Pelley Should Run The Leafs

TORONTO (May 22) — There’s no need to search for a hockey executive to replace Brendan Shanahan as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The club’s parent company, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, has the perfect candidate under its roof.… Read More

Ballard to Matthews — No Change

TORONTO (May 21) — Paul Henderson, the former Leaf and Team Canada hero from 1972, tells a story about his agonizing decision to defect from the National Hockey League to the rogue World Hockey Association, which competed with the NHL… Read More

Leafs and Auston Have to Separate

TORONTO (May 19) — Forget about Mitch Marner and John Tavares becoming free agents. Forget about the new coach bringing structure to the Maple Leafs until any such control was beyond him. Forget about the apparently elite goaltender who couldn’t… Read More

Marner’s Tantrum Was Too Late

TORONTO (May 19) — For the first time in nearly a decade with the Maple Leafs, Mitch Marner blew his cover. Midway through the second period on Sunday night, with he and his weak–kneed ‘mates embarrassing themselves in Game 7… Read More

A Win For The Best Fans In Hockey

For the series to continue after tonight, the Maple Leafs will need more than a large uptick in performance. The Panthers will, simultaneously, have to remove their feet from the pedal in an elimination game at home. — my blog… Read More

Imagine the MLSE Revenge Tour

TORONTO (May 16) — Only once in my years around the Maple Leafs do I recall the club being so universally written off toward the end of a playoff series — prior to Game 7 of the 1993 opening–round clash… Read More

Only Three More Years, Folks

TORONTO (May 15) — Here’s what we know, for certain, about the Toronto Maple Leafs: Unless they triumph at Florida on Friday night, Brendan Shanahan and Mitch Marner will have enjoyed their final hours in blue and white. Auston Matthews?… Read More

MLSE Is Buried In Horsesh** Calls

TORONTO (May 12) — The Maple Leafs had better win the Stanley Cup this year. Only a championship, for the first time in 58 springs, could justify one of the most–egregious decisions in modern franchise history: Ripping the captain’s ‘C’… Read More

Car 34, Where Are You?

TORONTO (May 10) — So long as the Toronto Maple Leafs were winning, there was no concern over Auston Matthews being the highest–paid “defensive center” in the Stanley Cup playoffs. As noted, Friday, on the always friendly Hockey Night In … Read More

It’s Win — or Choke — For the Leafs

TORONTO (May 8) — What an exhilarating moment to be a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Especially a fan less than 30 years of age, with perhaps hazy recollection of his or her favorite team posing a Stanley Cup… Read More

The Panthers Aren’t Likely Scared

TORONTO (May 6) — And, precisely who should the Florida Panthers be concerned about, as it relates to vengeance, on the Maple Leafs? You could search the DNA database of the entire Toronto club without detecting a single portent of… Read More

Bowen, Ralph Can Blame Themselves

TORONTO (May 4) — If they weren’t so damned polished and professional. Those two grizzled broadcasting icons that date to my time covering the Maple Leafs for The FAN–590. Back in the days before the Internet, and deranged car manufacturers… Read More

Stolarz Will Keep Leafs Competitive

TORONTO (May 3) — It was 32 years ago, at Maple Leaf Gardens, that Doug Gilmour scored his legendary overtime goal against St. Louis. May 3, 1993. You’ve probably seen it a hundred times — the diminutive Gilmour with the… Read More

“We Have All Been Here Before…”

Should the Senators rout the Leafs on Tuesday (say, 5–1, which has happened repeatedly to good teams early in the playoffs), all hell will break loose. — my blog after Game 4 TORONTO (Apr. 30) — I had the precise… Read More

24 Hours to Relax For Leafs Nation

TORONTO (Apr. 28) — At no point, and deservedly so, in the Core–4 era have the Maple Leafs been granted a full playoff mulligan. Until Saturday night, that is, when a defeat in overtime at the Canadian Tire Centre in… Read More

Another Absurd Call By Rogers/Bell

TORONTO (Apr. 24) — I suppose the cheapskates at Rogers and Bell did not learn their lesson two years ago, when Joe Bowen mistakenly credited a series–winning overtime goal in Tampa to Morgan Rielly. The long–time Leafs broadcaster was watching… Read More

A Leafs Legend Is Emerging. Quickly.

TORONTO (Apr. 23) — Brad Treliving will not win general manager–of–the–year in the National Hockey League (the nod likely going to Kevin Cheveldayoff of Winnipeg or Chris Patrick of Washington). Were there an award, however, for best acquisition–of–the–year, Toronto’s… Read More

Truly, What’s At Stake For The Leafs?

TORONTO (Apr. 19) — It’s a question that no person in the Leafs-owned media will ask aloud (or in print). What happens amid the Doomsday scenario: another first–round playoff defeat in the Core–4 era? This time against an opponent that… Read More