The last time I knew anything about the Leafs I was playing NHL 95 on sega genesis. I know this doesn't help, but they were pretty fun to play with
Actually to use a hockey analogy, I see the Jets kind of like the Pittsburgh Penguins. We had the big star (Namath) like Lemieux, won a championship (Pens had their two), yet also had enough credibility destorying debacles like the Pens to keep us from ever entering the top tier.
The NHL is a little different than the NFL As I fell you have correctly stated, the teams that founded the NHL, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, NY, Philadelphia and Boston, in most people's minds are the "Core" of the league and the rest of the league are the "Other" teams. (I probably have missed a couple of the orignal team, I'm not a hockey fan) The difference with the NFL is that there were the old NFL "Core" teams, Giants, Dallas, Washiington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh that are kind of viewed like the "Core" NHL teams, but at the same time there are the old AFL "Core" teams from when the AFL was a separate league, Jets, Bills, Buffalo, Raiders, Dolphins, Broncos. Teams that moved around that may have at one time been "Core" teams kind of lost that status when they moved....Cardinals used to be in St Louis, Rams used to be in LA, Colts used to be in Baltimore, Titans used to be the Oilers and of course the botch job of the Browns (Of Clevland Origin) becoming the Ravens and then Cleveland being revived as an expansion team. These as far as I'm concerned are like the expansion teams. Of course this has nothing to do with attendance, or loyalty of the the fans. It is also because I'm old enough to have seen all these changes. I'd be interested to hear from people who really haven't experienced the Baltimore Colts, LA Rams era.
I think the fact that myself and other people my age that are on this site did not have the chance to experience the merger or alot of the expensions/changes made to the league has contributed to the inability to get a feel for the NFL team prestige environment.
