Dion Phaneuf spent parts of seven seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He wore the “C” and probably thought he’d been in Toronto for a long, long time after signing a seven-year contract extension back in 2014. That didn’t quite work out as he was one of the major casualties of the Maple Leafs’ rebuild, getting shipped to the rival Ottawa Senators on Feb. 9.
Saturday night was his first game back in Toronto since the deal, wearing rival colors. Like most teams do for former players that had a meaningful tenure with the club, the Leafs honored Phaneuf with a video tribute to thank him for his years there. It actually made Phaneuf pretty emotional, as it appeared there may have been a few tears from the former captain.
Phaneuf took a little twirl through center ice to give the crowd a wave, clearly touched by the warm welcome.
;Then it was back to business. The Senators ended up scoring almost immediately after the little tribute with Bobby Ryan collecting a turnover in front of Toronto’s net and roofing a shot to give the Sens a 1-0 lead over their Ontario rivals.
Not long after that, Phaneuf found himself tangled up with Maple Leafs forward Colin Greening, who was one of the many players included in the package Ottawa sent to Toronto for Phaneuf. They were getting into all the way down the ice. Shortly after Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier made a save to get a whistle, Phaneuf and Greening dropped the gloves.
It appears Phaneuf was experiencing different emotions at this point (via hockeyfights.com):
The fight didn’t last long, but both guys were really throwing the punches before Greening scored the take down.
So, uh, welcome back, Dion!
