Rejoice, Leafs Nation, your Toronto Maple Leafs have earned their ticket to Lord Stanley’s Spring Fling. It has been a long wait for Leafs fans, who have waited patiently through over-hyped goalies, and road weary veterans, to finally make it back to the post-season on the shoulders of a team created by a GM that was fired at the start of the season.

Let’s take a stroll through the world and see just how much has changed since last we saw the Leafs in a playoff handshake line.

On February 4th, 2004, Facebook officially launched. However it was only open to University Students in its early days.Who knew that it would become part of the fabric of our daily lives? On March 21st, 2006, Twitter launched, and within a couple of years was joined by other social media sites such as Linkedin. I wonder if Brian Burke is looking for networking opportunities via Linkedin. We also didn’t have Youtube which launched in February 2005.

NASA launched the Messenger probe to study the scorched planet, Mercury. It was captured into Mercury’s orbit in 2011. The Mars landers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars, and later discovered that water was present at one time on the Red Planet.

Since 2004, Apple has become a household name. The rise of the iPod (originally released 2001 and still in its early days in 2004), iPhone (originally released 2007), Apple TV (also released 2007), and the iPad (released 2010). Speaking of the iPhone, the phenomenon known as the smartphone has opened new worlds of communication, and still allows people to do dumb things with technology, as well. Smartphone manufacturer Blackberry and RIM has risen and fallen from favor. Google was not a verb yet. Microsoft has released 3 different versions of their Windows OS.

Speaking of iPods, the selling of Music Albums (CDs) was still a thing in 2004. Top Selling Albums were Confessions by Usher, Under my Skin by Avril Lavigne, and In the Zone by Britney Spears.

The financial world was shaken by the price of gas breaking above $2 US per gallon. A pack of cigarettes was about $4.65, depending on what part of the continent you were on. A gallon of milk was around $2 US. The average price of McDonalds’ hugely popular Big Mac sandwich was $3 globally. Now, the global average price of a Big Mac is $6.25.

We will all mostly be watching the NHL playoffs in beautiful High Definition come May. In 2004, most of us here in the US watched the playoffs on tube TVs, and that made the poor ESPN coverage even worse. CBC didn’t even broadcast the 2004 playoff run in HD. Since then, there is at least one flat panel tv in almost every home (this writer has 3), and there are few regular season games not available in HD. We’ve even had some games broadcast in 3D. Not only that, the NHL has launched its own TV channel, its own satellite radio channel, and has opened up its own retail face in midtown Manhattan. The NHL has also locked out its players twice, but we won’t linger on that.

In 2004, George Bush was running for re-election against the current US secretary of state John Kerry. Lehman Brothers was still a financial giant. The CEO and CFO of Tyco International were still on trial for skimming “a little” off the top. International forces were still in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, and he was finally found and killed, with the first black US President watching in the White House situation room.

In 2004, the Mayor of Toronto was Mel Lastman. We’ve had 2 new mayors in the city since the Leafs last made the playoffs.

In 2004, the John Paul II was still the reigning Pontiff in the Vatican, we’ve had 2 new Popes since the Leafs last made the playoffs.

In movies, the highest grossing films of the year were Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Spiderman-2. The Oscar for best picture went to Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, while Best Actor was Sean Penn for Mystic River, and Best Actress went to Charlize Therron for Monster.

On TV the year saw the premiers of the shows Lost, House, CSI: NY, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, and Entourage. It saw the end of series such as Friends, Frasier, and Sex in the City, as well as the end of Tom Brokaw’s run as anchor on NBC Nightly News. Top rated shows were American Idol, CSI, and Survivor. The top rated network was CBS. The year featured the start of Ken Jennings long winning streak on Jeopardy!.

In other sports, the Patriots won their 3rd Superbowl, Lebron James was playing high school basketball while the Detroit Pistons were winning the NBA Championship. The Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, with Curt Schilling’s bloody sock as a major story.

In 2004, Leaf forward Nazem Kadri was 12, forward James van Riemsdyk was 13, goalie James Reimer was 14, and Ben Scrivens was 16. Sidney Crosby was not in the league yet. Since 2004, Jaromir Jagr has played for 4 different teams, and in the middle of that, left the league entirely for a time. Since 2004, the Phoenix Coyotes have had about 42 different owners and suitors, have been mentioned in relocation talk approximately once for every living soul on planet Earth. The Winnipeg Jets were still a promising young team in Atlanta, featuring Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Marc Savard. Since the Leafs last made the playoffs, the NHL has suffered not one, but two long lockouts, losing a season and a half in the process.

In the 2003-04 season, NHL legends like Mark Messier, Brett Hull, and Mario Lemieux were still playing. Current Dallas Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk was part of the 2004 Leafs team, as were Brian Leetch and Ron Francis. Current NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan was a member of the Red Wings. Meanwhile the NHL ruled that Todd Bertuzzi would miss the playoffs for trying to kill Steve Moore. Andrew Raycroft was Rookie of the Year. The Tampa Bay Lightning had a real goalie and won the Stanley Cup and the Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Washington Capitals were amongst the league’s worst teams. Joe Thornton was still a Bruin, Marian Gaborik still on the Wild, Jose Theodore still a Hab, Chris Pronger still a Blue, and Jeremy Roenick was the Flyer who scored the OT goal on Ed Belfour that ended the Leafs playoff run.

“Wow”, is all that comes to mind. It certainly took them long enough. Leafs’ fans certainly hope it won’t take another 9 years to clinch their next playoff spot, and with the young talent we see today, we certainly don’t think it will. I suppose we could take this one step further and list the major events that have happened since they last won the Cup in 1967. Nah… I don’t have time to write it, and you sure as hell don’t have time to read it.

Thanks for reading – as always feel free to leave comments below and follow me on twitter @BigMick99. Give the rest of the hockey department a follow while you’re at it – @lastwordBKerr, @IswearGaa and @LastWordOnNHL, and follow the site @lastwordonsport.

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