What Can Leafs Do About Stolarz?

TORONTO (Apr. 12) — Amid the usual corporate roguery at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment — with the hockey club disgracing itself, most nights — a fundamental issue has reared its ugly face. Yet again: Goaltending. Anthony Stolarz is either… Read More

More Corporate Dithering BY MLSE

TORONTO (Apr. 8) — I’ve told this story before and it speaks volumes about the time and money wasted by the companies that have run the Toronto Maple Leafs since the club last appeared, 24 years ago, in the Stanley… Read More

Tools Aplenty at 60 Bay Street

TORONTO (Apr. 2) — Our city, not surprisingly, is becoming the most–assinine hockey locale on the planet. Which kind of follows, with a near–60–year drought from appearing in the Stanley Cup final. In lieu of contention, a host of goofy… Read More

MLSE Caught in a vicious time warp

TORONTO (Mar. 31) — I wasn’t planning on writing tonight, but neither will I sleep soundly without responding to a bit of what Keith Pelley had to say this afternoon about the Leafs. While addressing reporters in the wake of… Read More

Brad Treliving Is Merely The Start

TORONTO (Mar. 30) — Tonight’s decision by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment will rank among the difficult firings in hockey. As in years gone by, when such–admired figures as Cliff Fletcher, Roger Neilson, Lindy Ruff and Rick Bowness lost their… Read More

Matthews “Won’t Be Back” With Leafs

TORONTO (Mar. 25) — The text message came out of nowhere; clearly in response to my recurrent theme about Auston Matthews, yet unsolicited. From a man with whom I haven’t been in recent contact, yet a good source of information… Read More

Inevitability + Dismay = Silence

TORONTO (Mar. 21) — With the trade deadline long in the past and the uproar from the Radko Gudas/Auston Matthews incident finally waning, it is discouragingly quiet around the Toronto Maple Leafs. A reminder, in some ways, of my latter… Read More

You Really Want This To Continue?

TORONTO (Mar. 14) — I haven’t the slightest legal background, yet I’m certain that if you scour the Morality statute here in Ontario, you’ll find an ordinance that precludes the Toronto Maple Leafs from a crappy season. The affrontry to… Read More

Don’t Be Fooled Again, Leafs Fans

TORONTO (Mar. 6) — We live in a strange world. All of the prime hockey gurus at TSN and Sportsnet agonizingly filled time today on the air for more than seven hours. To finally — and breathlessly — announce to… Read More

The Maple Leafs Will Clean House

TORONTO (Mar. 3) — Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun posed a meaningful question in his Sunday notes column, wondering why Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is entrusting the National Hockey League trade deadline to general manager Brad Treliving. Particularly… Read More

Time For Matthews, Nylander to Go

TORONTO (Feb. 28) — I’m wondering if someone in the hierarchy of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment would make an unprecedented ruling: that Auston Matthews become the first captain of a team in the National Hockey League to be forbidden… Read More

Matthews vs. Marner — Meh!

TORONTO (Feb. 21) — In the view of this observer, and I doubt I’m alone, the five best hockey players on the planet are Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Macklin Celebrini and Quinn Hughes. All will be in unform… Read More

Could Maple Leafs Pull The Trigger?

TORONTO (Feb. 14) — There are growing indications, during this schedule break for the Winter Olympic Games, that the Toronto Maple Leafs will have an opportunity — before the Mar. 6 National Hockey League deadline — to trade a pair… Read More

Let The Season Go, Leafs Fans

TORONTO (Feb. 7) — No one is quite certain how the Maple Leafs, with a bevy of self–inflicted managerial wounds, can improve beyond the current National Hockey League season. Given a lack of leadership on the ice; a slow, aging… Read More

Sportsnet Comes Through Again

TORONTO (Jan. 31) — Finally, the media template. I owe you one, Luke Fox. Not that I couldn’t count on you to offer the delusion that prevails through a large faction of media and fans here in the Big Smoke… Read More

Wonder What Mr. Pelley Is Thinking

TORONTO (Jan. 28) — I’ll give Keith Pelley credit, wherever he is (and we could hear from him soon). During his news conference as the CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (May 10, 2024 after the Leafs had been… Read More

Leafs Heading For A Mega Makeover

TORONTO (Jan. 25) — This is only the second blog I’ve written in 2026. When asked why I’ve been idle, there are several reasons but none moreso than the impossibility of presenting the same thoughts differently. I mean, how many… Read More

Remembering the Misery and Pain

TORONTO (Jan. 7) — I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease 50 years ago this afternoon (Jan. 7, 1976) at Toronto General Hospital. Diagnostics and immediate treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has changed for the better since that time. For… Read More