Editor's Note: JohnnyG was riled up about the latest iteration of "maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs should get dropped from Hockey Night in Canada". So riled up in fact that he put together the cold hard numbers that should forever put this familiar hobbyhorse to rest. Imagine if the Leafs were good!

Recently there was an article in the Toronto Sun written by Rob Longley that surmised after speaking with Scott Moore (Executive Director of CBC Sports) via e-mail that the Leafs could possible be dropped from the HNIC national broadcast. I put up a fanshot on the article here. He deduces (with some sort of logic that I cannot comprehend) that the Leafs may be dropped due to falling ratings and then quickly backs that up with ratings numbers that show that they are the most watched sports show in Canada. This train of logic makes about as much sense as a Drunken Don Cherry Rant.

Well the article got me into a bit of a fight with a co-worker. I explained that I highly doubted that it was anything more then lip service given that the CBC will likely run the games that gives them the highest ratings. They argued that I could not possibly know that. I pointed out that it in fact happened multiple times in 2008-2009 that Toronto actually had a Saturday off. I am sure most of the members of this site can remember those Saturdays last December; we were all kinds of lost and bored on Saturday night.

In any case, I started out to find out proof of my assertion and with the help of blindfolded tank driver I was able to find a site that contained Rankings for Canadian Television. All of the ratings and viewership numbers were taken from www.bbm.ca individual links here, in the national archive.

A couple of notes before you look at the data. There are 27 Saturdays in the regular season in 2008-2009, 26 if you deduct the day off for the all-star game. In total there was 3 Saturdays in which the Leafs did not play (4 if you include the all-star game). Secondly I was going to include the 2nd HNIC game of the night in the calculation for a reference but unfortunately out of the 26 weeks they only made the top 30 lists 6 times, and anything outside of the top 30 was not recorded in the archives.

Full data table and summary notes after the jump.

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As I was reading through the recent question thread regarding the AL West I remarked that I thought it was funny that everyone was all over the map with the Oakland team. Well instead of just saying that I decided to added up all of the votes taken thus far in that thread and the previous two threads and post the results here.

As shown I was actually off base with the Oakland statement, And actually it was Texas and Boston that showed a wide range of choices. On the other end of the spectrum it was Seattle, Tampa Bay, KC and Minnesota where only two choices per team emerged.

Note: I totaled the results at 5PM Eastern time so there may be more votes to come in the West thread.

The results after the Jump! I have bolded the winners names if you just want to scan the article quickly.

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Promoted from Fanposts - Brilliant!  - Hugo

I shamelessly stole this idea from MF37 over at the Bitter Leaf Fan Blog.... Don't hurt me MF37!

You know, around here we can pick on the Blue Jay reporters a lot. It can be a tough business and it is hard work to stay so negative for such a long time. I tell ya I feel sorry for the guys. Not only to they have to be able to generate page views in the hockey off-season but they have to compete with each other in a cut-throat I'll scoop you before you scoop me business. And in the age of Twitter? Forget about it.

So as I sat around drinking my Pop sitting at my desk while I should be working, I couldn't help but think of those poor writers and especially the new ones trying to break into the industry. I thought to myself it just isn't fair! There must be something I can do!

Fear not Fearless Reporters! JohnnyG is here to help! I have invented this handy dandy flow chart to help guide you along the path of writing for the Jays. Good Luck! And God Speed! With any luck you'll be the next Dick Griffin.

Click on the image for full and clearer view

via usera.imagecave.com