The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors qualified for the playoffs in the same year, Drake was a recently bar mitzvah芒鈧劉d 14-year-old and Mats Sundin was the toast of the town. In other words, the number 6 was just the number 6, and hockey, not basketball, was the unifying sport of Canada芒鈧劉s largest city.

Sixteen years later, the Leafs and the Raptors have at long last made the playoffs in the same post-season, but the city芒鈧劉s sports fandom has shifted in major fashion.

Though we are still undeniably hockey obsessed, 芒鈧揃eleaf,芒鈧� the signature motto of Leafs mania, is a phrase far less seen and heard on the streets of Toronto than 芒鈧揥e the North芒鈧�: the signature motto of Raps fans. It芒鈧劉s not a stretch to say that Raptors fandom today is younger and hipper than Leafs hockey fandom. This may have something to do with the fact that buying tickets to Leafs games at the Air Canada Centre on a regular basis is a financial feat almost as unattainable for a young person as buying a house.

Raptors games, on the other hand, are affordable and alive. The stands are young, diverse and ecstatic throughout. They aren芒鈧劉t stacked with serious guys in suits, nor are they temporarily empty as they often are at Leafs games because said men are having a whiskey in the lounge or worse, they haven芒鈧劉t even bothered to show up, leaving their bazillion-dollar seats vacant.

If I sound bitter about the Leafs, I芒鈧劉m not. I love the team; I芒鈧劉m just not crazy about the culture that surrounds them. And I find the popular suggestion by pious Leafs fans that 芒鈧揾ockey is Toronto芒鈧劉s game芒鈧� increasingly hollow and a little snobbish.

Last month, during the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament (the American college basketball tournament that turns basketball fans worldwide into temporary problem gamblers), my social media feed lit up with complaints by Leafs fans who couldn芒鈧劉t believe how many Toronto sports bars were showing basketball on their big screen TVs instead of Leafs games, especially when the hockey team was at a crucial moment in the season, trying to clinch a playoff spot. Their frustration in a sentence: 芒鈧揟his is Canada 芒鈧�� why is basketball taking up all the valuable screen space at our bars?芒鈧�

Pragash Sritharan, a manager at Hoops Sports Bar and Grill in downtown Toronto (an eight-minute walk from the ACC) says he has seen his fair share of this frustration first hand. 芒鈧揥e haven芒鈧劉t had serious confrontations,芒鈧� he says, 芒鈧揵ut people did ask (during March Madness) 芒鈧淲hy can芒鈧劉t we have the volume on for the Leafs games?芒鈧劉芒鈧�

That芒鈧劉s Canadian hockey fan entitlement for you: the tenacity to walk into a bar called Hoops and wonder aloud why everyone is watching basketball.

芒鈧揧ou can芒鈧劉t please everyone all the time,芒鈧� Sritharan says. But you can try. I spoke with a few other sports bar managers and owners in Toronto and most said that this playoff season, they芒鈧劉re giving big-screen TV priority to whichever Toronto team is playing at the ACC that night.

Kristin McNeill, owner of Round the Horn, a sports bar in Toronto芒鈧劉s west end, says she芒鈧劉ll give big-screen TV and volume privileges to whichever game is higher stakes. 芒鈧揑f it芒鈧劉s a do-or-die game for the Leafs,芒鈧� McNeill says, 芒鈧搕hen that goes on.芒鈧� And if it芒鈧劉s a do-or-die game for the Raptors, then it芒鈧劉s Raptors on the big screen. (She is hoping hard that these scenarios do not overlap).

At my local sports bar, the Dog and Bear Pub in west-end Toronto, manager Shayne Cox says he will likely play whatever game is at home that night, regardless of sport. 芒鈧揧ou can芒鈧劉t blindly be 芒鈧渢his is Canada, this is hockey芒鈧劉,芒鈧� he says.

And yet, that芒鈧劉s how so many of us are, when in fact, if there芒鈧劉s a professional sports team that represents Canada at large it isn芒鈧劉t a hockey team: It芒鈧劉s the Toronto Raptors or the Blue Jays. Ironically, it芒鈧劉s precisely the absence of a basketball and baseball presence nationwide that lends the two traditionally American sports a unified Canadian identity. The Leafs are a Toronto team, but the Raptors and the Jays are Canadian teams. Their fan bases span coast to coast; Canadians travel from different provinces and cities to Toronto to attend their games. Or they go elsewhere. Blue Jays fans in Vancouver have been flocking to Seattle to watch the Jays play the Mariners for years. The Raptors played an exhibition game against the Denver Nuggets in Calgary last year, a matchup that sold out among Calgary Raptors fans seconds after the tickets went on sale. Last year the operations manager of Basketball Nova Scotia told Metro news that there was a 芒鈧搒ignificant correlation芒鈧� between the success of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA playoffs and youth enrolment in the province芒鈧劉s basketball programs.

In other words, when the Raptors or the Jays make the post season, Toronto doesn芒鈧劉t get excited; Canada does.

The statement a true Canadian sports patriot might make, then, upon entering a Toronto sports bar this spring isn芒鈧劉t 芒鈧揾ey, why isn芒鈧劉t the Leafs game on?芒鈧� but 芒鈧揟urn up the volume on the Raps game.芒鈧�

Emma Teitel is a national affairs columnist.