As the blogging world lays siege to the ivory towers of professional journalism (and the dinosaurs therein), there are periodically some noble and righteous men and women caught in the crossfire. You see, it is with great zeal that we, of PPP Amalgamated Heavy Industries and Kitten Ranch LLC, attack what we have come to know as "the mainstream media" and its mouthpieces, but we do so without (much) first-hand knowledge of what a day in their shoes is actually like. Some of these people do wonderful work, and it's time we heard their tales.

Two such non-partisan print professionals (nPPPers, we might call them) are James Mirtle and Jonas Siegel, and they have graciously agreed to chat with us about life as a Toronto Maple Leafs beat reporter in a podcast that will be recorded this weekend.

So. Toss your questions in the thread, and we'll sift through them and hopefully have the pertinent ones answered.

Now it is time for the big prediction. The one that will label you as an ardent homer, a hopeless cynic, or something entirely else come April. Jonathan Willis looked at what the fantasy annuals were saying about the Maple Leafs' playoff hopes. TSN has the Leafs slotted into 10th in the East but we all know that TSN has a deep seated hatred of the Leafs. Pro Hockey Talk is straddling the fence:

The Maple Leafs are a coin-flip of a team. A lot can go right or wrong – from health to encore seasons and prospect breakthroughs – so it’s a bit difficult to forecast their future. Especially since they can make up so much ground in a ridiculously promising January 2012 run.

Again, it’s close to 50-50, but the Maple Leafs have enough "ifs" that it’s probably safer to bet on them falling just short of that precious playoff spot. It’s been a long time since Toronto fans have had so many reasons for optimism, though – so don’t count them out.

And Puck Daddy just noted that there are a lot of 'ifs' involved in any prediction:

If Liles and the improving forwards can get the power play better than 16 percent. If Reimer and the defense can dramatically cut into that 2.94 team GAA. If the team can roll three lines that threaten to score. If November isn't a complete disaster again. If … if … if … the Toronto Maple Leafs can be a playoff team for the first time since 2004. Or at least hang very, very close to the bubble.

So where does that leave you?

It's not an exaggeration to say that the Toronto Maple Leafs' season rests entirely on the shoulders on James Reimer. As he came out of the woodwork in the second half of the season, fans became obsessed with the quiet spoken goalie with the exciting comparables. Most encouraging is the fact that Reimer recognizes that he has not accomplished his goals yet. He has only played his way into a position to reach those goals:

No one in professional sports want to be a one-year wonder, to get to the very top – taste that rarefied air – and crash disappointingly down, almost as quickly as they rose up.

Reimer seems to know. He dropped 20 pounds in the summer as part of a new workout regiment and believes he’s ready for the 50-plus games ahead.

"I just understood what [Burke] was trying to say to me," Reimer said. "That these things happen. You can play great, but if you don’t stay on it, it can go. You never really lose your talent, but if you don’t have hard work, your talent is useless.

"It’s a good [message]. It’s kept me from getting complacent. I feel that I’ve worked as hard as I could. I’ve surrounded myself with people that know me. Even if I subconsciously slack off, they’re there to keep pushing me. They keep me honest."

By now you've probably already voted on how many points Nazem Kadri will get and how long Ron Wilson will last. Here's your chance to vote on how many times PPP will accidentally post articles he writes in advance on the same day.

Friendly reminder: I make content up on the spot so it's as fresh as possible. No stale old articles from the cupboard from me.

In case you missed it, Michael Langlois of Vintage Leafs Memories, Darren Yourk, and James Mirtle and I put together a podcast previewing the upcoming Leafs' season. Aside from being hilariously out of date a mere 20 minutes after taping it (thanks David Steckel), one topic that was touched on was how long Ron Wilson would last this season.

Some people have been on the bandwagon to see him canned for a lot longer than others but there's no doubt that there is a substantial group of fans that want to see the irascible Wilson move on. He's in the last year of his contract and Brian Burke's loyalty has to be wearing thin. Some fans already have him in their crosshairs:

Oh, you thought that it had to be a player? Nope. Ron Wilson's tenure as the Leafs' coach has seen almost non-stop roster turnover. It is a truism that you cannot make chicken salad out of chicken shit and Wilson's tenure has certainly seen a hearty helping of the latter don the blue and white. However, after three seasons of watching his special teams flail about his excuses have run out. He no longer has Jean-Sebastien Giguere or Vesa Toskala in net, he has a group of forwards with the necessary penalty killing pedigree, and he has a new coaching staff. The team's failures saw Tim Hunter and the ever-present (somehow) Keith Acton lose their jobs while Greg Cronin and Scott Gordon were brought in to revive a moribund penalty kill. He is entering the final year of his contract and GM Brian Burke is eager to make the playoffs. The only problem with this pick is that if he earns the role then we'll have to pick a new goat before Christmas

Nazem Kadri, taken with the 7th overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, is still young. However, that has not stopped speculation that the Leafs may have begun to approach the end of the line with Kadri:

But more and more, it appears that there are serious concerns with whether the youngster is capable of getting the job done.

At his first training camp in 2009, an 18-year-old Kadri was not physically mature enough to play in the NHL. The following year, it was the mental side of his game that lacked maturity. This time around, he was simply not good enough.

His rookie year provided a number of good comparables as Chemmy noted:

There are some names on there that aren't stars but there aren't a ton of names on there that aren't decent prospects. Kadri has some work to do on his game but for me it's easier to be patient when looking at the company he's in. Could Kadri be looking at a 20 goal season next year? We'll find out.

And while some players drafted ahead of him have grabbed their NHL opportunities by the horns, the rest of his draft class has not exactly been lighting the world on fire. Of course, he'll be on the shelf for the first month of the season. Hardly the strong start that we were hoping out of him but how much will it impact his production?

From the moment that Tim Connolly was signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs it was clear that it was a high-risk, high-reward move. Connolly has (had?) the potential to help address a couple of Toronto's biggest shortcomings:

Penalty Kill

Over the past three seasons, the Sabres have averaged nearly two goals more against per hour without Connolly than they have with him. Put another way, the Sabres have been roughly 40% more efficient killing penalties when Connolly was on the ice versus when he wasn’t. It’s no wonder that McKeen’s 2011-12 Yearbook states that Connolly "excelled killing penalties."

Power Play

While the Sabres’ have run an above-average power play the last few seasons, Connolly’s numbers are still very good – typically, he has been the Sabre’s second-best power play scorer relative to ice-time. The fact that he’s been a key component on a successful power play is also to his credit – with the Leafs failing to ice even an NHL-average power play at any point over the past three seasons, Connolly should represent a welcome upgrade on the talent they’ve been using.

Of course, he's already on Injured Reserve. This could be a long season.

Phil Kessel has spent another summer having his game examined from a number of angles. Is he scoring a lot of 'clutch' points?

Phil Kessel may not dig the team out of deep holes but if he is involved in a goal then there's a good chance that it either helped tie the game or give the Leafs the lead. 16 of his 32 goals came in that situation as well as 22 of his 32 assists. 

He had a writer that 12 months ago suggested he could win the Hart Trophy begin advancing a number of myths.

Of course, that isn’t Brophy’s point. Brophy’s point is that Kessel can’t “carry” a team on a lengthy post-season run. The nice thing about this point is that it’s impossible to refute: Kessel hasn’t carried a team on a lengthy playoff run, so despite strong performances in the playoffs and internationally, one can’t prove anything other than that Kessel scores in the playoffs. The logical conclusion to make, of course, is that Kessel’s a good playoff player, but then that’s a conclusion pretty much anybody can come to.

And he's once again going to be trying to create chemistry with new linemates. While on paper Joffrey Lupul and Tim Connolly seem like upgrades, one is struggling out of the gate and the other is already crocked. So, how many goals will Sisyphus get?