To Toronto Maple Leaf fans, Jason Maslakow has become a symbol of the team's thrilling 4-3 double overtime win Saturday night over the Washington Capitals.
Maslakow, who was born and raised in Sudbury, is better known on Twitter and other social media as “Dartguy” or “Dartman.” Now living in Waterloo, he's having his 15 minutes of fame after his face was shown during the overtime in Washington, an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth, his face painted white with a blue maple leaf in the centre.
The memes mushroomed overnight, and you can see a sampling of them attached to this story. Washington Post reporter Dan Steinberg wrote about Maslakow in Sunday's edition.
“'How do you feel?' I asked this pulsating ball of Maple Leafdom, the rare human in that building who could feel electric joy coursing through every part of his body,” Steinberg wrote.
“'How do you think I feel?' he asked. “WHOOOOOOOOOO!'“
More stories followed by the CBC, Sportsnet, TSN and The Athletic. He now has more than 4,000 twitter followers after having just a handful on Friday. And to top it all off, the Leafs gave him two tickets to Monday night's game at the Air Canada Centre.
“Being such a die-hard Leafs fan, I’m humbled by it,” Maslakow told The Athletic. “It’s a dream come true to be this connected to the team.”
He and two friends made the nine-hour drive to Washington for the game, and were treated to a thrilling, five-period Leaf overtime victory. Maslakow told The Athletic it was nervousness that prompted him to put the unlit 'dart' in his mouth.
“I was a little stressed out,” he said. “I was overdue for a smoke so I popped it in there and just waited for the period to end. I was able to sneak out and light ‘er up.”
