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Borje Salming's passion unites Maple Leafs fans

Yahoo Sports Canada Videos

Maple Leafs fans united on an emotional evening in Toronto on Saturday as the team honoured all-time great Borje Salming, who was diagnosed with ALS this summer.

Video Transcript

- Who's got the passion? When it comes to passion I think the one name that comes up is Jordie Benn who hilariously scored his first goal as a Leaf in his first game on the Leafs this season. Which was interesting because at first, it was bad because TJ Brodie was out. Then he scores his goal and then everyone loses it. Auston Matthews has some passion moments there.

He had a great celebration. Jordie Benn just didn't know what to do. Leafs Twitter went nuts reacting to Jordie Benn scoring. So that in itself was hilarious.

When it comes to the fans, there's a nice little clip of a fan in the stands after Engvall's goal saying, that's what I'm talking about, because the team wasn't playing that well, and they started playing better. But focusing greater on the fans I think we've all had a lot of passionate moments, especially when it comes to who we've been honoring over the last couple of days now, and that is Borje Salming.

And he has gotten so many standing ovations and applause and just recognition of a great career and being a great member of this organization. I don't think that we spend a lot of time talking about what Borje Salming did for the Toronto Maple Leafs, for European players overall.

Yes, we talk about Wendel Clark, and Doug Gilmour, and Darryl Sittler, and Lanny McDonald. But I think we need to start talking a lot more about Salming and what he did for the organization, and again, what he did for all of these players. And him being honored ahead of these games and just seeing all the emotion, and the excitement, and the joy from the fans, from the players, from him himself, I think was an amazing moment that bonded all of us together.

So congrats to Salming. He continues to be an amazing beacon for hockey in this city. And I'm glad the Leafs were able to get a win for him that night.