TORONTO — Longtime Maple Leafs play-by-play man Joe Bowen is calling out the team’s fans for not showing enough passion during Wednesday’s Game 3 loss to Boston, saying the sellout crowd at Scotiabank Arena was “very disappointing.”
Bowen chastised the crowd of 19,423 for its lack of energy toward the end of a 4-2 loss during his radio call on “TSN 1050” and later followed it up with a post from his personal account on X.
The idea of going
To any sporting event
To support the home team is to
Be PRO ACTIVE!!!
Give the team energy when they need it Not sitting down waiting
To be REACTIVE. The players can’t say it but I will tonight’s crowd was VERY DISAPPOINTING— Joe Bowen (@Bonsie1951) April 25, 2024
“The idea of going to any sporting event to support the home team is to be PROACTIVE!!!” Bowen wrote. “Give the team energy when they need it. Not sitting down waiting to be REACTIVE.
“The players can’t say it but I will. Tonight’s crowd was VERY DISAPPOINTING.”
Reached Thursday via text, Bowen told The Athletic that he had already said his piece on the matter and wanted to leave it at that.
Bowen first started calling Leafs games in 1982 and has provided the soundtrack to more than 3,000 of the team’s games. As in previous years, he and analyst Jim Ralph weren’t on the road this season — calling road games off television from a Toronto studio — but they did travel to Boston for the first two games of this series at TD Garden.
Upon returning home for Game 3, the Leafs took a 1-0 lead but couldn’t hold it. The loudest sequence inside the building arguably came during a shift late in the first period that featured some thundering hits, culminating with one from Ryan Reaves on Pavel Zacha.
Asked about Bowen’s comments Thursday, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said his head was pounding after the game because he found himself yelling over the crowd noise so much.
“I found it quite loud in there last night,” Keefe said. “There’s a number of times that it’s hard even calling out lines. You’ve got to scream the lines and you’ve got to kind of move up and down the bench to make sure players are hearing and you’re communicating properly. So, from my perspective, I didn’t see that as an issue at all. In fact, there were some moments in the game where they got extremely loud, but yeah, clearly that’s important.
“It’s this time of year. It’s hard and there’s not much between the teams and the players are given everything that they have. So that extra boost is really important.”
The Leafs were one of just four NHL teams that registered more wins on the road (24) than at home (22) this season — joining the Nashville Predators, New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Dating to last spring, they are now 1-6 in playoff games held at Scotiabank Arena.
Toronto trails Boston 2-1 in the series heading into Game 4 at home on Saturday night.
(Photo: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
