One Toronto Maple Leafs fan would like to tell you how he really feels

After the jump is a video of full-time Leafs fan and part-time crazy guy Jeff Morris (Sens_Suck on Twitter) letting the world know that Toronto will be out of the playoffs for the sixth straight season.

This is quite unbelievable, actually. Video description: 'NOOOOOO...... THE STANLEY CUP WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OURS THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!'.

People should stop asking Brian Burke for his opinion on things, cause you know what it will be

Can you guess which outspoken National Hockey League GM is up in arms over the results of the NHLPA player's poll that CBC rolled out this weekend at the All-Star Game?

If you guessed "Brian Burke", congratulations. You have a firm grasp on the obvious. Turns out Burkie took exception to a couple of the answers that the players ended up with.

What numbers can tell us about a tie game

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames played, with respect to both their fanbases, an absolutely meaningless game Thursday night to a 5-2 home-side victory at the Saddledome. Regardless of it being a mid-season game between two teams that won't make the playoffs, it doesn't mean we can't digest some of the numbers.

I didn't watch this game, but NHL.com has set itself up in such a way that I hardly needed to. All you truly need is the play-by-play feed and a handy spreadsheet, and you can plot the game on a graph complete with momentum changes and scoring chances.

Anatomy of a 3-goal comeback

It pains me to say, but it's fun watching the Toronto Maple Leafs as a neutral observer. I also hate to say that they're winning games as your lunch-pail gang that Don Cherry loves. They can't score goals, they can't get shots on net, and half of their goaltending monster can't make a save this season.

They've had two dramatic comeback shootout wins in consecutive games, once at home to Tyler Seguin and once on the road in Washington, a game they shouldn't even have been in.

Coach's Corner transcript: Grapes takes on Karl Marx

Don Cherry is a national treasure. Don Cherry also says a lot of stupid things during the first intermission of Toronto Maple Leafs games. After taking on Leafs fans, PK Subban, Alexander Ovechkin and praising Henrik Karlsson (for the same things Subban and Ovechkin do), Don went after the media. The following is a transcript of what he said. Take it away, Grapes.

Expansion franchise: Hamilton Boo Birds

[Frank Chartrand - AP]

Ontario hockey teams are not very good, are they? Both got shutout last night at home, both were booing their own teams, and neither look like they'll make it to the playoffs anytime soon without some serious housekeeping.

A brief look at Hockey Night in Canada

In a move up there with the Edmonton Oilers firing their training staff, the butthurt guys at the Ottawa Citizen suggested last week that the team ban Toronto Maple Leaf fans from Senators' home games.

Why is this relevant? Because the Leafs and Sens game is the early game on Hockey Night tonight; neither team is really good this year at a combined 18-26 and both team has found a way to manage a loss to the other!

Here is what a Leafs General Manager looks like

No, Brian Burke is not looking at Mason Raymond's winning goal for the Canucks against the Toronto Maple Leafs through a pair of binoculars. For one, Raymond was so far away that there is no way that the two would fit into the same frame, and for two, the gap in JS Giguere's legs was large enough to be easily seen from the press box.

Canadian women win Gold Cup! Stamkos to Maple Leafs!

Sometime last night after Conan came on and before his act got too stale to put you asleep, you may have done some channel surfing and stumbled across a tape-delay of the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup Final match between Canada and Mexico.

Sometime between the time after you stopped channel surfing long enough to watch women's soccer and before Craig Ferguson came on, you may have seen Christine Sinclair's second-half penalty that gave Canada a 1-0 win.

Dion Phaneuf: The Shakespearean Tragedy

Dion Phaneuf may go down in history as that guy who made a career out of being really really good in junior and playing on the strongest World Junior team we'll ever see. Everything after the lockout, and, well, Phaneufs career has really gone to shits.

Two thoughts involving Leafs and Canucks

It's already Tuesday and I only just watched the crazy end to the Montreal/Toronto CFL game this week, so I may as well just do what I do best and draw unsuspecting Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks fans to this blog by having them type their favourite teams into Google and having this post pop up.

For $150K, you too can buy Maple Leafs season tickets

To be fair, they are pretty good seats. If there was any wonder why Maple Leaf Sport and Entertainment doesn't really care all that much about improving the fortunes of the Leafs, Raptors or Toronto FC, it may be because there are people out there who think that selling the right to buy season tickets (for life!) is a possibility. On Kijiji, of course, for $150K.

Unfortunately, they're at the end where the Leafs shoot twice, meaning you'll only have the play in front of you one third of the time.

Leafs strategy: Send Orr after goalie

Yeah, so this Jordan Eberle kid is alright

So, these Edmonton Oilers are fun to watch, aren't they? Or at least just this one time. This is probably the goal of the night, also featuring Ian White refusing to take both the man and the puck, and TJ Brodie somehow being outskated by Jordan Eberle.

Outside of Hedley and a long, convoluted, corny Olympics-esque opening ceremony at the Air Canada Centre, it was a pretty good return of hockey. Toronto and Edmonton had wins at home against a depleted Montreal team and a Flames team that's really just terrible, respectively, but it signaled a return of hope to two teams that looked in disrepair at January of last season.

Eberle notches his first goal in Oilers win
A good start in a year Leafs will fight for relevance

Buffalo are in Ottawa tonight. I guess I can't wait for that.

The Good Old Hockey Game - A look at the NHL season

The NHL season starts tomorrow, and every blog likes to put together a gimmicky look at the season. There's no reason The 'Eh' Factor can't get involved in this. Here are some lulz and predictions to get you ready for the season.

Toronto media continues to pile on Leafs prospect, and other hockey stories

Nazem Kadri, to nobody's surprise, was sent down to the Toronto Marlies yesterday, and Leafs nation's Barilkosphere outlets responded quite rationally. I still have yet to read a post from a reputable Leafs source which has declared Kadri a "bust" or other fancy terms Canucks had reserved for Cody Hodgson after his dissapointing preseason last year.

So, what say you, Toronto Sun?

Nazem Kadri is your saviour, Toronto

-Earlier this week, Toronto Maple Leafs blog Pension Plan Puppets went to town on potential first-round flop Nazem Kadri. The Puppets explain how poorly Kadri is playing compared to the average developmental curve of prospects and completely ignore the reasonable approach taken by the Toronto Sun.

Or something completely opposite of that.

Kadri scored twice and had an assist in the Leafs' 4-3 exhibition win against the Ottawa Seators last night. Kadri still probably won't make the team and may be better off playing a full season in the American League, but his three-point night set up for one of the stupider ledes of the preseason.

It most surely was a slump at the most inopportune time of his young career.

Oh, sure, that makes sense. God forbid Kadri ever goes a couple of games without a point in the preseason ever again.

-Meanwhile, in Calgary, Flames president Ken King has called out TSN panelist Michael Peca for calling out Flames designated problem contract Jay Bouwmeester.

The whole drama erupted Tuesday night when TSN panelist Michael Peca said he used to look forward to playing against Jay Bouwmeester, because he coughed the puck up so much.

Strong words, to be sure. And it didn't die there.

On Wednesday afternoon, in a radio interview with Rob Kerr and Dean Molberg on the Fan 960, Flames president Ken King lashed out at the audacity of Peca, a former player, saying such things.

“I think it was out of line,” King said in an interview with The Fan 960. “It was a guy talking about his peer. His colleague. Someone who he has played with.....To diss and take such a low-brow approach to laughing at or ridiculing one of the premier defencemen in the league, I just think is completely inappropriate.”

In fairness to Peca, King has probably never skated against Bouwmeester.

-In Montreal, Brian Gionta was named the 2nd ever American captain in Franchise history leading to more concerns that the captain of the Habs can't speak French. The only reasonable solution is to move to Tampa, commence covering the Lightning, drag Vinny Lecavalier down and force Steve Yzerman to trade him to Montreal.

Here's an old link on a Vincent Lecavalier to Montreal for Louis Leblanc RDS story.

This is a tall order for Gionta.

Toronto Star starts 'A Leafs Fan Blogs'

Rejoice, faire fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Star has heard your pain, and have given you an outlet to talk about the team online.

With 'The Spin' by Damien Cox and now our generically-named first-stop online ressource for cutting-edge Leafs opinions by a guy named Vinay Menon, the Toronto Star have managed to pull themselves out of what I call the 'Google Obscurity' and no longer just be for blue-collar lunchrooms across Southern Ontario.

Windsor Star predicts Toronto/Detroit in 2137 Stanley Cup Final

In today's Windsor Star, print media continued its slow demise announcing a Detroit/Toronto Stanley Cup Finals game in 2137, before repeating a news brief eight or nine times.

The joke here is that CBC won't exist the next time the Leafs make the finals, right?

Three news bits somewhat related to Canadian sports

Number one:

The curse of the Montreal Expos strikes again, as the face of the franchise, pitching and the future of baseball

Number two:
We all know that Brian Burke wants to balance his Top 6 and his Bottom 6. What he doesn't seem to realize is that those terms are reserved for forwards, and not defensemen.

Number three:

The Edmonton Oilers now employ a convicted drunk driver, and no, they haven't re-hired Craig MacTavish. This one comes with a free catchy tabloid title, KHABI-BOOZIN!