2021 December

COVID Fatigue Will Get You Nowhere

TORONTO (Dec. 30) — Honestly, what reason would the Toronto Maple Leafs have to play their home game against Ottawa on Saturday night? After Ontario reported 13,807 new COVID infections on Thursday — obliterating the single–day pandemic record — the… Read More

The Crazy Ballard Media Years

TORONTO (Dec. 28) — It is still, in my view, the best book ever written about the Toronto Maple Leafs. In particular, the absurdity and madness that prevailed around Maple Leaf Gardens in the final years of the Harold Ballard… Read More

Dubas Needs Work On His Math

***UPDATE DEC. 27 3:15 a.m. — This blog was written and posted just after midnight. A few hours later, the NHL, as predicted, postponed the Pittsburgh at Toronto game, slated for Wednesday night. The Maple Leafs are next scheduled to … Read More

Expect the NHL to Pause Until 2022

TORONTO (Dec. 25) — It isn’t likely the merriest Christmas amid the tall thinkers in the National Hockey League, who are spending this holy day forming a rescue plan for the 2021–22 season. Despite vaccination that was hopeful of eradicating… Read More

The NHL and Omicron, Moving Forward

TORONTO (Dec. 22) — Welcome to the 2021 Christmas break, where people that normally travel to exotic destinations are staying put and the main roads here in Toronto are typically snarled from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. I suspect it’s… Read More

NHL Season in Grave Peril

TORONTO (Dec. 19) — Through no fault of its own, and with rapid suddenness, the National Hockey League is watching its 2021–22 season go down the drain. Or, at least form a huge vortex near the drain. Until the final… Read More

What is the NHL Waiting For?

***UPDATE Dec. 18 10:55 p.m. Eastern — The COVID protocol list of the Toronto Maple Leafs now includes coach Sheldon Keefe and seven players: Jason Spezza, John Tavares, Alex Kerfoot, Jack Campbell, T.J. Brodie, Travis Dermott and Wayne Simmonds. All… Read More

Pause Now or Pay Later

*** UPDATE Dec. 18 — It became official just after 2 p.m. Eastern. The National Hockey League confirmed that the Maple Leafs road games tonight in Vancouver and tomorrow in Seattle have been postoned as a result of COVID–19.*** *** … Read More

Forget About NHL at the Olympics

TORONTO (Dec. 14) — It is alarming and confounding to witness the effect that COVID–19 is having on the apparently vaccinated National Hockey League. The virus protocol lists are expanding by the day… as are games requiring postponement. On Monday,… Read More

Inner–Sanctum Chaos With The Argos

TORONTO (Dec. 11) — It’s a venerable, timeworn bromide that rings as accurately today as whenever it first appeared: “You reap what you sow.” As such, the Toronto Argonauts of the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment era have fully warranted… Read More

Maybe It’s Time For Quebec City

TORONTO (Dec. 9) — The National Hockey League routinely discredits the annual value–ranking of its teams by Forbes Magazine, suggesting that no outside entity can provide an accurate appraisal. For the moment, however, let’s assume that Forbes was in the… Read More

A Truly Magical Morning

TORONTO (Dec. 8) — I can close my eyes and still capture the scene from 52 years ago last month: a dark, rainy afternoon at CNE Stadium on Nov. 2, 1969. It was my second live Canadian Football League game… Read More

More Funny Leafs/NHL Stories

TORONTO (Dec. 3) — Sports humor, by its very nature, can be a bit raunchy. If you are prim and proper, I suggest you not read beyond this opening line. Otherwise, I suspect you’ll have a laugh or two. Maybe… Read More