From The Branches

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 a

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. with

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

That's a Brady Bunch reference. If you didn't get it because you never watched the Brady Bunch, then I hate you. Feel free to replace Lebda with Lebron if you so choose, but it's a hockey blog so, ya know. Last night the national

Due to the extreme nature of the Brett Lebda signing (apparently) I think we need to do a roll call this morning, to make sure everyone's still with us. I got a little worried that maybe someone had run to the Bloor Viaduct in response to the signing

Now often times around here you'll here Pension Plan Puppets referred to by its full legal name PPP Amalgamated Heavy Industries and Kitten Ranch LLC. Now it's obvious what our Heavy Industries branch is, but the Kitten Ranch part of the business has been clouded in

Yesterday the hockey world received some shocking news: Bob Probert had died at the young age of 45. Now, Probert was never a Leaf, but he sure resonates to Leaf fans. He played on two bitter rivals in the Norris Division - the Red Wings and the Blackhawks. From our own

Well that was a great four day weekend.  I did little to nothing.  I could really use more weekends like that, I had way too much sleep to catch up on.  Oh and we tried this new chinese restaurant down the street from us.  What a gong show.  It just

Be sure to blow something up if you are American because it is your God-given duty to be a walking-talking stereotype at least one day a year. Otherwise the rest of the world might have to consider that they are only ever exposed to the worst on offer.

* Well I know that Skinnyfish is away but I'm not sure what else is going on in everyone else's lives, so I thought I'd throw up an FTB so we can move discussion on free agency, our cap overage last year, and other things

Whew, yesterday was a hell of a day. League-wide there was, according to TSN, over 100 years and a couple of hundred million dollars worth of deals signed. That's ridiculous. The Leafs were generally restrained which was a good thing. I listened to Dave Nonis on the

Well I was gonna write something here but let's face it, it's Canada day, we got Kris Versteeg last night, and who knows who we'll sign today. Nobody cares what I have to say. Here's your links: * Van Ryn to sit out

Dear Dan, I am so sorry for you. When I heard the news that your rights had been traded to Montreal for those of Little Tits, I was breathless and in a state of shock, unable to comprehend the news I had just heard. Through Twitter and the Predators website,

Apparently, I picked the wrong weekend to busy and out of touch with the internet. There would've been easily a few hundred more comments on everything from me if I'd been around for the draft on Friday night and Saturday during the day. I was extremely

Woke up, played some video games. Saw the US get eliminated. Did a ton of laundry. Watched the draft. Drank some Jäger. Met a 400lb man named Nigel and his friend Jesus. Saw the A-Team. Almost got into a fight at the theater. Told some guy that he was

Right about now I will probably be in a folding chair outside of Scallywags waiting to get in to cheer England on as they seek to get past the old enemy Germany. I think Scallywags was far enough from yesterday's troubles to have escaped unscathed. If Britannia rules

The first day of the 2010 NHL Draft was pretty uneventful for the Maple Leafs but there certainly was some manoeuvring done league-wide. SBN sent 14 writers to the draft and the story stream of the first day is spectacular. There is a lot of video and analysis there