As I'm sure most Leaf fans know, on Tuesday December 1st, the federal government announced $20M infrastructure funding for the transformation of Maple Leaf Gardens into an athletic facility.

For the last while, I've been very fortunate to have been part of the team that worked on this inititiative.

As a Leafs fan, it's been an amazing experience to spend many hours inside Maple Leaf Gardens, a space that was witness to some incredible moments of Canadian history.  From Stanley Cup wins to Elvis, the Beatles, Winston Churchill and Tim Buck.

Sometime soon, I'll put up a post with some thoughts and hopefully lots of photographs, in the interim, here are some stunning photos of the Gardens taken a month or so ago by Toronto Star photographer (I don't think I can oversell how great these Star photos are) and some recent shots from a Flickr pool. 

And here are a few ideas of what the new space might look like:

A rendering of the building looking at the south east corner (Church and Carlton)

The interior: underground parking, retail at grade, an MLG heritage site, athletic facilities - including a rink - on two upper levels.

PPP has already proposed booking ice some time in 2011-12 for a Barilkosphere skate...

More photos » by Graham Hughes - AP

RW: Hey Timmy, you figured out where our stud picks are?

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An anonymous comment over at my blog Bitter Leaf Fan raised the question of how exactly the Leafs arrived in their current mess.

There’s not a single cause or easy explantion.

This franchise has gone through three, maybe even four, different phases since 2000, however; with the exception of one small window, all of these phases have focused on the short-term, sacrificing picks and prospects for a supposed fix.

After the jump, a look at the Leafs' propensity to deal away the future and the pile of pocket lint, loose change and used gum wrappers they got in return.

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Is this the low point for Leaf fans or does that come with a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday?

I'm just kidding, everyone knows the low point comes when the Leafs win the draft lottery in June and hockey fans around the world hear the story of the last time the Leafs had the #1 overall pick and selected Wendel Clark.

And with that little ray of sunshine, here's your emergency FTB (a bit of a scramble to get this up, post your links in the comments and I'll refresh throughout the day).

• Godd Till vents about last night's Leafs game over at Zambonic Youth. Looks like he's giving this team a time-out until they learn to play better
• Toronto Sports Media says this loss hurts more than most. Apparently the first cut isn't the deepest, it's the 11th (or is it the 16th?)
• General Borschevsky has a game review up.
• Over at Bitter Leaf, MF37 (hey that's me) wonders where will the talent come from to make the Leafs competitive again?
• Sports and the City has one word for this Leafs season and, surprisingly, it's not a profanity
• Truculence is Everything has a photo of one of the few bright spots from last night's tilt.
• Toronto Mike has a simple plan for the Leafs this year. Remarkably, it's one that Stajan seems to have mastered.
• Loser Domi haz a sad.

Rotoworld is reporting that Ottawa Senators Jason Spezza and Chris Neil "fought" each other at practice today.

No word on whether the contents of their purses were spilled during the incident.

Update: Here's video footage of the scrap:

"I don't know what happened," [Spezza] said. As teammates, sometimes you get into it. It was just a (spitting) match. I'll buy him lunch today. But I knew when he dropped the gloves, it was time to get out of there. Just stay at arm's length."

- Allan Panzeri, Ottawa Citizen

Too bad for Spezza that there weren't any linesmen on the ice or Neil would never have engaged.

Fan590 is reporting that Jonas Gustavsson has been placed on IR with a groin pull. Joey MacDonald has been called up on emergency recall (doesn't have to clear waivers).

It's estimated that Gustavsson will be out for at least one week. 

blurr update - Hot off the presses, the Canadian Press is now reporting the same:

The Toronto Maple Leafs placed Jonas Gustavsson on injured reserve Thursday morning with a groin injury and recalled fellow goaltender Joey MacDonald from the Toronto Marlies of the AHL.

Gustavsson, nicknamed The Monster, is expected to miss at least one week.

PPP Update: Chemmy and I have been tossing around ideas on how to deal with this news. Here is what we have:

How to commit suicide quickly and without a lot of fanfare

1. Cut femoral artery in a hot tub
2. Jump off of a bridge into ottawa traffic
3. The Wellwood - Try to eat as much as Kyle Wellwood

What ones can you come up with?

From Eliotte Friedman's Twitter feed

Interesting: Boston Globe pushes idea of Kessel/Dubinsky/Toronto/Boston/Rangers 3-way

Boston Globe is here:

With Burke willing to surrender his pair of first-round picks, he conceivably could flip one of those picks and possibly a prospect to the Rangers for Dubinsky, who last year connected for 13 goals and 41 points for the highly-mediocre Blueshirts. Burke then could turn around and offer Chiarelli the first-rounder and Dubinsky, the 60th pick overall in the 2004 draft, for Kessel.

Follow Friedman on twitter here.

More photos » by Darren Calabrese - AP

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending legend Johnny Bower watches Jason Allison get lapped yet again.

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As I type this, Elton John’s "Sad Songs" is trapped in my head like a fruit fly slowly drowning in a glass of wine.

Earlier today, one of my kids somehow managed to lodge "I Believe I Can Fly" in my brain pan. That dirge was like a poor mouse caught in the toxic glue-like sticky-trap that is my brain.

When author and mountaineer Joe Simpson broke his leg 26,000 feet up a mountain and was left for dead, dehydrated and hallucinating he said the worst part of his ordeal was he couldn’t get Boney M’s "Brown Girl in the Ring" out of his head.

Why is it that if a song is going to get stuck in your head, odds are it will be a bad one? Why can't it be a great song that takes root, putting a smile on your face?

After the jump, it's the training camp style return of five questions - an exhibition match of sorts featuring bad music, bad decisions, great goals and hair so bad it's good (or is it hair so good it's bad?) 

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More photos » by Charles Krupa - AP

Kessel leaves the Boston locker room, possibly for the last time.

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The secret transcript has become a staple of the blogosphere. There are a few men out there who have no secrets, one visit to a chatty cathy bloodbath knows Chemmy is one of these men.

Late yesterday afternoon, a twitter feed from AM640's Greg Brady touched off a frenzy of speculation as to where Bruins RFA Phil Kessel might be headed.

What follows is a transcript of an IM session between Chemmy and MF37 discussing the merits of Kessel and the potential cost to the Leafs.

The chat took place over two sessions, the first while Mf37 was making dinner for his kids and the second while Chemmy was watching an NFL game. In other words, the matter didn't exactly have their full, undivided attention.

The revealing of the not-so-secret transcript and an exchange of semi-formed ideas after the jump...

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From a transcript of Heatley's remarks during last week's media call.

Who would have guessed Dany Heatley and his tricky pal "think" could spend that much time together?

HT to Wordle for the cool service.

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

Defenseman Francois Beauchemin checks the clock to see how much time is left before Leaf camp opens.

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These are indeed the dog days of summer for hockey fans.

The big UFAs have been signed, execs have been fired and their replacements hired, the pre-season schedule has been announced but it seems further away than Dany Heatley doing the right thing.

Four weeks until Tomas Kaberle's trade window closes.

Nearly eight weeks until Leaf training camp opens.

Nine weeks until the first pre-season Leaf game.

Ten weeks until Van Ryn's first injury.

Twelve weeks until the puck drops on the Leafs 2009-2010 season.

After the jump, five questions to help us pass the time so there's just seven weeks and four days until the Leafs open camp...

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