History has it that Conn Smythe named the team after the Maple Leaf badge worn by soldiers in the Canadian Army during World War I.
So, to follow Chambers’s lesson that proper nouns take regular plurals, more than one Maple Leaf badge would be referred to as Maple Leafs. By that same token, two Maple Leaf players are referred to as Maple Leafs, not Maple Leaves. That is how we get the Toronto Maple Leafs, who play host to the Capitals for Game 3 at 7 p.m. Monday.
Other examples of proper nouns taking regular pronouns (provided by Chambers and annotated by The Post):
• A stack of Life Magazine editions would be a stack of “Lifes” (regular plural) instead of “Lives” (irregular plural).