Al Smith: A memorable taxi cab encounter with a thoughtful former Leaf

I remember going to a Leaf-Red Wing game with my Dad at the old Detroit Olympia one Sunday night in the mid-1960s. Both Johnny Bower and ...

Vintage Leaf Memories: something old, something new

With more than 300 posts behind us, Vintage Leaf Memories has developed a nice following over the past (almost) year. If you’re looking for...

Brian Burke: the latter-day Punch Imlach? Irony as Bruins use Leaf pick to take London center?

One of the intriguing things about Brian Burke is that, in addition to being an outstanding, savvy ...

No move to the first round for the Leafs; some early draft observations

Well, despite all the talk, the Leafs didn’t trade up into the first round. Just like last year when Burke was keen on moving up to get Jo...

Why it likely won’t be the Bruins as trade partners for the Leafs and Kaberle

Leaf fans are waiting for the shoe to drop -- the much-anticipated Tomas Kaberle deal. Reports suggest half a dozen or so teams are “serio...

Change of scenery would be good for Karberle; it sure was for former Leaf great Frank Mahovlich

Things can change quickly—for better and worse—in sports. Sometimes a player is in a situation wh...

Hall-of-Fame surprises; pre-draft trades gather steam; when does the Leaf shoe drop?

For a few years I’ve been hoping, as I posted yesterday, that Dino Ciccarelli would earn election to the NHL Hall-of-Fame. So I was please...

The time is right for Gilmour to join the Hall; other ex-Leafs under consideration?

The new inductees to the hockey Hall-of-Fame will be announced Tuesday afternoon and as I mentioned recently, arguing about who should—and...

It’s draft week: The best draft the Leafs ever had happened in 1973

Brian Burke will be working hard this week to get back some of those lost draft choices. As he has...

Ex-Leaf Paul Henderson: wonderful player, not a Hall-of-Famer

The new inductees to the hockey Hall-of-Fame will be announced early next week. Former Leaf and C...

If the Leafs wanted to go back to the future through free agency; free agent musings

As a lark, I thought it would be fun to see which former Maple Leafs are available in free agency, and whether you could build a team (of s...

Andy Bathgate: Ex-Leaf great class on and off the ice—New audio interview June 14, 2010

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, one of the best all-around players in hockey performed for one...

The fun begins now for Leaf fans: Is Schenn a trading piece?

Let’s face it: when your team finishes where the Leafs have for the past few seasons, you look for any signs of hope. But mostly, since yo...

What Leaf fans expect this off-season

One of the appealing things about the mid-season Phanuef deal was the fact that it was totally unexpected. Unless I was missing something, t...

Kane’s Cup winner was peculiar but you should have seen when Henri Richard kicked in the winner in '66

Much is being written, understandably so, about “the goal”- Patrick Kane’s Cup-winner on Wednesda...

Will it be in six games, like 1961, for the Hawks?

I’ve written over the past week and a bit about one of the classic Stanley Cup final match-ups of m...

Chris Pronger evokes, in a sense, memories of Gordie Howe

If the Flyers are somehow able to survive the annual Stanley Cup endurance marathon as winners, is ...

The Kulemin saga: the dance continues

Inevitably, most labor disputes are played out in public- and by design. Both parties want to get their message out, establish realistic pub...

The ‘hardest-working’ Maple Leafs from 1958 to the present

In previous posts, I’ve written about favorite Leafs and “all-time” teams built using various crit...