From The Branches

I write this on a Thursday night after a day like so many others of late where absolutely jack squat is going on in the hockey world. Oh sure there's the ongoing Kovalchukzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Or the potential sale of the Phoenizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Or the cap situations of the Hawkzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, Flyerzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,

For today's FTB, I have few words. Yesterday, details about the Winter Classic was released, along with the jerseys. Quite quickly, twitter was full of McDonald's jokes regarding the Flames' jerseys. Honestly, I think these are even worse than the Habs' barber shop jerseys

August 3rd, 2010 will go down in history as being yet another day in which jackshit happened with regards to the Toronto Maple Leafs. That is all. The Leafs' Top 25 Under 25 Yakov Mironov ranks the Leaf prospects from 25 to 1. Mt. Puckmore? What about a Mt.

So for our long weekend, we took off to Harrison Hot Springs. It's a cute lakeside town about an hour and a bit from our place with super nice sandy beaches, a couple of decent hotels, and uh... that's about it.  There's only one

It's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. You now know what I'll be watching on TV ever night this week. If you don't like Shark Week, we cannot be friends. Links after you jump the shark: Leafs could use a modern day King Clancy

Since today is a long weekend up in Canada (WOOOO CIVIC HOLIDAY!) I'm gonna assume that the Canadians are away and this post will only be read by Americans.  So here are some guns, fireworks, grits and bombs.  And here are some links: * Defensive Contribution DoctorMyBrainHurts takes a

Ya you know me! As I kid I used to collect sports cards; like a lot of sports cards. I had binders and binders full of 'em. My prized possession was an autographed Teemu Selanne rookie card that I mailed to Winnipeg to have him sign. It was pretty

So did anyone from PPP here get some of those Fan First tickets yesterday?  There were some awesome pictures on twitter from Leafspace Monika, Chansler and a few others of the crowds forming at each location where tickets were being handed out.  If I still lived in Toronto I would&

Well, this day had to come. The European Jaunt has ended. Places were visited, pictures were taken, and much delicious food was consumed. Now I need to be home for a rest. Instead, I get to hammer out my Maple Leafs Annual piece (spoiler alert: the magazine's going

So right now, as I write this, I'm in a bad mood. Just kinda frustrated with everything, really. So I decided to take out this frustration on a favourite target of mine, Kevin Bieksa. I guess it starts at the fact that his appearance for the Canucks coincided

I had a fun but tiring weekend of paintball in rural Pennsylvania. Yes I went to a Wal-Mart while I was there, and yes the shoppers there looked like they were straight out of People of Wal-Mart. It was terrifying. So glad to be back in New England where there

I thought you guys might like an FTB for today, so here you go.  Not much to say, it's 25 and gorgeous outside so that's where I'll be.  Here's your links. * As we wait for the Kaberle move, Vintage Leaf remembers the

So who remembers back in the mid to late 90s when AIM released a bunch of "smart" bot accounts that you could "converse" with for a laugh? Good times had by all, let me tell you what. Well now there is a new smart chat bot

So this off-season, until recently, had been shaping up as one of the most painful, boring off-seasons I could remember.  Last year there was a flurry of free agent signings, interesting trades (I still can't believe the Habs gave up their best prospect for Gomez), and optimism around

For those of you who weren't around last night and are just starting to hear the news now, the NHL has rejected Ilya Kovlachuk's preposterous 17 year, $102M contract. They did so while citing that it was an attempt to circumvent the salary cap by adding

Now that Kovalchuk is officially off the market and not a Leaf, I thought I'd take a look at another young scoring free agent winger - Marek Svatos. Svatos is only 28 years old, but has had a checkered career thus far. He came into the league with

I did little to nothing this weekend aside from relax, visit family and drink beer outside. It was pretty darned great. All of this was made better by having my puppy with me when we went out to visit family and drink beer. Grandma has a massive back yard that

No FTB today because we're sipping drinks by the pool. Post links in the comments and discuss them or go outside and drink a six pack in the sun; nothing's happening anyways.

So Friday night movie night was a tradition for me when I was in college.  I had 30+ hours of class a week, plus a minimum of double that in homework, so Friday night was my scheduled time to relax.  My brother played baseball, so my sister in law and

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet as I need to get to bed here soon. Why you ask? Well because as of 8am this morning I will be taking the Medical College Admission Test. That's right, I want to go to medical school and become

So everyone knows the Old Spice commercial: I'm the man your man could smell like. Old Spice has decided to continue building on the popularity of this commercial with a twitter account - @OldSpice. He's been answering random questions from people on facebook, yahoo, twitter etc.

This post really only pertains to the United States, but whatever. Hear me out. Yesterday, a US federal appeals court ruled that the FCC "indecency rule" is unconstitutional. For those of you Canadians who have no idea what I'm talking about. The Federal Communication Council is

Before he left for his European vacation (or fishing trip with Burke?) PPP mentioned a desire to sign free agent, former Oiler playoff hero, Fernando Pisani. Now, there's the fact that he's 33, has ulcerative colitis, his -1.9 GVT rating, and previous salary of $2.

Finally, the World Cup is over and done with. Just like we do the Monday after the Super Bowl, we can all stop pretending to be interested in the game of football and get back to obsessing over a real sport; hockey. I'll admit that I was one

Today's the big game in the world cup, and I know who my team is.  So... HUP HOLLAND HUP!! Oh yeah, and I have a few Leafs links for you after the jump. * Cap and Capability MLHS on what it really means for the Leafs to remove both