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If Doug Gilmour was a vindictive chap, he would have been sitting in his seats at the east end of the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night heckling referee Kerry Fraser.
But he’s not.
Not anymore, anyway.
And he hopes that angry Toronto fans will follow his lead and cut Fraser some slack, even if many in Leafs Nation still consider the veteran referee to be Public Enemy
No. 1.
“Please, let it go,” Gilmour said. “It’s over.
“The man’s retiring. For the sake of his sanity, let it go.”
Easier said than done.
Some people, it seems, can’t forgive that easily, let alone forget.
Even as Fraser was preparing to officiate his final NHL in Toronto Saturday night, there still was the odd stinging heckle.
“Hey Fraser, where’s your buddy, Gretzky?”
“Thanks for costing us the Cup, @#%^@&*&!”
Those were just a couple of the verbal jabs heard at the ACC.
And they came during the pre-game warmup prior to the Leafs-New York Rangers game.
Fraser, preparing to officiate his 1,829th NHL tilt, didn’t hear them. Officials are not on the ice for pre-game skates.
On this night, that still didn’t stop the odd leather-lunged louse from ripping into him.
Such is Kerry Fraser’s dubious legacy in these parts.
As he prepares to retire from his illustrious career, Fraser will forever be known for The Call. Or, more importantly, The Missed Call.
It was Game 6 of the 1993 Western Conference final between Gilmour’s Leafs and Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings at the Great Western Forum. The Leafs, up by a 3-2 margin in the series, needed just one more victory for their first appearance in the Stanley Cup final since 1967. More importantly, a win would set up a matchup with the rival Montreal Canadiens in a best-of-seven showdown for all the marbles.
With the game in overtime, The Great One high-sticked Gilmour in the face, causing blood to begin oozing. Here was the Leafs’ opportunity to win the series on the power play. Here was a chance to end this thing with No. 99 sitting in the sin bin.
Only Fraser didn’t make the call.
Now, seventeen years later, even Fraser quipped that, after watching the replays: “I have a hard time forgiving myself.”
Of course, that’s hardly much consolation for many long-suffering souls who worship the blue-and-white, especially when Gretzky scored shortly after The Missed Call, extending the series.
The Kings would win
Game 7 back at Maple Leaf Gardens, with Gretzky referring to it as “the best game I ever played.” It forever would cement Fraser’s role as one of the most dastardly villains to ever be loathed by an entire fan base.
Of course, almost two decades have passed since then, enough time, according to Gilmour, to let bygones be bygones.
“Listen, I understand how passionate the fans are,” Gilmour said. “To this day they still come up to me and say: “You guys had it.”
If not for the missed call, that is.
“Here’s the thing. If you told me prior to that season we would have a Game 7 on home ice with a chance to get to the final, I’d have jumped at that chance. That’s exactly what happened. And we didn’t get it done.
“Here’s another thing. I don’t blame (Fraser). Yeah, he missed a call. But so did the linesmen. And, back then, right in the Forum, you were not going to kick Wayne Gretzky out of the game. It was not going to happen.”
Gilmour was not on hand at the ACC to see Fraser’s farewell to Toronto. Now the coach of the OHL Frontenacs, Gilmour and his team were en route to Brampton, where Kingston, trailing 3-2 in its first-round series, faces the Battalion in Game 6 on Sunday afternoon.
But he did make one final observation about a trait he and Fraser did share over the years.
“We both had bad hair!”
mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca