“Why not the Maple Leaves”? Why was the name not pluralized with ‘ves’ as opposed to the ‘fs’ it currently has? Well, the answer again lies in the fact that the team name was adopted directly from the Maple Leaf regiment.
Let me explain with a very brief grammar lesson. Most know that words that end in ‘f’ are pluralized by dropping the ‘f’ and adding ‘ves’. But that is true of common nouns (most, but not all – ie. “roofs”). Proper nouns, simply put, are nouns that are specific names of people, places and things. And when these proper nouns end in ‘f’, they are pluralized by simply adding an ‘s’. So, Leaf (from the regiment) becomes Leafs.