From The Branches

It's freaking September! That's what month it is. September holds more than just the end of summer and the beginning of fall; it marks the beginning of the return of hockey!  In September we get rookie tournaments, training camp, roster finalization, and lastly the start of

I was inspired by the NHL11 post yesterday and the punishment for the four disappointing tournament players, so I thought I'd write my own PPP limerick for today's FTB: After the lockout I moved to the west Where people think the Canucks are the best. Despite

I'm guessing today was Dr. SkinnyFish M.D.'s day to FTB. Unfortunately for all of you we were stuck in traffic for ever last night and dragged ass into our apartment around 2a.m. before passing out. I don't have many Leafs blogs in

The discussion concerning the acquisition of defender Matt Lashoff on Friday got me thinking. We, as a community, tend to throw around the word "prospect" quite often. But should we? How exactly should we define the term? I've heard players such as Lashoff, Hanson, Mueller, and

Brian Burke basically wrote today's FTB for me. The Maple Leafs acquired Matt Lashoff, the #22 overall pick in the 2005 NHL draft, from the Tamp Bay Lightning for Alex Berry and Stefano Giliati. Obviously, this is a minor deal. Lashoff has spent the majority of his four-year

Every time I look at the masthead on this site, I realize I'm one of the few Canadians listed on it, which is an interesting statement about Leaf fans in itself.  I like to think I can bring some needed Canadian Content to the site.  And what'

I'm a big fan of Behind the Net (despite my complaints about stats) and this week he's had a couple of interesting Leaf posts.  First there was this post about how Beauchemin thinking the Leafs had one of the best records to finish the season last

Damien Cox is an outmoded, sour dinosaur of a columnist who can't stand the heat, yet won't get out of the kitchen. Yesterday he had a Jose Cancesoesque mini-meltdown on Twitter as he got into it with Jays fans over his column about how Jose Bautista

Dobrý den, Zaprvé, dovolte mi, abych se představil ještě jednou, já jsem obhájce Dave Fuller. Jsem ženatý a otcem čtyř dětí. Jsem senior advokát tady v Malajsii. My jurisdikce je občanské právo a nemovitosti Consultant. I když můj návrh byl spíše samo-vysvětlující, ale pro účely jasnosti, dovolte mi použít tohoto

This weekend I was away so I was mostly unable to stay up with the events on PPP, but I sure tried my hardest.  In between visiting family, wherever I could grab 5, 10 minutes to come on and get caught up on our own interesting ethical dilemma, I did.

There are 47 days until the Leafs open the season with a trouncing of the Canadiens. It can't come soon enough. Still, there's plenty of Leaf related stuff to write about (unless you work for the Toronto Sun). Who'll win the second-line left wing

What can I say that hasn't already been said?  Dave Fuller, known Habs fan, is a jerk.  Whatever.  It should come as no surprise that the guy lacks journalistic values considering his bio page on the Toronto Sun's website includes this gem: Less than a month

Last night I went to an Independent League baseball game in Bridgeport, CT.  For those of you who don't know what that is, the independent league baseball is a grouping of various professional baseball teams and leagues through the US that do not have direct affiliation with MLB.

I'm not feeling so hot tonight so this will be short and sweet: why do you think Brian Burke has never fired a coach?  Frankly, I find this baffling - to have been working as a GM for so long in the NHL, yet never having fired a

Talking with some of the old guard around these parts, its become clear that a set of ground rules need to be established when it comes to posting, commenting, tweeting and blogging.  Now PPP has posted the rules of the road a few times; but I want to go a

Tonight at 8pm EST the PPP NHL10 Tournament is on. Up for grabs is a free copy of NHL11. Surprisingly, in the sign-up threads Chemmy, Skinnyfish and puckurgently all admitted that they suck. So this'll be the one and only time you can probably freely beat up on

The following is what happened yesterday relative to the Leafs: The following are links to Leafscentric blogs from yesterday that didn't write a post speculating on the eventual Tomas Kaberle no trade: The following is a statement from Brian Burke on the Kaberle no trade: The hockey club

This time tomorrow morning, we'll have a solution to the "Tomas Kaberle Affair". I'm not even going to bother trying to think up anything clever or witty for today's FTB. We all know today is about one guy. If this is his

Come with me, and you'll be... in a world of pure imagination. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Birky and I'll be the Willy Wonka to your Charlie Bucket on weekends starting today.  Please keep both hands inside the

So yesterday I was summonsed to the local county courthouse for one of America's longest standing and most cherished traditions; jury duty! Lame, I know. the horror stories of jury duty are widely known and involve hours upon hours of tedious boredom as potential jurors await there fate

I would like to officially congratulate Jerry D'Amigo on signing his ELC, and welcome him to Toronto.  Jerry, if end up being the type of player that so many Leaf fans hope you can become, welcome to the kind of adoration that you can rarely find anywhere else.

I'm gonna just go ahead and say that I really don't care what happens with Kovalchuk or the other contracts under investigation by the NHL. Boring.... Can't there just be hockey games to watch already? I might be going stir crazy. T-Minus 4 days

There was one name in Leafs lore that popped into my head last night which noone has yet mentioned as a possible candidate for Mount Puckmore: Harold Ballard (my inspiration was the revelation on twitter that Jeff Marek literally dug Ballard's grave). Now I know we want Mount

It rained all weekend here in Vancouver, the first rain we've had in at least a month.  It was needed, there have been an incredible number of forest fires around the province, and downtown Vancouver was full of smoke last week.  But it was a summer weekend with

Well not literally right now as I write this, but whenever you're reading it.  I'm exhausted, I've been staying up way too late playing Zelda on my N64 and had an incredibly busy day yesterday (stupid busy day coinciding with Mt. Puckmore post :() so