Bill Barilko disappeared that summer
He was on a fishing trip
The last goal he ever scored
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another till nineteen sixty two
The year he was discovered
I stole this from a hockey card
I keeped tucked up under
The Red Wings would get their chance to meet Toronto again in the 1950 playoffs. This series, however, had a very different ending for Toronto. During the first game, Red Wing Gordie Howe was seriously injured when he crashed into the boards, an incident involving Leafs player Theodore Kennedy. The Red Wings were furious, and swore to bring down Kennedy and the Leafs, whom they accused of deliberately causing the accident. Detroit finally succeeded in beating the Leafs in the seventh game of the series, and went on to defeat the New York Rangers in the final.
Toronto's return to the Cup final was an all-Canadian battle, with the Leafs meeting the Montreal Canadiens in 1951. Leafs defenceman Bill Barilko was credited with saving the day in game five. Despite orders from coach Joe Primeau to stay put in his defence position, Barilko scored the winning goal in overtime. (See Barilko has won the Stanley Cup for the Maple Leafs!) The win secured the series for the Leafs, and gave the team their fourth Stanley Cup in five years. Celebrations were short lived, however, as Barilko went missing in the summer following the Cup win, having never returned from a fishing trip. Convinced that their star was returning, the team began the 1951–52 season with Barilko's locker ready to go. Years later, Barilko's body, and that of his pilot friend, was found in the wreckage of an airplane crash north of Timmins.