Editor's Note: As a reminder that today is the last day to enter the Five Reasons You Love Hockey contest. Here's bkblades excellent entry. Don't be shy about entering. No one's judging you. Except for Chemmy. He's always judging you.

I haven't been around PPP as much as I would have liked recently, but that may be a good thing. For you see, this site is an addiction of sorts. One of the few who linger and read the site starting from 2 in the morning, my vampire hours would be missing that fill of Leafs related goodness without this site. Anyway, as a way to show that I can contribute more than just snide remarks and random commentary about how Sergei Berezin was the Greatest Leaf player of All-Time(TM), here's my attempt to explain why I fell in love with hockey.

1. I am Canadian - In 1965, George Grant penned one of the most analyzed and important pieces of Canadian literature in the last century with "Lament for a Nation". In it, Grant essentially argues that Canadian identity is a constant, but losing battle between British and American imperialism. Thus, there really is no such thing as a true Canadian identity. While Grant exaggerates the importance of having such a clear national identity and seemingly ignores the immigrant experience to said nationalism, there is much difficulty in determining what makes a Canadian. Though hardly universal, hockey for me is what being Canadian is all about. An unassuming sport that seems to be fully intertwined only in this country, loving hockey was one of the ways I saw myself as a Canadian. Instantly, I developed a patriotic fervour, an arrogance that hockey is Canada's game, and willingly adopted the stereotype that I am Canadian and I love hockey.

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I understand TSN's point here when they're comparing the two teams, which is the noticeable discrepancy of draft picks accumulated from 2003 to 2011. Basically, the author illustrates that Toronto will have only drafted 16 players in the first three rounds of the draft since 2003, while Los Angeles will have drafted 38 players during the same time. Never mind, the author is being very presumptuous that both Los Angeles and Toronto will stay the course for both the 2010 and 2011 drafts, but this evaluation is only one aspect of how a team evaluates draft picks.

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In amidst the Phoenix and Balsille trials, the NHL playoffs, and the recently concluded Memorial Cup, THN and Ken Campbell manages to do it again: a potshot at the Leafs and their fans. No doubt to fufill the daily quota.

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As per TSN when I checked the front page,

Maple Leafs forward Matt Stajan didn't take part in practice today because of blurry vision after getting hit in the eye with a soccer ball while warming up. His status for Sunday's game in Washington is unknown.

I had a good laugh with this one. And then I became very concerned for LD - not the "Fuck me" eyes!!!! This might turn out to be devestating news.

But seriously, do the Leafs not know how to play soccer properly? Kyle Wellwood broke his foot playing indoor footie not too long ago while "rehabbing", now Stajan had the brilliant idea to stop moving objects with his face. What next, we catch a video of Ryan Hollweg dry humping a soccer ball to music, ony to find out he's out with a "lower body' injury? Actually, that may not be a bad thing...

When a team is undergoing a transitional stage, IE. rebuilding, an organization usually fits under two categories:

1. Young team still amassing more youth;
   
2. Mixed team of veteran and youth that could go either way; full rebuild or merely "reloading"
   

It's probably safe to say the Leafs fit into the second category right now. The Leafs lie virtually in the middle in terms of average age at 27.71 years as of October 2008 (http://www.fromtherink.com/2008/10/24/641764/nhl-teams-by-age), but the Leafs also don't have a lot of guys over 31 years of age. And unlike a mixed team that is building around a young star or merely adding complementary pieces to star players in their prime, the Leafs don't yet have that catalyst. There are a few that could develop into nice core players and Luke Schenn has the potential to turn into that superstar, but at this point, the Leafs have a mish-mash of players who aren't guaranteed to remain on this team at the end of the season. And this is the riskiest position for a team to be in their so-called rebuild stage.

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"It's a tough one," Clark admitted. "We battled back in Game 6 to tie it and hoping we could get there and we just weren't able to finish it off. We got the penalty late in that game that made us shorthanded. That's the game that everybody wanted Wayne to get the penalty because of his faceoff high-stick. So, all that controversy. It wasn't meant to be or we would have been able to win it."

-- Wendel Clark, talking about you know what

History: Clark's No. 17 to be honored on Saturday night

Nothing groundbreaking in terms of new information, but really glad to see nhl.com noting the significance of Saturday. There's also a brief interview of Wendel Clark with Mike Ulmer, too. What's more satisfying is that his feature comes up before Patrick Roy on the front page - hah, take that Les Canadiens!