Myers 'bleeds blue' for his Maple Leafs

Mike Myers stars as the Guru Pitka in his new movie The Love Guru, which debuts in theaters this Friday.

The Love Guru, the highly anticipated movie from Mike Myers, debuts Friday in theaters across the country.

The film stars Myers as Guru Pitka -- Myers’ first original character since Austin Powers. Pitka is an American who was left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus. Eventually, he moves back to the United States to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. 

His unorthodox methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between Toronto Maple Leafs star hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) and his estranged wife. After the split, Roanoke’s wife starts dating Los Angeles Kings star Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake) out of revenge, sending her husband into a major professional skid -- to the horror of the team’s owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) and coach Cherkov (Verne Troyer).  Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and get Roanoke back on his game so the team can break the 40-year-old “Bullard Curse” and win the Stanley Cup.” 

Recently, NHL.com and other national media outlets took part in a conference call with Myers to discuss the movie, which features the exploits of his favorite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing his favorite sport, hockey.

Just how important is it for Myers to be around the game he loves?

“Well my whole life is a thinly veiled cover to hang with my favorite hockey players,” he said.

The interview has been split up into three sections and will be released on consecutive days in the lead up to the release of the Paramount Pictures film, The Love Guru, on June 20.

In this first edition of the interview, Myers opens up on his love of hockey, his undying devotion to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the roots of his passion for the game.

To hear Myers tell it is to hear a true hockey fan honestly discuss his dedication to the game. He is the member of a street hockey team, skates whenever possible, follows the Leafs from wherever he is in the world and attends games whenever possible.

“I bleed blue,” Myers simply states.

In fact, Myers enjoys the game so much that he trains, whenever possible, as a hockey player – including ice sessions where he attempts to bolster his skill set and improve his ability in the game he loves.

“And almost like studying martial arts, you know, I kind of took it that way. And I improved my game a lot. I’m not a great player. I’m a very enthusiastic player and I’m a massive, massive fan,” he said.

And while he does not attend as many games as he might like, due to a hectic workload and travel schedule that keeps him away from Toronto for much of the season, he maintains his fandom from afar and even sees The Love Guru as a way of doing his part for the Maple Leafs, in the only way he can.

“(Hockey) is something I’ve loved my whole life, and the Maple Leafs haven’t won a Cup since 1967, and I thought the only way I’ll probably see a Stanley Cup in my lifetime is if I write it. So I decided to write it in the hopes that this sympathetic magic, that by writing it, it becomes so,” he said.

The remainder of Myers’ interview contains many more interesting tidbits, so check back tomorrow and Wednesday, to catch Parts 2 and 3 of this very special podcast.

But for now, check out the rest of the first edition of Myers podcast, including the following talking points:

* His involvement in hockey.

* His memories of the 1993 Stanley Cup Playoffs, in which the Toronto Maple Leafs won back-to-back, seven-game series against the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues before falling to Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings.

* His respect of Gretzky, even though he scored a hat trick against the Leafs in Game 7 of their 1993 run, and his descriptions of The Great One as a “hockey god.”

* Some thoughts on the current Maple Leafs team and what needs to happen for them to return to the playoffs.

Hear that and more in the first part of the Mike Myers podcast, available here:

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