From The Branches

The Buds are in Edmonton today as their annual Western Canada road trip kicks off. The last time we saw the Oilers, they were embarrassing Toronto on home ice: a 5-0 drubbing on December 2nd that wasn't the best Leafs hockey we've seen this season. Ron

Let's see, what happened to me on Saturday. I slept in. Played some XBOX. Gorged myself on Shabu Shabu bacon pork. Find out the Leafs beat the Habs. And watched one of the greatest concerts in MSG history. That's right boys and girls, RAMMSTEIN! So yeah,

The Leafs were able to pull out 3 wins in possibly their toughest five game stretch of the season. Phil Kessel scored on a rebound and Tomas Kaberle was able to pot his first goal of the season last night in a big divisional match-up. Kris Versteeg added an empty-netter

There has been a lot of talk about the current cold streak of Phil Kessel. Some are quick to criticize for his inability to score with regularity since October, while some are quick to defend the young forward who has proven to be a dangerous player on a weak team.

Yesterday on Puck Daddy Radio, special guest Jeff Marek was talking to Pizzo and Wyshynski about the Leafs' struggles and gave a very interesting take on the situation. He said that at even strength, it's the GM's team. He chose those players based on the

What do you say after a loss like that? The Leafs were embarrassed everywhere on the ice with the exception of about five minutes in the third period where Tyler Bozak and Mikhail Grabovski scored, and made it briefly look like we were headed for another comeback. Although on paper,

Say what you will about intangibles, but the past two games since Armstrong's return have shown some true grit and determination from the Leafs; led by Colby Armstrong. Since Tucker and Domi left, the Leafs have been without a skilled shit disturber that the people love dearly. But

There is no shortage of opinions stemming from last night's embarrassment of the mighty Capitals. I can only hope that the Leafs have saved some of their David vs. Goliath routine for the upcoming game against Pittsburgh, because I don't want to read this many game

25 games down. 56 games to go. It's going to take a lot of good speeches to get this team into the playoffs. Hopefully Nonis, Burke, and Wilson own a good thesaurus and have watched every sports movie ever, otherwise their speeches will become stale and lack their

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. -Oscar Wilde I'm a competitive person. I like to win arguments. I like to win hockey games. I like to win video games, board games, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I think

Bruce Lee_Be Water My Friend (via sedonahealth9) Did you ever see Bruce Lee's final movie, Game of Death? The basic premise is that Lee's character is forced to fight his way to the top of a 5 story Pagoda to allow some mobsters to recover

Tonight the Leafs take on a young Edmonton Oilers team that has won two in a row. If the Leafs are going tostand much of a chance of making the playoffs, these are the kinds of games that they absolutely need to win. Of course, it's not impossible

The Leafs are a lot like a V-8 motor with a bad distributor; it's never firing on all cylinders. One night the PK will be great but the PP will have no legs. The next night Gustavsson will stand on his head, but the skaters can't

Let's get right to the heart of things shall we? Defensive Development - Jonathan Willis I wondered how long it took the average highly-touted defensive prospect to make the jump to being a top four defenceman, so I went back over the last 10 drafts to see. I

I really feel for Jonas Gustavsson. I don't think he's being paid nearly enough for the effort he's giving night in, night out. I can't see a way Jean-Sebastien Giguere reclaims a majority of the starts upon his return. Unfortunately, we'

The Toronto Maple Leafs' well documented struggles in Buffalo continued last night, losing 3-1 to the division-rival Sabres. Ryan Miller made his triumphant return from injury and nabbed 35 saves to stymie the Buds yet again. The Buffalo goaltender has a career save percentage of .930 against Toronto, including

If you're a fan of rounding as I am, then the first quarter of the season ended with the 4-1 win over the Stars. At the beginning of the season, your overlords took a stab at predicting how the season would turn out for the boys in the

A common observation in last night's GDT was that the Leafs' defense was keeping Dallas shooters to the outside and blocking a lot of shots. Of course, when a Stars' player did manage to get a good chance, Jonas Gustavsson was very solid in goal, and

Either the wins over Nashville and New Jersey were nothing more than a flash in the pan, and not an indication that the multitude of Leafs problems have been solved; the poor PP and lack of offense. Or, Saturday's game against Montreal was just bad luck; Komisarek'

Despite some solid effort at times, the Maple Leafs fell to the Canadiens 2-0 last night. Carey Price came up with 30 big saves to overshadow an excellent, 37 save performance by Leafs netminder Jonas Gustavsson. Even with great goaltending, it's tough to steal a game when the

Pat Burns passed away yesterday afternoon at the age of 58. One of the most successful coaches in NHL history, he led the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and New Jersey Devils to a combined 501 victories. In 15 NHL seasons, he only missed the playoffs three times.

So last night was pretty damned good eh? Goals from the guys who need to be scoring them; two of them on the once godawful powerplay. Kadri now on a point per game pace. Gustavsson turning away 29 of 30 shots in his first chance to grab the starter'

Editor's Note: One of the strengths of this site aside from Chemmy's funny faces, my squishy cheeks, MF37's rampant pessimism, and SkinnyFish's satiny beard is the community. Whenever a void has opened up there has beensomeone eager to step in to help

Only this time, they went to work for themselves. 8 game losing streak? Over. 26th ranked powerplay? Now it comes in at 16th. Kris Versteeg seeming like a waste of Viktor Stalberg? Not after his two powerplay goals. Nazem Kadri pointless as a Leaf? Nope, he got an assist last

This is my last FTB.  I will no longer be writing for PPP.  I am not going to discuss my reasons in public, just call it irreconcilable differences.  So without further adieu, here are your links: * We don’t have to talk Kadri anymore; the Leafs could do worse than