Stanley Cup playoffs 2023 - Meet the anti-fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs - ESPN

Dani Di Giusto and her father, Erv, have two favorite teams: The Montreal Canadiens and literally anyone that plays the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Watch any Leafs home game when an opponent scores and the cameras will inevitably find them. They were the enthusiastic fans in the Florida Panthers jerseys at Game 1 and the ones dressed in Tampa Bay Lightning sweaters in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They're the invading Senators fans. They're the lone Coyotes fans. The Seattle Kraken are still fairly new the NHL, but father and daughter repped their jerseys when they skated at Scotiabank Arena.

Erv Di Giusto started the tradition all the way back when the Leafs were playing at Maple Leaf Gardens, attending games while wearing an opponents' jersey. Overall, he's been showing up to cheer against the Leafs for around 40 years, with a collection of jerseys from around the NHL.

Dani Di Giusto almost has a full collection of jerseys, too. She was a youth hockey goalie who idolized Carey Price and watched Canadiens games with her father. It was only in the last two years that she joined him in cheering against the Maple Leafs as enemy fans in Scotiabank Arena as season ticket holders.

«It's a bonding thing for us,» she told ESPN.

She said their Canadiens fandom was the catalyst for becoming «anti-fans» in Toronto. «Since we're Habs fans, but we live in Toronto, we can't always travel to Montreal to watch all their games,» Dani said. «But the Habs' rivals are the Leafs, so it's kind of indirectly supporting the Habs.» But it's also about supporting these opponents, especially the ones that don't have many fans that attend their road games.

«I think it's cool for the players to see they've traveled all this distance and you