How has the Leafs’ Saturday performance the night before affected the last five Argonauts Grey Cup appearances?

The Toronto Argonauts are playing in the Grey Cup tonight against the Calgary Stampeders.

As a Toronto-based blog, of course, we have to support them. But because it’s the Leafs, let’s find a way to make their eventual success about the Leafs. The Leafs, of course, lost last night. The Leafs also play on Saturday nights every week. This is a fact that cannot be disputed. The CFL is a league that plays its regular season schedule all over the map, but always, always plays its Grey Cup on Sunday.

So let’s set out to answer: how has the Leafs performance on Saturday night affected the Argonauts in the Grey Cup the next day?

We’ll take a look at the last five times the Argonauts have played in the Grey Cup, and look for some sort of correlation:

The Argonauts were 9-9, finished second in the East Division, and were lead by… Ricky Ray, who’s still quarterbacking them five years later.

The Stampeders, at 12-6, were the clear favourites. They did not win. A 17-point second quarter, including an interception return for a TD from Pacino Horne pushed the Argonauts to victory. In the 100th Grey Cup, played on home turf, no less, this was a storybook ending to a season that could’ve easily been forgotten.

Chad Kackert was named the game’s MVP, after rushing for 133 yards. It was the only professional sports championship that was presented in Toronto during Rob Ford’s mayor tenure.

The Leafs did not play on Saturday, the 24th. In case you forgot, there was a lockout.

The Toronto Marlies did however play both the day of, and the night before the Grey Cup. They lost 2-1 to Wilkes-Barre Scranton and 4-2 to Hershey. Matt Frattin, Mark Fraser, and Will Acton scored for the Marlies. Nazem Kadri and Jake Gardiner were in the lineup both days.

Verdict: 0/1 so far. Despite the Leafs having a fantastic national TV audience on Saturday nights, there’s not much you can do when there’s no league.

With legendary coach Michael “Pinball” Clemons coaching the Double Blue, the BC Lions were NO MATCH for the big boys from Toronto. You may have seen this speech over the million times TSN has shown it over the years.

The Argonauts were 10-7-1 in the regular season, while the Lions were 13-5.

Oddly, the Argos also scored 17 points in the 2nd quarter. Argonauts quarterback and all-time legend Damon Allen picked up the game’s Most Valuable Player award, after running for a pair of 1-yard touchdowns and briefly leaving the game with a leg injury.

The Tragically Hip played the halftime show, which is pretty sweet. 13 seconds before halftime, Toronto receiver Robert Baker (no relation to guitarist Robert Baker, of the Tragically Hip) scored a touchdown to put the Argos up 17-10.

Here’s their show:

BC QB Dave Dickenson ran for a touchdown in the 4th quarter to cut the lead to 5, but the failed two-point conversion kept the more-than-a-field-goal lead in place for the Argonauts.

Noel Prefontaine added a field goal in the game’s final minutes, and Toronto won the Grey Cup.

The Leafs did not play. There was a lockout.

The St. John’s Maple Leafs beat the Edmonton Roadrunners 3-2 in a shootout the day of the Grey Cup.  It was the first and last year of the Edmonton Roadrunners, who had just moved from Toronto.  Oddly, it was also the last year of the St. John’s Maple Leafs, who were about to move to Toronto (and become the Marlies).

Matt Stajan was on the St. John’s Maple Leafs, as was Kyle Wellwood, Harold Druken, and a bunch of other random guys. The game was played at Rexall Place, which is a little exciting since it’s always fun to beat Edmonton there.

0/2 so far. This theory is falling apart fast, and the Argos really like lockout years for some reason.

The Argos dominated this one, scoring five touchdowns and entered the fourth quarter up 41-9.

The team was star studded: Doug Flutie, Pinball Clemons, Mike Vanderjagt and finished the regular season with a 15-3 record. Flutie picked up the game’s MVP, which was fitting because he threw for 350 yards and dominated the h*ck out of the Riders.

Trooper played the halftime show. Was it a good time? Was it a long time? Well, it was one of the two.

Plus there was this great catch:

The Leafs were blown out 5-0 by Pittsburgh at home. The loss pushed them to 6-9-3. Not surprisingly, that season, they missed the playoffs. Mats Sundin led the team in scoring with 74 points. Next closest was Mike Johnson with 47 points. Tie Domi racked up 365 penalty minutes, if that’s your thing. Jaromir Jagr was not in the lineup, while Mario Lemieux was currently in his first stage of retirement from the NHL due to cancer treatment.

0/3. Still time for a comeback, or at least two wins from when the Leafs were, you know, playing in the NHL. But could you really have expected them to beat the 1997 Penguins? Like c’mon. The Leafs took 11 penalties.

Maybe we did this backwards, but the 1996 team was very similar to the 1997 team. They also finished 15-3, and also had largely the same contingent of stars.

The Argos’ Jimmy Cunningham had a 80-yard punt return touchdown in the second quarter to tie the game at 9 (before the conversion, which put them ahead.) Mike Vanderjagt hit five field goals on the day.

No one scored in the third quarter, which was a little weird.

Other things that happened were a 49-yard interception return touchdown by Adrion Smith with a little over a minute to go, which put the Argonauts up by 12 (13 after the conversion.)

Oh, also it was snowing out there like a MF. Here’s some video:

The Leafs lost at home to the Canadiens. After the score was 3-3 after 40 minutes, Marc Bureau scored the winner off a feed from… Shayne Corson. It was Corson’s third point of the night. The Leafs fell to 9-13-0. They finished with 68 points that season, good enough for 6th (last) in the Western Conference’s Central Division.

Remember when the Leafs played in the West? What a time to be alive.

Verdict: 0/4. This theory’s looking either awful, or great. Not sure which.

There were a lot of talking points about this game.

You could discuss the 50-yard pick-six touchdown by Toronto’s Ed Berry on Calgary’s first passing attempt of the game.

You could talk about how the Argonauts were owned by Wayne Gretzky, John Candy, and LA Kings owner Bruce McNall at the time.

But the Argos of 1991 were defined by one player: Raghib “Rocket” Ismail.

When Calgary scored a touchdown that made the score 22-21 (for the Argos) in the fourth quarter, Ismail, an All-American, who was making over $4 million a season as he was a “marquee player”, returned the ensuing kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown. In his only Grey Cup appearance, this was the moment that sealed his legacy. 

Talk about momentum!

Paul Masotti caught a 36-yard TD pass later in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach, as the Argos won the Grey Cup.

The Leafs did not play on Saturday.

They played in San Jose on Friday, the 22nd, a 3-1 win. In their 24th game of the season, it was their sixth victory of the year. Their next game was Tuesday, the 26th, in Los Angeles. Horrible scheduling. Highlights of that season were few, but it was known as the year the Leafs acquired Doug Gilmour from Calgary. Drake Berehowsky also made his NHL debut, but not in that game.

Craig Berube scored the winning goal over San Jose, assisted by Mike Foligno and Bob Rouse.

0/5. The Leafs may have won their previous game before, but it was not on a Saturday. That just about wraps it up.

The Argonauts have won the last five times they’ve been in the Grey Cup, and the Leafs have never won the night before in any of these wins. We could stretch out this analysis further, but it’s already pretty ridiculous. If anyone would like to continue it in the comments below, please go ahead.

Kick some butt, Argonauts. We’re all rooting for you, and the Leafs even lost last night to help you out.