TORONTO — The legions of suffering Toronto Maple Leafs fans now have their own anthem.
As the Leafs take a 10-game losing streak into Friday night's game in New Jersey, a YouTube ballad pleading for an end team's struggles is snowballing in popularity.
"Do Something," a parody of the piano-driven hit "Say Something" by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, had almost 570,000 hits on the video sharing website as of Thursday evening.
Its creator, singer-songwriter Steven Ryan of St. George, Ont., said became a die-hard leaf fan about six years ago because of his fiancee.
And those have been six very lean years.
"My entire experience has been heartbreak," he said.
The song touches on some of the Leafs' lowest points over that time, including the trading of star goaltender Tuukka Rask to Boston ("we made the wrong call," he sings) and the epic playoff collapse against those same Bruins in the first round of the 2012-13 playoffs ("can't forget Game 7 that you blew.")
Ryan thought the song wound generate local buzz, but he was surprised to see his video (http://ow.ly/IzTFr) eclipse a half a million hits.
He said most of the comments he's received on the Internet have been "surprisingly positive."
"The only negative comments I've got are people who misunderstood and thought I was giving up on the team," he said.
Ryan said he makes it out to a few Leaf games every year. Unfortunately this season, that included this season's ugly 9-2 home loss to Nashville.
That low point wasn't what prompted Ryan and some collaborators to write the song, however.
"It dates back to the playoff collapse, as well as a losing streak from earlier in the season," he said.
In his song, Ryan implores the Leafs to "trade someone," but he doesn't pretend to have the answers.
"I'm not a sports professional, so I trust Dave Nonis to make the right moves and trade the right guys," he said.
And while he is excited at the slim prospect the sliding Leafs may get the chance to pick phenom Connor McDavid in next year's draft, he said it would be tough to watch them keep losing for the rest of the season to improve their draft situation.
