincerely,

Your Friend always,

Stompin’ Tom Connors

19. Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf: “That’s probably the greatest hockey song ever made.”

20. He closed down Maple Leafs Square Garden by singing “The Hockey Song,” for goodness sakes. And, true to his crowd-pleasing spirit, Tom switched up the lyrics to give nods to the Leafs and their historic old barn.

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