I don't spend quite as much time on PPP as I used to. Unfortunately, work life has been quite hectic of late and my down time is at a minimum. Still, I try to keep up with the stories surrounding my favourite team, and this site remains the very best place (online or otherwise) to do so. Seems there are a lot of new faces (usernames) around these days. Thought it might be a good time for everyone to get to know eachother a little bit better. Sorta like the ol' A/S/L question from the internet chatrooms of yester-year.

I think, collectively, this site has a very interesting readership. The bits and pieces that are occasionally revealed in the comment sections and/or "Chatty Cathys" lead me to believe that the Barilkosphere undoubtedly contains fascinating people with fascinating stories. Might be nice to share a little about ourselves and perhaps see beyond the usernames and signature lines. Here are a couple items to get things started. Feel free to add to the list if you determine it is lacking.

Who are you?

Where are you?

What do you do?

Do you blog about the Leafs? If yes, where?

Favourite non-Leafs website?

Tell us something about yourself that some might find fascinating.

Now that the draft is over and the free agency excitement has cooled considerably, we are left with a couple months of over-analysis, speculation and boredom before preseason action begins. The Leafs have the majority of their roster set, with only Luke Schenn remaining to be signed. A quick peak at their line-up indicates that very few spots on the team will actually be up for grabs once camp rolls around. Since a pretty solid case can be made for almost every spot on the team, it makes sense to project some goal totals and see if this team might score at a better rate than last year's edition. The 2010-11 squad managed 218 goals, with only the Habs (who still made the playoffs), Devils, Senators and Panthers scoring fewer in the East. There are a lot of factors that will determine whether or not this coming season will offer an improvement in the GF department. Health, of course, will be the most critical. A long term injury to any of the top 6 forwards could prove damaging. Significant regression from the likes of any of the MGK line would also cause trouble. After the jump, you will find my projections, which are generous, but not unattainable. Feel free to make adjustments and add your own numbers in the comment section. Hell, its late July. What else do you have to do?

Continue reading this post »

 Editor's Note: Somny takes a look at a new phenomenon: Leafs players leaving and not becoming amazing. What a world! It's a good update, without a comment on coaching, on this MLHS piece.

Remember how it always seemed like the players Toronto traded away went on to become better than they ever were as Maple Leafs. Well, that appears to have changed during Brian Burke's reign as GM of the blue & white. I have put together a fairly basic list of the bigger names Burke has sent packing in the last couple years and there is an alarming trend. They all produce fewer points per game after leaving Toronto. The only exception to this rule is Lee Stempniak (Fuck Lee Stemniak) whose PPG rates are skewed by his prolific 18 game stretch at the end of last season immediately after being traded. Follow the jump to view the list and stats

Continue reading this post »

Editor's Note: This is a great idea. There are already a tonne of great ones in the comments. Let's see what the rest of you can do.

This picture is just too amazing; reminiscent of Sidney Crosby's golden goal photo that captured the imagination of photoshoppers everywhere.

Darren Calabrese - AP

Toronto Maple Leafs' Darryl Boyce, right, is spun around following a hit by Chicago Blackhawks' Duncan Keith during second-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Saturday, March 5, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Presss, Darren Calabrese

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Remember that fight? That one against Deryk Engelland of the Penguins. It was the Leafs third game of the season and the Sheriff scored 5 minutes in to put the Leafs up 1-0. In his next shift, Orr squares off against the Pittsburgh enforcer who is not yet well known among the leagues best knuckle-chuckers. The bout is nasty from the start and Orr appears to be getting the best of the 28yr old who was playing in only his 12th NHL game. That is when things take an unexpected turn. A turn that appears to have plagued our beloved barbarian ever since. Check out the fight after the jump, than we'll have a closer look at Colton's season since this scrap.

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Here we are, approximately one tenth into another NHL regular season. Seems like a good time to look around the league and see how some of the old guard are faring with their new clubs. At the moment, there is pretty much an entire roster of ex Leafs scattered around the NHL. Look at their numbers and it seems like it might actually be a fairly successful team. Through 10 games, they score at a pace of 2.9 gpg, good for 238 over an entire season. The defence looks decent, though not truculent - and they have depth at center.

Have a look for yourself:

Click here for large

L to R: Lanny McDonald, Ian White, Rob Ramage, Wendel Clark.

Too much awesome or just the right amount of awesome?

2 captains, one fella who is partially responsible for the acquisition of our current captain and Lanny freakin' McDonald. This mountain of moustachulence cannot be topped. Argue against these monumental men and their fabulous facial follicles. I dare you. They dare you.

I do believe this contest is now, officially, over.

We thank you for your time.

Editor's Note: Here's one of the latest entries into our Five Reasons You Love Hockey Contest. If you haven't had a chance to put yours together don't fret because there is lots of time left.

I used to write a lot. Unfortunately, 3 years of nursing school has turned most of my writing time into essays about best practice wound care and excessive use of laxatives on the geriatric population. I digress.

It took me longer than most Canadian boys to get involved in hockey. It wasn't until my family moved into a suburban subdivision where the streets were always lined with boys playing the game that I truly fell in love with the sport. One:  I was 9yrs old. Immediately, I began playing. It was winter when we first moved, but my new friends would start their games as soon as school let out. We would play til supper, then again after our meals until it was time to come in for homework and bedtimes. If the lakes were well frozen, we would walk there together, with skates slung over over sticks and sticks slung over our shoulders. The games would last forever. No one really kept score, but in your head, you knew if you were winning and you counted how many goals you slid between Bradley's boot and Matthew's backpack.

Continue reading this post »

Here is a list of players who have scored more than 36 goals in a season since 1997-98. Bolded are the players who were at or around the age of 21 when they performed the feat. Take note, there are only 2 Leafs who have scored more than 36 goals in a season during this timeframe. Sundin twice and Berezin once. Lots of guys on this list have played for the Leafs - O'Neill, Nolan, Lindros, Allison, old old old.

1997-98
Selanne 52
Bondra 52
P Bure 51
Leclair 51
Palffy 45
Tkachuk 40
Nieuwendyk 39
Brind'Amour 36

1998-99
Selanne 47
Jagr 44
Yashin 44
Amonte 44
Leclair 43
Sakic 41
Lindros 40
Fleury 40
Satan 40
Kariya 39
Robitaille 39
Graves 38
Demitra 37
Berezin 37
Tkachuk 36
Naslund 36

1999-00
P Bure 58
Nolan 44
Amonte 43
Jagr 42
Kariya 42
Shanahan 41
Leclair 40
Modano 38
Robitaille 36
Hejduk 36

2000-01
P Bure 59
Sakic 54
Jagr 52
Bondra 45
Kovalev 44
Mogilny 43
Hejduk 41
Naslund 41
O'Neill 41
Elias 40
Yashin 40
Guerin 40
Young 40
Hull 39
Palffy 38
Robitaille 37
Thornton 37 (born in '79)
Allison 36

2001-02
Iginla 52
Sundin 41
Murray 41
Guerin 41
Naslund 40
Bondra 39
Tkachuk 38
Daze 38
Shanahan 37
Satan 37
Lindros 37
Alfredsson 37
Bertuzzi 36

2002-03
Hejduk 50
Naslund 48
Bertuzzi 46
Hossa 45
Murray 44
Heatley 41
Kovalchuk 38 (Born in '83)
Palffy 37
Kovalev 37
Hull 37
Sundin 37
Thornton 36
Demitra 36
Fedorov 36
Jagr 36
Jokinen 36

2003-04
Kovalchuk 41 (Born in '83)
Iginla 41
Nash 41 1984
St.Louis 38
Elias 38
Hossa 36

2004-05
STRIKE

2005-06
Cheechoo 56
Jagr 54
Ovechkin 52 (Born in '85)
Kovakchuk 52
Heatley 50
Gionta 48
Gagne 47
E Staal 45 (Born in '84)
Alfredsson 43
Shanahan 40
Selanne 40
Crosby 39 (Born in '87)
Hossa 39
Zetterberg 39
Jokinen 38
Gaborik 38
Smyth 36

2006-07
Lecavalier 52
Heatley 50
Selanne 48
Ovechkin 46 (Born in '85)
St.Louis 43
Hossa 43
Vanek 43
Kovalchuk 42
Gagne 41
Blake 40
Iginla 39
Jokinen 39
Semin 38
Cheechoo 37
Drury 37
Crosby 36  (Born in '87)
Sakic 36
D Sedin 36
Smyth 36
Guerin 36

2007-08
Ovechkin 65
Kovalchuk 52
Iginla 50
Malkin 47
Zetterberg 43
Boyes 43
Gaborik 42
Heatley 41
Lecavalier 40
Alfredsson 40
E Staal 38
Nash 38
Vanek 36
Sharp 36

2008-09
Ovechkin 56
Carter 46
Parise 45
Kovakchuk 43
Nash 40
E Staal 40
Hossa 40
Vanek 40
Cammalleri 39
Heatley 39
Marleau 38
Eriksson 36
Kessel 36 (Born in '87)

Pretty good company for Philthy Phil.

I brought my kids to the library a couple days ago and while they were busily running and screaming up and down the aisles in search of Dora the Explorer books - I decided to spend a little bit of time finding some nice Leafs books with pretty pictures I may be able to use for my blog Vintage Leafs. I was able to find a couple great looking books with lots of nice pictures which I will eventually be scanning and posting, but I also found Mike Leonetti's Maple Leafs Trivia Book 1927-2004 and thought I might post some of its content here for us to play with.

The questions below should at least be hard enough to make a google search somewhat difficult for those of you who choose to use that route. I'll let you all work on these for a while before I come back later tonight to check on your progress and reveal the book's answers to those you have attempted. The book is current up to 2004, so I'm hoping to have chosen questions with answers that remain correct and haven't changed in the years since. If you own the book - feel free to help moderate, but please do not post all the answers and pretend you know everything.

Have fun, and if you know these from memory - specify in your answer. Page numbers indicated in parenthesis' are just to make it easier for me when it comes time to reveal the answers in the book.

EDITED TO ADD: Questions remaining unanswered are now in bold. Current standings are posted below the questions.

1. In the 1959 Stanley Cup finals, the Leafs faced the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs won the series 4 games to 1. The only game the Leafs won was in overtime 3-2 at home. Who scored the winning goal? (p3)
2. During a bitter and controversial seven game quarterfinal series between Toronto and Philadelphia in April 1976, three Flyers were charged with criminal offenses after the third game. It was a very hot evening in Toronto and the fighting seemed to be more important than the hockey. Can you name the Philadelphia players who were charged by Toronto police? (p10)
3. On February 2, 1977, the Leafs Ian Turnbull became the first defenseman in NHL history to score five goals in one game in a 9-1 rout of the Detroit Red Wings. Turnbull did it in only five shots, all in the second and third periods. He beat two Detroit goaltenders. Can you name both of them? (p11)
4. Only three players have been on five Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup winning teams. Can you name them? (p22)
5. Which three players formed the highest scoring line (combined points in one season) in Toronto Maple Leafs history? Hint: All three players would be traded away to other teams. (p26)
6. Rick Vaive scored 50 goals three times as a Leaf. Name the three goaltenders to surrender goal #50 in each of those seasons. (p34)
7. On December 29, 1988, in a game against the Nordiques, the Leafs set a team record by scoring two goals four seconds apart. Which players scored the goals? (p36)
8. As a result of a stick injury suffered by a Leafs player in 1939 the NHL adopted a rule prohibiting players with vision in only one eye from playing in the league. Can you name the player whose accident led to this major rule change? (p68)
9. This Maple Leafs right winger went on to be the first general manager for two NHL expansion teams. Who was he? (p76)
10. Prior to the Maple Leafs' three consecutive Stanley Cup victories between 1962 and 1964, the Chicago Blackhawks won the championship in 1961. One player was a member of all four teams. Can you name the player who sipped champagne from the Stanley Cup in those four consecutive years? (p83)
11. Former Toronto first round draft choices have led both the Maple Leafs and Canadiens in scoring for one season. Can you name these two players? (p140)
12. The Maple Leafs set two significant team records* during the 2003-04 season and tied another. Can you name them? (p162)

*See comments for clarification.

Those are the first 12. If this seems to be enjoyed, I'll post some more before I have to return to book to the library.

Current Standings:

1. 1967ers - 4.5pts
   
2. General Borschevsky - 2pts
   
3. clrlaitken - 1.5pts
4. FutureMrStronach - 1pt

In pretty graphical form:

I believe I have included & excluded all of the recent additions & subtractions, respectively. These are not line combinations - simply a look at how things stand as of right now. All things considered, this is a definite upgrade over last year's club. I am in love with our defense and await a move or two to upgrade the offense (especially on RW). Not a lot of news in LeafsLand lately. Anyone wanna play potential lines and pairings again?

Featuring Jamal Mayers (21) and rookie Phil Oreskovic (40). 

Following Toronto's 5-2 drubbing of the Montreal Canadiens, the team spilled onto the ice to celebrate. The Leaf's Jamal Mayers skates towards rookie Phil Oreskovic with his hand extended for a glove-tap. Hilarity ensues. Gotta love the rookie hazing rituals. Gotta love how Kubina, Blake and Stralman all kinda seem to know its coming and just hang back to watch.

I didn't even realize I was capturing this little prank until I took a closer look at the photos when I got home.

I am a 33 year old from Halifax, Nova Scotia. More importantly, I am a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs and have been since, well, forever. Prior to this past weekend, in all these years of fan-dom, I had never seen the Leafs play live. Correction: I had never seen the Leafs play a hockey game live. I have memories of watching a couple Leafs who had come to Halifax in 89/90 to play a charity softball game. I got autographs from Tom Fergus and Tahir Domi and was very sad to learn that Allan Bester would not be playing as advertised due to a cold and/or flu. Cue foreshadowing: The Leafs dominated a local team of Haligonian fire-fighters.

I have seen a few NHL games. Edm @ NJ and Bos @ NYR on a high school trip in 1993. Car @ Mtl because my best friend is a Canes fan and wanted to see them play, and paid my way. Never the Leafs. Never my Leafs.

The circumstances surrounding my first Leafs game involved Britney Spears and Crayola crayons.

Back in November, my wife heard news that Britney Spears was including stops in Montreal and Toronto on her upcoming world tour. For some reason that I have never really been able to comprehend, my wife is a fan of the celebrity gossip culture. In turn, she is a fan of the entire Britney saga. Who am I to judge, as I write this in the middle of a 2nd year nursing lecture on Neurological Assessement? It is all about priorities. Anyhow, my wife was determined to go to this concert, and I knew I could use this to my advantage. I said "maybe I'll tag along and take in a hockey game..." I checked to see if the Leafs were playing at home around the time of the Toronto concert. No luck. I guess I'll never see them play, I thought.

Then, my wife, god bless her soul, suggested I check if the Habs were home on the weekend of Brit's Montreal circus. It's not the Leafs, but at least it's hockey, she said. I didn't even realize my wife knew Montreal had a hockey team. Happily, they did have a home game scheduled. The concert was on Friday, March 20th and the Habs were playing at home on the 21st.Lets just check and see who they're playing. Against Toronto. What? Toronto in Montreal?! Habs vs Leafs?! YES!!

I tried to get tickets through the Bell Centre, but the game was already sold-out. So, instead I bought a ticket from an online vendor and paid 200$ for a 50$ seat. I happily paid 200$ for a 50$ seat. I paid more for my seat which was 3 rows down from the very back row than my wife did for a seat in the Reds within spitting distance of Brit. I did not care.

My ticket came in the mail. I took it and posted it to the kitchen fridge with a magnet. The game was three months away. Within a week, my 5 year old daughter pulled a chair over to the fridge and climbed up to look at my ticket. She pulled it from the fridge and  took her crayons to it. Apparently unhappy with her art, she crumpled up my ticket and threw it in a corner of the kitchen. When I realized what had happened, I quickly straightened out my ticket and inspected it to see if its barcode remained intact. It did. I would never hit my children as punishment. Had that ticket been rendered useless, I may have considered it.

Months passed. School was getting hectic. My wife and I are both fulltime students raising two kids and trying to work enough to pay all our bills. We don't get a lot of help and our lives are generally quite crazy. For a while, it was looking like we might have to back out and sell our tickets. Still, we managed to find childcare for the kids so we could go on the trip and completed a bunch of our schoolwork early in order to be able to go. I'm still not really sure how. It is all about priorities.

March 21, 2009

We all know how the game went. For me, the result wasn't as important as the experience. Here is an email I sent to a friend, a Habs fan, shortly after the game:

Hey Scott,

I was at the game tonight, and made sure to soak in as much Habs culture as I could tolerate. I took pictures of the monuments outside the main entrance to the Bell Ctr. I even enjoyed an amazing video tribute before the game which was about how far-reaching the Habs really are. Pictures of people wearing le bleu, blanc et rouge all over the world. really cool stuff! I sat outside for a while and listened to scalpers arguing about how Sam Pollack would have dealt Saku four years ago, and that KOIVU is the real problem with the team this year. It was really quite interesting. I sat surrounded by Habs fans. Watched them argue with Leafs fans who dared to wear their jerseys. I watched those same fans go from the edge of their seats to slumping back in their chairs after Toronto scored the first two goals. I don't speak french well, but I'm pretty sure the two fellas to my immediate left stopped watching the game and were actually discussing university course schedules at one point late in the first.

As a Leaf fan, I was pleased by the outcome, but was really hoping for a close game to see just how intense that building could get. Instead the Habs simply did not show up. They gave the third star to LaPierre for scoring their two goals, but do you think anyone on that team deserved any sort of honour after that game? Halak looked awful, the defense was dis-interested and the forwards were ineffective. Toronto are basically playing their farm team at this point of the season. That means the guys out there are going to be busting their asses to show they deserve to be NHLers, but they really shouldn't be beating a team that is battling for a playoff spot.

The woman sitting on my right was there for her first ever Habs game. She said she was a fan of theirs since the 70s. I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her, so I tried not to gloat during the final minutes. I'll do the same for you, Scott. I will not gloat because you and I know that there is always another game just around the corner.

HABS SUCK!

 

Sorry about that,

Harold.

I enjoyed watching this team that I have followed for so long through so much. I enjoyed watching Grabovski score four points against the Habs given the recently history we all know so well. I enjoyed watching Kulemin and Schenn and being able to follow them during entire shifts without having to rely on television cameras. I wish it had been a closer game, and I wish Kaberle was in the lineup. Still, no regrets. I am behind in my schoolwork and we are broke, but no. No regrets whatsoever.

Overall, it was a great experience. Walking back to my hotel after the game, I high-fived every person in a Leafs jersey I saw. My vintage Blue Jays tshirt allowed me to gain their trust and acceptance. It was such a fun night.

I'll be posting some of my photos from the game over here after I have had a chance to go through them. Perhaps after I have gotten back up to speed with my schoolwork. Perhaps sooner. It is all about priorities.

I would like to hear about your first game...

Bryan McCabe

Defense #24

Toronto Maple Leafs 2000-2008. 

This puck does, in fact, find the back of the Leafs net.

Prior to finding this picture, I had managed to block this haircut from my memory.

Prior to finding this picture, I had managed to block this haircut from my memory.

Hi guys! Look at me! I'm in the stands! hahahahhaaaaa!

Where exactly IS the trainer's right hand?

DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE!

Bryan McCabe: Official "fish the puck out of the net" guy. 

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