Quote of the day

“[Leaf fans] cry about everything [...] ,” said [Chris] Neil.

Toronto: The Worst Sports City in the World

Marche's column in Grantland - a sweet read.

BoO preseason Round 2

Round 1 in the preseason tilt saw the Leafs win 4-2

Tonight in Ottawa it's round 2 with the following lineups:

Sens via @TSNScottyMac:
Greening-Spezza-Filatov
Foligno-Regin-Condra
Hoffman-Zibanejad-Butler
Daugavins-Smith-Neil
Gonchar-Borowiecki
Cowen-Karlsson,
Rundblad-Lee.
G: Lehner, McKenna

That's back to back games for Zibanejad, Greening, Cowen, and Rundblad as the rookies are getting a good look. No DaCosta in for this one surprisingly as he didn't play last night either.

Leafs via @jonasTSN1050:
MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin
Lupul-Kadri-Kessel
Frattin-Boyce-Armstrong
Rosehill-Dupuis-Orr/Crabb
Liles-Schenn
Gunnarsson-Phaneuf
Aulie-Franson

Rookie Gardiner gets a night off in a busy preseason for him. Frattin getting a long look up front.

Muscle

Interesting column by Cox today here.

He talks about the choice between Rosehill or Orr to be the Leafs 'muscle'. He has includes these lines:

Nuclear deterrent, is what he likes to call it. The favourite example of the need for such a player you'll hear in Leaf circles is that Chris Neil of the Senators, a frequent opponent, is less likely to be uber-aggressive when there's a big pair of fists waiting for him

Not sure I agree with that.

Sens-Jets game today

A couple of the player tandems caught my eye:
- Zibanejad and Alfie
- Smith and Neil
- Cowen and Karlsson

Go Sens!

Cup odds

Via Bodog

Canucks 7/1
Habs 25/1
Flames 40/1
Leafs 50/1
Jets 60/1
Oilers 65/1
Sens 70/1

The fix is in!!!!

Can't believe it.

Saw on Twitter today a mention of the Sens B2B games and many being against the Leafs.

Well, it turns out all 6 Battle of Ontario games are after a Sens game the night before and only one takes place after a Leaf game the night before.

October 8th in Toronto - Sens in Detroit the night before
October 30th in Ottawa - Sens play the Rangers the night before (Leafs in Toronto against the Pens )
November 12th in Toronto - Sens at Buffalo the night before
January 17th in Toronto - Sens at home the night before against the Jets
February 4th in Ottawa - Sens at home the night before against the Islanders
March 17th in Ottawa - Sens at home the night before against Montreal

Bullshit.

Quick learner!

Exhibition Battle

Expected lineups:

Sens:
Auld/Lehner to split duties
Kuba-Karlsson
Weirchosh-Conboy
Cowen-Runblad
Filatov-Regin-Butler
Michalek-Zibanejad-Stone
Greening-Smith-Neil
Hoffman-Kenopka-Lessard

Leafs:
Gustavsson/Scrivens
Aulie-Phaneuf
Liles-Lashoff
Gardiner-Gunnarsson
MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin
Kadri-Bozak-Armstrong
Frattin-Colborne-Crabb
Ryan-Dupuis-Rosehill

The game is on LeafsTV.

Can't wait for the 2015 season!

Hockey Prospectus 2011-12

Leaf players:
22. Joe Colborne, Center
87. Jake Gardiner, Defense
104. Jesse Blacker, Defense

Ottawa players:
17. David Rundblad, Defense
21. Mika Zibanejad, Left Wing
40. Nikita Filatov, Right Wing
46. Stephane Da Costa, Center
76. Jared Cowen, Defense
85. Jakob Silfverberg, Right Wing
90. Patrick Wiercioch, Defense

And goalie prospects:
4. Robin Lehner, Ottawa Senators

New Revenue Sources!

Press Releases
Toronto Maple Leafs
August 15, 2013

Dave Nonis, General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brian Burke, President and CEO of MLSE announced Friday that the hockey club has signed a multi year agreement with The Bank of Montreal for sponsorship of the hockey club.

The agreement allows the club to sign underachieving defencemen going forward as well as to sign unproven goalies for well into the next decade.

"We will continue the Maple Leaf tradition of overpaying veterans and rewarding career years with highly questionable contracts" said Burke.

"The move is a natural progression of the Maple Leafs move to drive revenue beyond traditional sources that was started two years ago with our Purolator agreement. We are looking for more ways to improve MLSE shareholder value in the future and will look at every opportunity"

Baby Battle of Ontario

It's a game day thread.

Leafs vs Sens 7:00pm

 The winner doesn't get a trophy. But they do win the tourney.

 Ottawa fans, not sure if you can get this on cable TV in your neck of the woods, but this is running on Mapleleafs.com starting at 7:30pm (for some reason giving Rogers cable a 30 minute head start), so anybody, anywhere, can watch it. 

We're less then a week away from our first BoO pre-season match. Lets kick this season off with some venom.

Getting closer...

Rookie camp underway.

Da Costa with a hatty in a Sens 6-5 win over the Hawks Cowick scored two and Lehner got the shutout in the tournament opening 4-0 win over the Pens rookies.

The Leafs rookies also won both of their first two games beating the Hawks 4-2 with Gardiner getting some ink and then they beat the Pens 5-1.

The Rookie Battle of Ontario takes place tomorrow night.


I've been watching some of the Rugby World Cup as well. Check out the Rugby world's concussion protocol here! (go to 44:40 in the video or 37:50 on the game clock)
Ledesma gets knocked out cold from a knee to the head and then he's back out just over a minute after for the next play! Crazy.