Jason Maslakow was just an ordinary Toronto Maple Leafs fan looking to fulfill a lifelong dream when he left his Waterloo, Ontario, home around midnight on April 15 with a couple of buddies for a nine-hour drive down to Washington DC to catch Game 2 between the Maple Leafs and Capitals. He had been a Leafs fan for over 30 years, he estimates, but never had the chance to catch his favourite team in action during the playoffs, not that they'd given him many opportunities over the last 13 years.

By the time he returned the next day, he was a media superstar with just about everyone you can think of wanting a piece of him. Dart Guy had been born.

With a Maple Leafs logo painted on his face, his beard dyed blue, and a cigarette dangling from his lips, Maslakow was briefly shown on the televised broadcast during Game 2. Almost immediately, the internet went into frenzy-mode. Pictures of him flooded Twitter, memes were created, and too many people to count changed their own avatars on social media to Dart Guy. You can imagine the shock of Jason's wife, Tina, who was watching the game back home when her husband was shown on TV.

"My initial thought was, 'You better not light that,'" she told VICE Sports when she saw the now famous cigarette in his mouth.

Since then, Dart Guy has had a week to remember for a lifetime. The Maple Leafs invited him to Game 3 in Toronto. Every time there was a lull in the crowd, he would appear on the big screen above centre ice to pump up the crowd. Before the game, he was up on stage to rally the masses outside Air Canada Centre at Maple Leaf Square.

Dart Guy was at Game 4 on Wednesday, this time not as a guest of the Maple Leafs but of Q107 morning host John Derringer. Before the game, he was presented with a custom beer fridge by Molson Canadian inscribed with #DartGuy, fully stocked with limited edition stubby bottles.

In the last week, Maslakow has done too many interviews to count. He's been on multiple television stations, numerous radio shows, dropped by the VICE Canada office in Toronto, and had countless articles written about him. His Twitter account @LeafsMaz20 has grown from 20 followers a week ago to over 12,000 today. As he rode the initial wave of popularity between Games 2 and 3, he figured it wouldn't last long, but now a week into his sudden fame, Dart Guy has become a more popular human mascot to the Maple Leafs than Drake—who has attended but one game this season—to the Toronto Raptors.

"It's been completely overwhelming," Maslakow told VICE Sports. "Going from a passionate fan with a painted face to Walter Gretzky wanting his picture with you, to Auston Matthews' parents wanting their picture with you, it's all been overwhelming."

So just how popular has Dart Guy become? On his way to Toronto earlier in the week, Maslakow was rolling down highway 401 when he saw those all too familiar lights in his rear-view mirror that can leave you with a pit in your stomach. It was the police, an OPP cruiser to be exact, and he was getting pulled over.

He was in full-on Dart Guy mode, with makeup on and his beard dyed. His first thought was, 'What did I do wrong?' Maslakow has his cruise control set to 110 KM/H, technically over the speed limit but hardly what anyone would call "speeding." But when the officer finally approached his car, he quickly realized it would be just another moment in an already crazy week that he now shakes his head at in disbelief.

"I wasn't doing anything wrong. The officer was a nice lady and she just said, 'Hey, Dart Guy, could you get out for a picture?' And I just said, 'Absolutely!'"

As much as we've learned about Dart Guy in the last week, what do we really know about the guy who is Dart Guy? Frankly, not much. As gritty, wild and crazy as Dart Guy seems, Jason Maslakow, who works for Toyota in the paint shop at one of their manufacturing plants, is a salt-of-the-earth-type guy.

"Jason is a very trustworthy, honest, and a very ethical kind of guy. I've always said he points due north," Maslakow's wife, Tina, said. "He's kind and generous and caring and passionate, really. The passion is evident I think to people right now, and he's like that at home when he's watching his Leafs."

Jason and Tina attended the 2014 Winter Classic at the Big House in Ann Arbour, Michigan, a game in which the Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 in a shootout courtesy of Tyler Bozak's winning goal. It was a cold and snowy day, the visibility was poor, and traffic was bad. Tina, who said she usually drives when they go to a game, was a little nervous about the driving conditions. Without hesitation, she said, Jason, who was her fiancé at the time, insisted on doing the driving.

"Usually when we go, I drive so he can have a few beers and enjoy," she said. "But it was snowing so badly and I was a little bit nervous about it so he decided not to have any drinks and he'd drive us back to the hotel. He sat there in the car in the crazy traffic and bad snow for two hours on the way back to the hotel. We actually used a picture from that day in our engagement, "Save-The-Date" notice."

She joked that at that point, she knew she'd made a pretty good choice. Now a week into her husband's newly found fame, she couldn't be more thrilled about all the attention he's receiving.

"I'm just very happy for him. He's such a fan and to be recognized for that on this level is a dream come true for him so it makes me very happy," said Tina. "It's exciting right now because everything is so new and fresh and I want him to enjoy these moments. I haven't seen a lot of him because he's been busy doing all the media and being at the games, but that's where he needs to be right now. It's been great fun for him."

Maslakow was a goalie growing up and went on to play some Junior A hockey in Northern Ontario before moving on to Cambrian College in Sudbury where he spent two seasons in his early 20s playing for coach Doug Bonhomme, the father of Canadian women's Olympic hockey gold medalist Tessa Bonhomme. Doug remembers Jason as a popular guy amongst his teammates during his playing days.

"He always wanted to play every game; he'd be upset if he didn't but he was a very loyal team player," Doug told VICE Sports. "All the guys liked him. He's terribly committed and he's a relentlessly loyal guy."

There's a lot of travel in that league with teams from Seneca and Humber College in Toronto, Algonquin College near Ottawa, and of course Cambrian College in Sudbury, to name a few. That meant some long bus trips and it was then that Bonhomme started to notice the makings of Dart Guy.

"Once in awhile we'd stop and he'd go behind the bus and have a dart," said Bonhomme. "As a coach, the guy's 22 or 23, you just turn the other cheek."

Sometimes during games, Bonhomme recalled, Dart Guy would make an appearance, too.

"He didn't do it all the time but once in awhile when things got tense and he was uptight, he'd put his skate guards on and sneak out the back door and have a cigarette with his goalie gear and his skate guards on," said Doug. "We'd all look around and be like, 'Where's Maslakow?'"

Now nearly 20 years later as Maslakow continues to ride his wave of popularity, Bonhomme has not been surprised by how graciously he has handled the attention.

"Jason was always a character guy, a real competitor who would never give up," said Bonhomme. "He could play on my team any time."

As big of a Leafs fan as Maslakow is, he's probably just as big a Tragically Hip fan. Maslakow figures he attended eight to ten concerts over the years and owns the hockey-style Tragically Hip jersey.

When asked what his favourite song was, he paused, struggling to pinpoint just one but ended up on "The Lonely End of the Rink" off the World Container album released in 2006. As a guy who played goalie growing up, something about the song speaks to him.

"Being a goalie myself and having that song written basically about goaltenders, I couldn't help but gravitate toward that one when it came out," said Maslakow.

Like so many Canadians, Maslakow was devastated to find out about Gord Downie's illness nearly a year ago. He knew he wanted to do something special to commemorate the band's final concert last August from Kingston, Ontario. A part owner of some campground about 40 minutes east of Parry Sound, Ontario, he spends as much time as possible during the summer outdoors camping with family and friends and enjoying a "pop or two" around the campfire.

So on the night of the Hip's final concert, Maslakow set up a viewing party on the grounds. The Hip, outside in the wilderness—what could be better than that? It turned into a night he won't soon forget.

"I rented a big projection screen and a couple of big speakers and set a little mini-concert up at the campgrounds," said Maslakow. "By the time the night was done, 70 or 80 people had shown up and it turned into an incredible night."

Looking back on everything that has happened for Maslakow in the last week, he can't believe it. He certainly appreciates it, but it still doesn't seem real.

"Honestly, I can't think of just one moment that stands out," he said. "From free tickets from John Derringer to Wendel Clark and Gary Leeman seeking me out for a picture, on top of Walter Gretzky, altogether, it's just been crazy."

Just like the Maple Leafs' playoff run, he's hoping it continues a little while longer.