 On the afternoon of Thursday , April 16 , 1948 , the Leaf players were greeted by thousands of Toronto fans as they got off the train from Detroit . They then rode open cars through a cascade of multi @-@ coloured paper and ticket tape through Toronto 's business district to arrive at a civic reception at City Hall . Speaking to the huge crowd , Conn Smythe announced that Kennedy would be succeeding Syl Apps as captain who was retiring . 
