Why Leafs Fans Are Devastated

TORONTO (Oct. 25) — Without question, the morale of Leafs Nation has plummeted far beneath a reasonable grade for the fourth week of October. And, the answer is simple: the 7–1 beatdown in Pittsburgh on Saturday night wasn’t merely the… Read More

Torts in Toronto? Oh My!

TORONTO (Oct. 24) — If you believe that 54½ years is not sufficient time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to launch into crisis mode, stop reading this blog right now…. Okay, thanks for hanging with me. I figured you might.… Read More

Leafs Look Frighteningly Familiar

TORONTO (Oct. 23) — Be it the second week of the regular season, or a decisive playoff match with an historic foe, the Toronto Maple Leafs do not change. For whatever reason, the nucleus of this club has such limited… Read More

Marner Needs His Mojo

TORONTO (Oct. 20) — Mitch Marner has lost his confidence. Nick Ritchie is a bust. Michael Bunting can score 35 goals. “Soooooouup!” will win the Vezina Trophy. Which are not only the sentiments of those that follow the Maple Leafs… Read More

It Felt Strange… and a Little Sad

TORONTO (Oct. 19) — On Monday night, I went to a Leafs game at Scotiabank Arena for the first time in five years. You may recall, there were many times when I’d attend at Leafs home game for the first… Read More

Signs of Panic… With 80 Games Left

TORONTO (Oct. 16) — God bless the boys on the TSN Radio Overdrive panel. I watch or listen rather frequently and enjoy the repartee between Bryan Hayes, Jamie (Noodles) McLennan and Jeff O’Neill. Whenever the Toronto Maple Leafs are topical,… Read More

Cheerleading Starts Early

TORONTO (Oct. 14) — This is a different era of newspaper sports reporting; a throwback, in some ways, to the 1950’s and 60’s, when the Maple Leafs paid travel expenses for writers that followed the team on the road. The… Read More

Same Cast, Different Result?

TORONTO (Oct. 13) — It was another wallop of truth from the only Toronto sports columnist that gives us the goods, completely unvarnished. In a cheeky preview of Canadian teams heading into the 2021–22 National Hockey League season, Cathal Kelly… Read More

Abandoned By MLSE

TORONTO (Oct. 8) — What is going to become of the Toronto Argonauts? Under no reasonable circumstance can the oldest professional sports team in North America survive by drawing less than 10,000 fans per game. On Wednesday night, with the… Read More

Well, It’s Hockey Season

TORONTO (Oct. 3) — Yes, it would have been exciting for Toronto baseball fans to see the Blue Jays in the playoffs. The 2021 team, in my view, could have challenged for the World Series… and that’s coming from an… Read More

The Torturous Routine Continues

TORONTO (Sep. 29) — The Internet is a fascinating place; sadly and ominously dangerous, as we know, but also the home of innocuous human behavior. It’s a place where quixotic people gather to commiserate and deliberately punish themselves. Nowhere is… Read More

Still The Biggest Problem

TORONTO (Sep. 25) — It is nearly four months since we last saw the Toronto Maple Leafs in action… and nothing has changed. To be honest, nothing of import has changed with the hockey club for 45 years, which is… Read More

Only In Toronto, I Say

TORONTO (Sep. 20) — I am forever amazed by the inflationary contrast. All media companies affiliated with Rogers and Bell — bitter rivals that control 75% of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment just so the other won’t be in control… Read More

Goaltending The Lone Mystery

TORONTO (Sep. 15) — For the second time in six months, the Toronto Star has dipped into the Rogers Media empire for a sports columnist. Last March, it was Mike Wilner coming aboard to write about the Toronto Blue Jays.… Read More

20 Years Ago This Morning

TORONTO (Sep. 11) — It began for me, on that fateful Tuesday, as it did for so many others: with a telephone call. I was packing a suitcase for a mid–afternoon flight to St. John’s, Nfld. (or so I figured)… Read More

After This Season, It’s Over

TORONTO (Sep. 3) — Whether you revere John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander for their wondrous scoring exploits in the regular season — or detest them for repetitive deficiency in the Stanley Cup playoffs — this season… Read More

A Decade of Wayne Gretzky Cards

TORONTO (Aug. 28) — Perhaps I’m a bit late to the party considering it was three months ago — on May 27 — that a Wayne Gretzky rookie card from the 1979–80 O–Pee–Chee set sold for $3.75 million (U.S.), the… Read More

20 Coaches, No Finals, No Cups

TORONTO (Aug. 25) — When the Maple Leafs open training camp in September, they will, for the first time, attempt to terminate the longest drought in Stanley Cup history — a dubious honor shared, until this year, with the New… Read More