Maple Leafs Move Game Time to Support Blue Jays Playoff Run

Major League Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, announced an agreement to start their Thanksgiving game, October 13th against the Detroit Red Wings, from 4pm to 2pm EST.

The game's original slot clashed with the first game of the Toronto Blue Jays American League Championship Series scheduled at the same time. The Blue Jays will play the winner of the other Division Series between the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners.

If the Tigers were to progress to the ALCS, it would create a double scheduling conflict for Detroit fans as well as Toronto's.

The Blue Jays progressed to the ALCS after defeating the New York Yankees in four games, the team's Game 4 having been on at the same time as the Leafs season opener vs Montreal, with the end of the game having been shown at Scotiabank Arena after the conclusion of the Leafs game.

Although Canada is well known as a living, breathing hockey country, Toronto has a strong history in recent years of supporting their other teams, with loyalty spreading beyond just the game of hockey.

Toronto's focus in 2019 had shifted from the Leafs to the Toronto Raptors as the team celebrated their first ever NBA title, the victory parade attended by over a million people.

The Blue Jays had their taste of support between 2015-2016 for two consecutive playoff appearances in the ALCS, and in a time where the Leafs had been struggling making them even more of the city's focus, truly shifting the scales of a hockey city to a Toronto sports one.

Toronto's diverse population has played a large part in the foundations of support for other sports within the city beyond hockey, bringing new traditions and fanbases that have come to be embraced by the city as a whole.

The Blue Jays will have the 4PM time slot on Sportsnet, with the winner of the ALCS taking on the NLCS champion, between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the winner of the Chicago Cubs/Milwaukee Brewers series.

The mutual respect between the Leafs and Jays is one symbol of how Toronto is united beyond the game of hockey, and how sports has grown to become a city where multiple teams are rooted for to succeed.