From The Branches

It wasn't thrilling hockey, but at least it was hockey.

Links Little Brother, Big Dreams This is the longest thing ever written about Blake Kessel. Unsheathed Sabres Puck Buddys reviews Friday's pre-season game. 2014-15 Fantasy Hockey Draft Kit All you need to know to dominate the competition or something. 10 Leafs Moments as VLM Hit 5-Year Mark Head

The evening opened with Chris Stewart scoring a backhand goal on a short breakaway, which was met with a Roman Polak goal after Bozak absolutely threads the needle on a pass. Bozak gets right back into the spotlight, getting in front of the net and going top corner on Neuvirth.

Links Steve Dangle: Alive Aww shucks. Uniform, Rules, and Lottery Galore Going over some offseason changes. Avalanche Promise to Maintain Style of Play Welp, they're boned. Thesis: Forecasting Success Using In-Game Data Pretty neat study being proposed here. Mind Boggling Randy Carlyle goes full on Randy Carlyle. Leafs

The Maple Leafs played a pair of split squad games against the Senators. They dropped both - one 4-3 in the shootout and one 3-2 in regular time. There were goals from JVR, from Kadri, from Rielly, and from Carrick. I haven't been able to watch much pre-season

The ones you'd expect to look good looked good. It wasn't surprising, but it was reassuring.

You remembered to go hang out with PPPPeople, right? You've read through all the Top 25 Under 25? Okay, then you can read these links: Breakdown: Who will make the Maple Leafs The pre-season competition is upon us. Mirtle: Breaking up Leafs’ top line makes sense Especially if

With the opening of the Leafs' training camp, there were a lot of Leafs on hand to ask questions.

David Alter has the list of players and their numbers for this weekend's training camp. Should be fun as we all follow along and read too deeply into premature line decisions, fights, and performances! Until that kicks off, enjoy these links: Goalie situation frustrates Wild coach Yeo "

Links Leafs Roster Report: David Booth No animals were harmed during the making of this report. Rookie Tournament Game #3: Leafs 2, Pens 0 Leafs finish the tournament 2-1-0. Barn Blog: Cambria County War Memorial Arena "The Chiefs are at home against Hyannisport at the War Memorial at eight&

It's been a long summer, but fall is here and with the weather cooling down, Leafs chatter is heating up.

Links Rookie Tournament Game 2 Recap Leafs lose to Senators. Everyone sucks. Hockey Pages: Blood on the Ice Do you like hockey? Do you like vampires? Then here's a book for you. Show Me the Color of Hockey If you're a hockey fan of color, give

The Toronto Maple Leafs rookies will face off against Chicago's tonight at 7! Then against Ottawa tomorrow, and Pittsburgh on Tuesday. You can find the roster and schedule here. I'm sure twitter and the comments section will be overflowing with amateur analysis of the year'

Tim Leiweke, the soon to be ex-CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, was the guest at a Ryerson Univeristy discussion on Law, Business, and Politics yesterdayand let me tell you, he can quit soon enough. This guy is absolutely clueless. The "best" soundbite starts at the 1h13m

12 days until pre-season and another piece falls into place. I hope you're reading up on the Top 25 Under 25 because there will be a quiz at the end. Spencer Abbott Re-Signs 575k for one year. Moore Re-signs with NYR 850.5k for one year. New York

Links Led by Sweden, European Players Continue to Emerge Yeah buddy Nylander son. Top 60 NHL Prospects Composite Rankings Scout B knows what's up. TLN Top 20 Prospects #5 Peter Granberg's awfully high for someone who can't score points. Turns out he's

Quick, everyone look surprised.

Links Fan Fest A Missed Opportunity Sounds like the Leafs totally Leafed up their FanFest. Remember These Two? Yup, Leafs got some good kiddos. TLN Top 20 Leafs Prospects #7 Andreas Johnson comes in pretty high on this list. As the Leafs Rebuild Their Bottom 9 what's the

What do you have planned for this late summer weekend? Soccer's back, football's starting on Sunday, and rookie camp's a week away. Sports are in the air, my friends! Until then, try reading: Puck Daddy’s NHL 2014-15 Emoji Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs Randy

Links Stamkos Speculation May Have Been Overblown? Ya don't say? Of Elephants and Men Arctic Ice with an excellent parable to explain the thought process and dangers of the "seen him good" crowd. Five Keys to a Successful Oilers Season The Oilers really need to let

Yesterday, QMI News Agency reported Sidney Crosby had been arrested in Ottawa for DUI - turns out, "jail" sounds a lot like "Vale," as the star was in Colorado rather than Canada's Capital. The Sun, devoting all the fact-checking resources you'd expect,

I don't know about you, but I'm getting real tired of this recent rash of articles saying "this stats blogger/MSM 'war' has to end, both sides are at fault here". Oddly enough, all of these articles are being written by members

Soon.

Two weeks until rookie camp, three weeks until pre-season, and four-and-a-half weeks until the regular season. Enjoy the long weekend as a typically hockey-free August fades away. Good time to catch up on all the great prospect rankings that have gone out. Jersey Fouls: An Avalanche of failure; Wild consolidation;

Rumor is that the league is considering an expansion to Seattle, Las Vegas, Quebec City and a second team in Toronto. Could we actually see hockey players in Las Vegas for a reason other than to bore the crap out of everyone who lost the remote? Would anyone here consider