From The Branches

I had a hell of a day Wednesday so forgive me for the half-hearted effort here today. Besides, all the interesting stuff in the NHL happens on the nights that Skinnyfish does the FTB, which just isn't fair. All I end up with is more stupid comments on

If you don't know what happened last night, head on over to Hockey Wilderness to see clips of Rick Rypien grabbing a fan on his way to the locker room. So you know what that means, time for Colin Campbell to don the blindfold and give a spin

I have a tendency to be a bit of a bipolar Leafs fan.  I want to believe they'll conquer all and come out victorious no matter what, but my experiences as a Leafs fan have given me some serious fears and insecurities.  When I'm watching a

Since I live in Vancouver, most of my hockey enjoying fans are Canucks fans, and I am one of the few Leafs fans they know.  The Leafs' awesome start has a lot of them impressed, and rather than the put downs I had to endure last year with the

My girlfriend Katie needs everybody's help.  She has never been a big hockey fan (nor sports fan for that matter), but she's been subjected to many a Maple Leaf game over the past three years.  Yesterday, she told me that the Leafs would be easier to

Full disclosure: I had an entire FTB written at the end of the second period, when the Leafs were up 3-1 and completely dominating the Rangers. Two Brian Boyle goals later, I knew I had to redo it. Luckily, Phil Kessel is freaking awesome, scoring his second goal of the

Brian Burke and the "I" in team VLM takes a look at Burke's apparent egotism. Win number 3 made some interesting stats budblog knows Clarke MacArthur is the true league leader in goals. MS Paint is the best computer tool for use in gloating Fallen Leafs

Well there it is, people.  The Leafs have opened the season 3-0, clearly proving that they will never lose another game for the entire season on their march to the Stanley Cup Championship.  So I present to you a summary of the parade route that will be happening this summer,

Last week in my squirt team's very first game of the season, two of my kids got concussions. One due to getting trip while skating full speed towards the side boards, and one from running straight into another kid and banging helmets. These were the second and third

Tuesday links: Revealed: The secrets behind the Maple Leafs turnaround New DGB Leafs hand deliver season tickets Bloge Salming and DGB bring you a new vid. Random Thoughts: Ten Quick Hits MLHS with a few thoughts on the opening homestand. As season moves along, Leafs trade avenues open up New

So apparently Canadians like to celebrate holidays early or something and today are having their Thanksgiving while everyone else (me not included) have the day off work for Columbus Day. Looks to be a slow news day. Only three links to share. Maple Leafs fans have reason for early optimism

It's a Sunday morning on a holiday weekend so I'm guessing our readership today will be somewhere between slim and none. Here's what people are saying about the Leafs: Maple Leafs Hotstove - Things Are Going Better Than Expected: Systematically, the forecheck was relentless

The Leafs opened their season on Thursday with a big win over division rival Montreal. It was the first home opener win since 2000. One game isn't enough though. The Leafs opened the 2008-09 season with a win over defending Stanley Cup champs Detroit, only to lose five

No, I'm not talking about the game. I'm talking about all the hoopla and crap before the game last night. It all started with the NHL Face-off from Dundas Square in Toronto. What better way to get fans excited for the upcoming hockey season than by

The Leafs are back tonight. Camp is over, the preseason has been played, and the opening night roster is set. More than anything else, I feel a great relief. I don't remember any other offseason being this long and painful. If we had to discuss Vesa Toskala'

"Annie" (1982) - Tomorrow (via serbianhuddle) Can you believe it? The season is almost here! Tomorrow night the NHL season kicks off as the heroic Leafs (cheer) battle the dirty Habs (booo) at the ACC. If you have tickets, I don't want to know about it.

I have a headache, there are a LOT of links today and my brain is still blown from the awesome Dion Phaneuf video I just found. I really hope he plays well enough to deserve this love I have for him. Here are your links: * Maple Leaf power-play "scary-dangerous&

There is one thing that I have learned as a Leafs fan since the lockout: it is dangerous to hope. Once I graduated University (my thesis year happened to coincide with the lockout) I started to take hockey far more seriously, which was rather unfortunate because we all know how

I haven't always been the biggest Luke Schenn fan. I'm still not sold on his skating, and he holds onto the puck longer than I'd like. That said, he seems to truly work at his craft; there has been obvious improvement thus far in

The Toronto Maple Leafs did not play their best game of the preseason last night, falling to the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 7 to 3. The contest remained close throughout the first two periods before slipping away in the third. Finnish rookie Jussi Rynnas received quite the

So because MLSE was smart and schedule five games back to back to back to back to back, there wasn't jack to watch on TV last night which due to the remnants of a tropical storm was very cold and very wet. Ugh. Wanna know how bad the

Now, I'm not much of a baseball fan anymore, and I know we've already hit our quota of baseball content here, but yesterday's letter from Cito Gaston in the Toronto star made me very nostalgic.  Back in 1993 when most of you here were

Ever get real tired and wind up going to bed early only to remember once you awake in the morning that you were supposed to write the FTB for that day the night before and were 30 minutes late with it already? Happened to me. Links mf37 bring us this

So we still don't have NHL Center Ice so I was unable to watch last night's game.  It sounds to me like the Leafs are very much a work in progress, although I'll take a win any day of the week.  Instead of watching

What that said. Hanson and Mitchell battle for the 3rd line center spot Who you got in this one? Putting on the Foil or Socks? The good, the bad, and the ugly of the Leafs' pre-season FiftyMissionCap gives us a run down of the goings on at the half