How “Different” Are The Leafs?

TORONTO (Feb. 13) — Barring an 18–wheeler, the Maple Leafs are en route to the best regular season in their 105–year history. Never before has the club won 30 of its first 45 games, or accumulated 63 points in 45… Read More

Staying Ahead Of Crohn’s

PART 1 My story begins late in the summer of 1975. I was 16½ years old and not feeling quite right. I had worked as a counselor at a day camp in my neighborhood and was preparing to enter Grade… Read More

Dubas Knows What The Leafs Need

TORONTO (Feb. 7) — The reason Kyle Dubas told reporters on Monday that he hasn’t yet determined his trade deadline strategy is rather fundamental: He can stall for at least another five weeks. And, that’s precisely what the Maple Leafs… Read More

Two Solitudes… Like Never Before

TORONTO (Feb. 3) — Without bothering to check, I can tell you that only once have the Toronto Maple Leafs been more than 28 points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens at any juncture of a season in the 105–year history… Read More

Could Leafs Land The Big ‘Z’?

TORONTO (Jan. 27) — The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, they were hockey’s version of a retirement home. Consider the ages of the following players, integral to the 1967 playoff upsets of Chicago and Montreal:… Read More

Heartache for Buffalo. Again.

TORONTO (Jan. 24) — Wide Right. No Goal. The Music City Miracle. And now… 13 Seconds. It just doesn’t end for the traumatized football and hockey fans of Buffalo. And, it’s possible that only a professional sports team from the… Read More

Campbell Needs Some Help

TORONTO (Jan. 20) — There is nothing so debilitating in professional sport as emotional fatigue. It occurs, primarily, when an athlete is called upon to shoulder a disproportionate load for his team. Such as with Jack Campbell and the Toronto… Read More

The Beast of the West

TORONTO (Jan. 18) — Undoubtedly, this blog will be considered sacrilege by fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs… and by the horde of mainstream media that covers the team as a publicity branch of ownership. Both factions keep hands off… Read More

Hey Leafs: Look Out From Behind!

TORONTO (Jan. 14) — It is quite the paradox. Though the Toronto Maple Leafs have the best record in modern franchise history after 35 games (23–9–3 for 49 points), there’s a chance the club may need to qualify for the… Read More

Leafs Are In A World of Cap Hurt

TORONTO (Jan. 11) — I keep reading how the “tightly bonded” dressing room of the Toronto Maple Leafs cannot be disrupted by such a miscreant as Evander Kane. At the same time, I remind myself that the Leafs, amid doting… Read More

The Dubious Leafs/COVID Charade

TORONTO (Jan. 6) — Does anyone out there have an answer? Better yet, is any person holding a National Hockey League media credential willing to ask a simple question? To wit: Why are some games in Canadian cities being postponed… Read More

No Mystery with Leafs… or Oilers

TORONTO (Jan. 4) — How circumstances have changed amid a pair of Canadian teams, two time zones apart, in the National Hockey League. Early in the now–fractured 2021–22 season, the Toronto Maple Leafs appeared disoriented, indifferent and on the cusp… Read More

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