‘Not moving at all’: NHL players walk to Leafs game as traffic snarls bus | Globalnews.ca

Toronto traffic strikes again.

With their team bus held up by the city’s congestion, members of the Utah Hockey Club ditched their bus and walked to Scotiabank Arena Sunday to make their NHL game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In a video posted on the team’s TikTok, the players, dressed in their suits, can be seen walking through the downtown core, where Scotiabank Arena is located.

Defenceman Maveric Lamoureux said it was a “first” for them.

“Walking pre-game to get to the rink because there’s way too much traffic,” he said in the video.

“The bus is not moving at all, so it’s pretty much the whole team walking the street. … That’s a first for everyone; never saw that before.”

The traffic snarl caught the eye of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who called the situation “embarrassing” Monday morning.

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“It’s just unacceptable,” he told reporters at an unrelated news conference. Ford then went on list what his government is attempting to do to elevate traffic woes.

At a separate, unrelated news conference Monday morning, Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters the Santa Claus parade, which ran through downtown, was just finishing at the time the players were going to the rink.

“That whole area was jammed, and it was just because of that reason,” she said.

While it may be a first for the Utah players, it’s not the first time a professional athlete or a celebrity has talked about the city’s traffic.

In July, IndyCar driver Lochie Hughes said he needed to find a quicker way to make it to the event’s press conference on time.

“I got stuck in traffic as well, so I actually rented a bike to get here in time and then ran the rest of the way,” he told reporters on July 18.

Furthermore, at the end of June, former One Direction star Niall Horan posted a video to X, that showed him jumping out of his car to get to Scotiabank Arena for a concert.

The video includes the singer looking into the camera and saying, “Traffic’s too bad in Toronto, so we’re walking to the venue.”

To add insult to injury on Sunday, Utah left Toronto with a loss as the Maple Leafs won the game 3-2.

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