leafs Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Toronto Maple Leafs Are Encouraging Their Own Fans To "Watch Paint Dry Live!"
Ah, those self-deprecating Canadians. If you love watching a Zamboni resurface the ice—and who doesn't?—here's your chance to watch some folks apply paint to the subsurface, live. Apparently this means hockey season might be starting sometime?...

Maple Leafs Ownership Apologizes To Fans For Yet Another Shitty Season
The Panthers, winners of the Southeast, released a video taking shots at all the critics who said they weren't going to be a good hockey team. (They're not a good hockey team, but whatever.) But Florida's playoff appearance means something in the bigger picture: the Toronto Maple Leafs are now the o...

Stay Sober Around Gary Bettman
We missed this when it ran Tuesday, but we'd like to bring to your attention the memoirs of Richard Stursberg, former head of CBC. The excerpt that ran in Maclean's concerns his 2006 negotiations with Gary Bettman over the league's television contract. We pick things up at a chi-chi Italian restaura...

When The Maple Leafs Went To War
Do you follow the RealTimeWWII Twitter account? You should. It's fascinating, educational, and often briefly frightening when you see something about invading Russians out of the corner of your eye....

Don't Ask Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke About His Job Security
That's what John Moore of Newstalk 1010 did yesterday, albeit by first noting that "a lot of people" think Burke ought to be fired. With even Don Cherry calling Burke out for, of all things, not stocking his roster with any Ontario natives, it was worth asking Burke about what kind of pressure he m...

Don Cherry Hates Americans, American Colleges And Brian Burke
On the most recent episode of Don Cherry's personal megaphone, Coach's Corner, the flamboyant Cherry addressed some concerns he had about Brian Burke's recent dismissal of Maple Leafs' coach Ron Wilson....

Canucks Fan Throws Large Salmon Onto Ice To Honor Dead Son
There's nothing more tragic in life than an uncompleted mission. So when Roger Paquette, from Nanaimo, BC, attended Saturday's Leafs/Canucks game with a five-pound Chinook salmon strapped to his body, he was only doing what his son never lived to: throw a fish on the ice in the middle of a hockey ...

ESPN.com Passes Along Kessel-For-Nash Rumor, As Reported By Fake Pierre McGuire Twitter Account
ESPN's rumor section is a place to find some of the more out-there trade possibilities, so we don't go in expecting everything prophesied to come true. We just kind of hope that when a blockbuster trade possibility is floated, the source is a real person....

A Fine Example Of The Rare Post-Goal Hockey Fight
This is the sort of thing you don't see every day, which could also be said about Scott Gomez's goal tonight. But this was fun too!...

"Somebody Fucking Go": Broadcaster Mocks Dion Phaneuf's Girly Voice When He Thinks He's In Commercial
Ray Ferraro called TSN's broadcast of Leafs/Penguins tonight, and as sometimes happens with online streams (in this case, the NHL's GameCenter Live), viewers watching during televised ad breaks were treated to a live mic. And while we've heard announcers swear before, hearing Ferraro take a stab a...

Please Don't Keep Your Concussion A Secret
On Saturday, Maple Leafs pest Colby Armstrong collided with Ryan Kesler. Armstrong was diagnosed with a broken toe. On Monday, he was throwing up and had blurred vision. Previously questionable for last night's game, Armstrong is now out indefinitely with a concussion, one he kept to himself for nea...

Dion Phaneuf's Dad Gets High Fives After His Son Decapitates A Ranger
The NHL's radical realignment means four conferences that will need names, so how about the Michael Sauer Memorial Conference after the late Rangers defenseman, taken in the prime of his life by this clean hit from last night. Just kidding! He's not dead. He's being evaluated by doctors with an "u...

There's A Great Salad Bar At Maple Leaf Gardens: The Second And Third Lives Of The Original Six Arenas
While we're on the topic of the sad fates of arenas without teams, it's worth noting that this week saw the beginning of a rebirth for the old Maple Leaf Gardens. The art deco masterpiece, which the Leafs abandoned for new downtown digs in 1999, is a National Historic Site. But lying largely dormant...

Brian Burke Was Going To Rent A Barn To Fight Kevin Lowe Until Gary Bettman Intervened
Brian Burke has rapidly become one of the most stand-up guys in hockey, after his unqualified support for his out-of-the-closet son Brendan and his own anti-bullying campaign in Brendan's memory. He wasn't always so cuddly—in a great interview with The Score, Burke relates how he nearly came to blow...

Predators Player Breaks Away On Empty Net, Sends Puck Flying Over The Crossbar
Craig Smith channeled Patrik Stefan in the third period of the Predators' 4-1 win in Nashville last night. Sometimes, I guess, the net just looks that big....

Maybe Justin Bieber Isn't The Most Loyal Maple Leafs Fan After All
Yesterday Bieber went on the radio and gushed about his Leafs fandom, being from Ontario and all. No bandwagoner he. Today he's rocking the Blackhawks cap....

Justin Bieber Is A More Dedicated Sports Fan Than You
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: the Biebs is a Maple Leafs fan, so he can't be a bandwagoner, right?...

Wade Belak, Another NHL Enforcer, Found Dead (UPDATE: A Suicide, According To <em>Toronto Sun</em>)
Longtime NHL defenseman Wade Belak, who spent much of his career with the Maple Leafs, was found dead at 35 today in his Toronto hotel, according to a report from QMI Agency in Canada....

Maple Leafs' Swedish Goalie Prospect Is A Terrible Rapper
Toronto signed Mark "In Da Park" Owuya, a 21-year-old goalie prospect from Sweden, to an entry-level contract on Thursday. Last season, Da Park had a 2.18 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage in goal for Djurgarden, of the Swedish Elite League....

One Ref's Fall Over A Ceremonial Carpet Is Another Ref's Fall Over The Same Ceremonial Carpet
We're not sure where this clip came from, as the Leafs missed out on the playoffs for the sixth straight year this season, but sometimes — like when two men whose job it is to be alert on ice fail to observe and avoid the same ceremonial carpet laid out in front of them, for example — context just...