Boston Bruins

No Surprise: Leafs Rated Highly

TORONTO (Sep. 2) — For as long as I can remember, dating to my grade–school years, there have been magazines that preview the National Hockey League. In the mid–to–late 1960’s, my dad brought home these items — whereupon I would… Read More

Babcock/Andersen Will Shape Leafs

TORONTO (Aug. 16) — When the Maple Leafs begin training camp at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls, Ont. less than a month from now (Sep. 14), most eyes will be on John Tavares, the Toronto boy that signed a… Read More

Leafs/Habs in New Territory

TORONTO (Aug. 11) — For so many years in the post–1967 (or expansion) era of the National Hockey League, it was unthinkable that the Toronto Maple Leafs would be acres ahead of the Montreal Canadiens. Fans of both clubs are… Read More

Rogers Needs to Sell the Blue Jays

TORONTO (Aug. 9) — Through much of the 1980’s, a haunting refrain could be heard with respect to the pitiable Toronto Maple Leafs: The club would never win anything of consequence until Harold Ballard died. Once that event occurred —… Read More

The Silence Is Deafening

TORONTO (Aug. 4) — This will not be the worst season, by record, in the 42 years since the Toronto Blue Jays joined Major League Baseball — a distinction that belongs to the 1979 club, which compiled a mark of… Read More

Not… Good… Enough

TORONTO (July 19) — The prevailing response to the Raptors trading DeMar DeRozan this week was so Toronto. The city that has hardly ever known prosperity among its major sports teams went all mushy. “Poor, mistreated” DeMar has to take… Read More

Let’s Go Through This Again

TORONTO (July 8) — In responding to my “How Delusion Festers” blog of late–Friday (http://bit.ly/2KXRIF4) — and, particularly, to my long–held conviction that the Maple Leafs will likely not win the Stanley Cup without a Norris Trophy type on the… Read More

Babcock Must ‘C’ This Through

TORONTO (July 3) — So, we wonder, even more curiously: What did Mike Babcock discuss with Auston Matthews during their post–playoff summit in Arizona? You remember: Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet claiming, after the Maple Leafs were bounced from the opening… Read More

The Leafs Would Have to Trade

TORONTO (June 29) — Isn’t it deliciously coincidental that the home of the Maple Leafs, on the very day that John Tavares could choose to ply his trade on Bay St., changes title from an airline to a bank? Yes… Read More

Tavares “Could Easily” Be A Leaf

TORONTO (June 25) — This is one man’s opinion and I have some difficulty sharing it. But, the one man — an amateur scout in the National Hockey League — has been around so long, he remembers watching John Tavares… Read More

The Funeral of Hope

TORONTO (May 27) — It was 25 years ago tonight. Really. May 27, 1993 in Inglewood, California. On the Berger calendar, it ranks as the most compelling game involving the Maple Leafs that yours truly has attended — as a… Read More

The Tavares/Matthews Conundrum

TORONTO (May 21) — Thinking logically, one would have to assume that any overture the Maple Leafs are considering for John Tavares — should he opt to leave the New York Islanders as an unrestricted free agent this summer —… Read More

Leafs Kept Their Promise

TORONTO (May 12) — After the extraordinary maneuver of preventing a young executive from advancement in the National Hockey League, the Toronto Maple Leafs came through for Kyle Dubas. Though Dubas was given permission, last summer, to be interviewed by… Read More