From The Branches

One more sweet set of links before everyone goes back to work tomorrow. Thoughts on Jonas Gustavsson Vintage Leaf Memories on the Monster's "bend but don't break" goaltending performance as of late Marlies conclude St. Johns trip with 6th straight win MarliesHQ has the

Jonas Gustavsson shuts out the Dallas Stars in the shootout, and the Leafs manage to pick up another two points in the standings. After losing 5 of 6, Toronto has turned around and managed to win 3 of 4. The still Reimer-less Leafs will wrap up their current road

Andrey Osadchenko is the Nations' roving Russian reporter and he's dug up a few gems. Yesterday he had a longer interview with Nikolai Kulemin. His latest post is a bit of a heartbreaker: Igor Korolev played 4 seasons for the Maple Leafs before he was traded to

GOOD MORNING PATHETIC HUMANS. JP NIKOTA IS PLEASED WITH YOUR DECISION TO READ THESE LINKS. YOU SHALL BE SPARED DEATH BY EATING FOR ONE MORE DAY. AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! REALLY THOUGH, I'LL DEVOUR YOU ALL ONE BY ONE UNLESS YOU KEEP READING AND LEARNING ABOUT THE TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS. Links

After a month out of action, James Reimer is on his way back into the lineup after 'concussion-like' symptoms. Around the league, some kid in Pittsburgh made his debut on Monday night and in New York Marc Staal is on his way back from his own concussion.

Instead, let's focus on how the Leafs have been doing over the first quarter of the season. Yes, they're in a playoff spot, and while that's fantastic news for Ron Wilson's job prospects, if all the teams beneath the Leafs were given

After this weekend's games, the Leafs find themselves at the quarter mark of the 2011-12 season in a condition they'd rather not be in. Over $19M sits on the IR including 2/3 of last year's most productive "2nd line", their

Wow. What a game last night. Based on the Leafs' struggles as of late, I was expecting something in the other direction. Toronto played a solid game against the Capitals. They were physical against Ovechkin, capitalized on the powerplay, and even received a solid game in net from Gustavsson.

It's 27 degrees (Fahrenheit, duh) here in North Carolina this morning. That's fairly cool for this time of year. Much like the Toronto Maple Leafs, an unusually hot start to Fall has begun to dissipate. Unlike the Leafs, I'm actually enjoying this cold snap.

Thank God it's Friday. Here are some links. Share whatever you're reading. Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics Jonathan Willis looks at the genesis of the famous phrase Phoenix-Toronto Scoring Chances JP charted the Leafs' loss. It was Lombardi's best game as a

The big news to emerge yesterday was all about injuries: both Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur will miss a significant number of games. Grabovski is out at least two weeks, though MacArthur hasn't had a timetable set yet. Matt Frattin and Colton Orr both also missed practice, but

Do Us All a Favor, Including Gustavsson: Set the Monster Free - Mike Langlois from Vintage Leaf Memories The whole Leaf/Monster "experiment" probably got off on the wrong foot to begin with—Burke eagerly criss-crossing Europe or whatever to track down this free-agent wunderkind goalie. Un-

In addition to supplying you with a steady supply of links, game previews, recaps, and other amazing analysis, I have been busting my hump for you nerds to track scoring chances for and against the Toronto Maple Leafs this season. I had a late start on this, so it'

Slumping Maple Leafs Lack That 'Killer Punch' - James Mirtle at the Globe and Mail If it looks like a slump and acts like a slump, it’s probably fair to say it is one. Even if the Toronto Maple Leafs have found a way to win some games

The Toronto Maple Leafs fell to 3-3-0 in November. As a reminder, last year the Leafs went 3-7-3 in November as the wheels well and truly fell off of the season. I missed last night's game but over the season, the Leafs have 21

Former Toronto Maple Leaf Doug Gilmour will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, along with former Leafs Ed Befour and Joe Nieuwendyk.  But make no mistake, Gilmour's ovation tonight at the ACC will be the loudest and longest.  Share your favorite Gilmour story in

No lead in story, just links. Leafs Links Kessel Leads Leafs Past Blues They spelled Scrivens wrong. Game 16 in 10 11 - GET THE PUCK OUT OF THE DAMN ZONE If It's Thursday On The Road, Here's a Tip; Start Scrivens Mike from VLM speaks the

Jonas Gustavsson has got to go. Waive him, trade him, sit him on the bench if you think Scrivens is the answer (though I doubt it) - whatever. It's not working out for the Monster. Two years ago, Brian Burke left Vesa Toskala for far too long in the

You didn't think the Leafs would continue to shoot at 12.5% all year did you? That was the team shooting percentage about their game in Columbus last Thursday; a game in which the Maple Leafs scored 4 goals on 18 shots. Everyone knew that was a fluke

"It's just a flesh wound", they say. Just another one of those "upper body injuries". Tim Connolly is going to miss between 10 days and two weeks with an undisclosed injury. Of course, the way the Leafs' front office has been diagnosing injuries

Maple Leafs Get Their Wake-Up Call In Loss to Bruins - James Reimer Mirtle at the Globe and Mail "We talked about that the last game against Columbus," Leafs defenceman Carl Gunnarsson said after putting in his worst outing of the season against the Bruins. "Their goalie

Last night's game was uglier than PPP's mustache.  The Leafs have been outscored 13-2 by Boston in two games this year, and no longer sit in first place in the NHL.  It's safe to say that the Leafs are not as good of

With the news that James Reimer has suffered a setback in his return from an upper-body injury (very obviously a concussion), there seems to potentially be a new controversy in net. The story should sound familiar by now, as goaltending has been the Leafs most unsettled position since the

First and Last - The 5th Line Centre I think it is safe to say that this team will not be able to rely on keeping the puck out of their own net. With what can be generously be described as a pathetic PK and a PP that rarely establishes offensive

As I collected the links for this FTB, I came across two sites that weren't in my Google Reader. The first, Puck Drunk Love is brand new, but already has a team of writers contributing to it, and I expect to link more stories from them in the