Happy May 2-4!

Source: Maple Leafs Hot Stove by Alec Brownscombe

The Marlies are on the ropes against Grand Rapids after a 4-1 loss last night in Michigan. They’re down 3-1 in their series headed into tonight. If they can take Game 5, the series would come back to Toronto for Games 6 and 7, so you never know. Also on the upside, Carter Ashton has [more…]

Leafs fan loses bet to Bruins fan, wears his shame on sandwich board (Photos) (Puck Daddy)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

Sports editor Josh Lewis of the Estevan Mercury in Saskatoon is a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The kinds that had his hopes and dreams crushed by a three-goal rally by the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Alas, Lewis is also the kind of Leafs fan who was willing to make a bet with a coworker at the weekly paper: Chad Saxon, an editor and a massive Boston Bruins fan. So after seeing the Leafs lose Game 7 in embarrassing fashion, Lewis suffered another embarrassment, as per the wager: Ouch. From Saxon, via email: We bet on the series and the punishment was the loser had to wear a sandwich board and stand on the boulevard of our busiest street for half an hour at noon. The winner got to choose what went on the sign. Obviously it was looking like I was pretty much screwed up until the comeback. Josh, who we had under suicide watch for a couple of days was a good sport and paid off his debt on Friday. But wait, there’s more: Writes Saxon: “We are big supporters of humiliating Leafs fans so we were hoping you could throw this on the blog.” Well, Josh Lewis – oh, by the way, you can tweet at him here – you boldly accepted your defeat after a valiant effort, much like the Leafs did. And like the Leafs, we hope you learned lesson from this defeat. Like, for example, never betting on the Leafs. Ever.

Maple Leafs fans record their experience of excruciating Game 7 loss

Source: Yardbarker

This Toronto Maple Leafs fan used his Go Pro camera to try and make some fond memories as he and his friends gathered together to watch the Boston Bruins-Leafs Game 7.  Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs epic collapse gave them this depressing video.  Their reactions are pretty expected, too sad and shocked that they lost to even be angry about it. This video pretty much defines what sports are all about, they can make you feel on top of the world one minute and rip your heart out the next. [Deadspin]

Toronto Is Having A Rough Couple Of Days

Source: Yardbarker

Monday night seemed like it was about to be the start of a wonderful week in Toronto, Canada. The Leafs were up 4-1 on the road against the hated Boston Bruins. There were thousands of people in Maple Leaf Square just waiting for the final few minutes to tick off the clock. Phil Kessel and Leaf Nation were about to get their revenge after years of mocking. Fate had other plans. The Bruins surmounted one of the craziest comebacks in sports history and Toronto was left speechless.   It was going to take a while for the city to come to grips with this heart-wrenching loss. Luckily, it is baseball season. This was supposed to be the year that the Blue Jays would provide the shoulder for Toronto to lean on. They spent tons of money in the off-season and the AL East looked ripe for the picking. Fate had other plans for the Jays, too. They are currently 17-24 sitting in the cellar of the surprisingly good AL East. It gets worse. In a time of need citizens look to our elected officials for...

3 Players the Toronto Maple Leafs Should Pursue This Summer

Source: Bleacher Report

The Toronto Maple Leafs were recently eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs by their rivals, the Boston Bruins.

With the Buds out of the playoffs, the focus now turns to how to improve the team over the summer.

The Blue and White surprised many people this season by making the playoffs and making the series with the Bruins one of the best of the first round.

If the Leafs want to remain a competitive and exciting team, they will need to pursue some players this offseason who can give them a boost.

Here are three players the Maple Leafs should

MAPLE LEAFS: Management revs it back up

Source: Toronto Sun

So now what?

Maple Leafs Fan Mounts GoPro Camera to TV, Captures Agony of Defeat as Friends React to Game 7 Loss (Video)

Source: Yardbarker

This was an experiment that clearly did not work out as planned. According to the uploader of the below YouTube video, he’s just a Maple Leafs fan who owns a GoPro camera and wanted to capture some memorable playoff moments. However, what he ended up getting was visual evidence of a memory that will probably stick in his sports-fan brain for the rest of his life. In any case, this Leafs fan mounted his GoPro to the top of his TV, planning to record him and his friends while they watched the deciding Game 7 between Toronto and Boston in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Of course, we all know how the game ended, and this fan apparently had enough of a sense of humor to clip together a range of reactions and post it online. There’s the elation when Phil Kessel scores to put the Leafs up 3-1, and the utter heartbreak caused by Patrice Bergeron. Check out some Maple Leafs fans going through the entire gamut of emotions in the video below.

Marlies Look To Even Up Series With Griffins

Source: Editor In Leaf by Michael Amato

May 12, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Joe Colborne (32) controls the puck against the Boston Bruins during game six of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at the Air Canada Centre. The Maple Leafs beat the Bruins 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Marlies will attempt to tie their series at 2-2 when they take on the Griffins tonight in Grand Rapids. The Marlies dropped a close 5-4 decision on Wednesday night to fall behind in the series. The next two games will be played in Grand Rapids, so if the Marlies want to send the series back to Toronto they

Bruins' back line boosted by rookie defensemen (The Associated Press)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

BOSTON (AP) -- The Boston Bruins have three rookie defensemen in the lineup for the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Rangers.

Top Ten Memes From The Toronto Maple Leafs Choke

Source: Yardbarker

As it’s been well-documented the Boston Bruins scored three goals in a nine-minute span of the third period to turn a 4-1 deficit to the Toronto Maple Leafs into a remarkable 4-4 tie in the memorable Game 7. That incredible flurry set the stage for the Bruins to end Toronto’s season with a Patrice Bergeron game-winning goal in overtime. Since then Maple Leaf fans have had to deal the grief of another unsatisfying season. Also in those several days it has given others time to rejoice in Toronto’s pain and create hilarious memes. Here are the top ten memes that poke fun at the Maple Leafs’ epic collapse. Article found on: Next Impulse Sports

Watch Toronto Maple Leafs Fans React To Game 7 Loss To Bruins

Source: Yardbarker

For any sports fan who has had to watch their team suffer a devastating loss, you know exactly what is going on in this video.  A group of Toronto Maple Leafs fans filmed their Game 7 party, which went from joy to sadness in about 15 minutes of ice time, against the Boston Bruins in the opening round of the 2013 NHL Playoffs. The video was uploaded to LeafFan89′s YouTube channel with this description. Had my gopro out in hopes of capturing some memorable playoff moments for Toronto but instead got this. Though loss but still had a great time watching the leafs in the playoffs and seeing how nuts all the fans were. I’m sure leaf fans can relate to the reactions in this video! I recommend watching this video on a computer in full-screen mode so you can see the expressions on everyone’s face.  My favorite is the girl in the back left corner, wearing the grey sweatshirt, who is sheepishly smiling [like a secret Bruins fan] and even tries wearing a Leafs’ jersey in OT for support. The po...

Eulogy: Remembering the 2012-13 Toronto Maple Leafs (Puck Daddy)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

(Ed. Note: Well, here it is. The long gestating Toronto Maple Leafs Eulogy. Usually, we have the fans that hate eliminated teams the most be the ones to remember them fondly. But since the Leafs making the playoffs was such a monumental deal, we decided to go in another direction: Allowing the caustic Leas fans from Pension Plan Puppets to eulogize their own team. Here’s what happens when year of cynicism collides with sudden adoration for a Leafs team that lost in seven to the Bruins.) By Pension Plan Puppets Today we say goodbye to the 2012-13 Toronto Maple Leafs. We come not to mourn their passing, but to celebrate how the 2012-13 Toronto Maple Leafs lived, loved and were led by a great man known as Randolph Robert Carlyle. The world will long remember these Leafs for their ability to generate quality shots and for limiting their opponents’ quality chances . Hockey fans, no matter their allegiance, will recall this team for the terror they struck in the hearts of the opposition by playing not one, but two enforcers for a few short minutes each night. The 2012-13 Leafs will be remembered for changing their culture. They will be, and should be, remembered by the Jack Adams-worthy work of Coach Randy Carlyle.

Why Clarke MacArthur shouldn't have played his last game as a Leaf

Source: The LeafsNation by Cam Charron

Wikimedia commons

Clarke MacArthur was picked up for a song late in the 2010 free agency period. There was nothing terribly wrong with MacArthur. He scored 16 goals in a season split between the Atlanta Thrashers and Buffalo Sabres the year before, but apparently, the Thrashers' acquisition of Andrew Ladd that summer made MacArthur an expendable piece.

Ladd has since become the captain of the franchise after the move to Winnipeg, while the team walked away from MacArthur's $2.4-million arbitration award, one they didn't really fight. Reading up on it now, it sounds like the

Why Tyler Bozak should have played his last game as a Leaf

Source: The LeafsNation by Cam Charron

via Claus Anderson/Getty

The big news out of Toronto yesterday is that Tyler Bozak wants to return to the Maple Leafs.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the *big* news of the day, but it's something that happened. Tyler Bozak, the first-line centreman for the Leafs for the last four years, is an unrestricted free agent this summer and it doesn't sound like the Maple Leafs have a huge interest in bringing him back.

In the playoffs, the Leafs were short-handed for

THN/Yahoo! NHL Awards: Toughest player, best penalty killer, best fighter (The Hockey News)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

THN and Yahoo! continue to roll out our joint awards by announcing Zdeno Chara, Jay McClement and Colton Orr as winners.

Leafs Discuss Season And What Is Ahead

Source: NHL.com

TORONTO -- Three days after the Leafs' historic playoff collapse in Boston, the wound was still raw. Did it hurt less this morning when you woke up, goalie James Reimer was asked at the Leafs' wrapup session Thursday. "Not really," he answer...

Nearly the Freakin' Weekend

Source: Pension Plan Puppets by SkinnyFish

Nearly the weekend links

Thoughts From Dave Nonis' Presser

This raises a lot of questions about Nonis being at the helm.

What Went Wrong?

DGB with excuses from NHL's losers.

US Routs Russia to Reach WC Semis

USABestHockey

Lazy Long Weekend Friday Links

Source: Maple Leafs Hot Stove by Alec Brownscombe

I’m finding the playoffs much harder to enjoy now that I’ve been reminded what it’s like with the Leafs in them. Links after the jump. From yesterday’s media day: End of Year Address: Randy Carlyle and Dave Nonis Locker Clean out Interviews: Mark Fraser, James Reimer, Nazem Kadri, Dion Phaneuf. Game 4 goes tonight for [more…]

Marchand delivers to lift Bruins over Rangers 3-2 (The Associated Press)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

BOSTON (AP) -- Brad Marchand left the morning skate early. The Bruins were thrilled he was on the ice at the end of the game Thursday night.

Leafs' Carlyle can't let it go

Source: Toronto Sun

In all things hockey, it seems, Randy Carlyle is about moving forward.

MAPLE LEAFS: Be like the superheroes, Reimer says

Source: Toronto Sun

As James Reimer sees it, what befell the Maple Leafs on the last night of their season is nothing that Peter Parker, Wolverine or a young Bruce Wayne didn’t endure.

MAPLE LEAFS: A new-born identity

Source: Toronto Sun

Put Game 7 aside for a minute.

NHL Playoff Game Day 17: Bruins-Rangers; Kings-Sharks (The Hockey News)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

The Bruins continued to find a way to win in their opener against the Rangers, but how many more D-men can they lose before it falls apart?

Bruins 3, Rangers 2 (OT) (The SportsXchange)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

BOSTON - Brad Marchand scored his first goal of the playoffs 15:40 into overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers in the first playoff game between the two old rivals in 40 years Thursday night.

Marchand lifts Bruins, 3-2 in OT over Rangers (The Associated Press)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

BOSTON (AP) -- Brad Marchand scored with 4:20 left in the first overtime and the Boston Bruins beat the New York Rangers 3-2 in the first playoff game in 40 years between the Original Six teams.

Leafs questions need answers

Source: Toronto Sun

James van Riemsdyk stood in front of his stall at the Air Canada Centre on locker cleanout day, slowly turning his head from side to side. He didn’t have any answers.

Will Ferrell feels the pain of Maple Leafs loss?

Source: Toronto Sun

Funnyman Will Ferrell feels the pain of Leafs Nation.

MAPLE LEAFS: Reimer ready to pick Cujo's brain

Source: Toronto Sun

With a few sleepless evenings behind him, the nightmare of the Causeway Collapse still haunting him, it took just one conversation on Thursday to rekindle the otherwise sagging spirits of James Reimer.

Maple Leafs lost in the faceoff circle [Video]

Source: Toronto Sun

As the shock of the great Maple Leafs collapse lingers on, this much has become certain: The real difference between the Leafs and the Boston Bruins wasn’t necessarily in the obvious places.

Maple Leafs hope to bring back Tyler Bozak at right price

Source: Toronto Sun

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their end of season media availability on Thursday, May 16 at Air Canada Centre.

Mark Fraser

Source: Maple Leafs Hot Stove by Maple Leafs Hot Stove

Mark Fraser interviews on locker clean out day. Google+

James Reimer

Source: Maple Leafs Hot Stove by Maple Leafs Hot Stove

James Reimer interviews on locker clean out day. Google+

Nazem Kadri

Source: Maple Leafs Hot Stove by Maple Leafs Hot Stove

Nazem Kadri interviews on locker clean out day. Google+

Dion Phaneuf

Source: Maple Leafs Hot Stove by Maple Leafs Hot Stove

Dion Phaneuf talks to the media on locker clean out day. Google+

Dave Nonis & Randy Carlyle End of Year Address

Source: Maple Leafs Hot Stove by Maple Leafs Hot Stove

In case you missed the end of year interviews today, Dave Nonis and Randy Carlyle’s EOY addresses are below. Nonis: Carlyle: Google+

Maple Leafs hope to bring back Tyler Bozak at right price [Video]

Source: Toronto Sun

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their end of season media availability on Thursday, May 16 at Air Canada Centre.

Bozak Suffered Torn Triceps In Playoffs

Source: Editor In Leaf by Michael Amato

 

May 10, 2013; Boston, MA USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak (42) scores a shorthanded goal past Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) during the second period in game five of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto Maple Leafs centre Tyler Bozak was dealing with a couple of injuries during the playoffs. Head coach Randy Carlyle announced on Thursday that Bozak tore his triceps on the final face-off of Game 5. Bozak took the warm-up in Game 6, but did not play and was not in the line-up for Game 7 either.

Bozak was already

What went wrong? Excuses from the NHL's losers

Source: Down Goes Brown

It's called Therriening. It's just like Tebowing,
except for the part where you have a prayer.

The first round of the playoffs is finally over, which means we're down to eight teams left standing. Those teams deserve a round of applause, and they'll get it… somewhere else. Because as long-time readers know, the end of the first round also means it's time for our annual tribute to the 22 teams whose seasons ended without even winning a single series.

Yes, the losers. The also-rans. The teams that, if we're being honest, basically wasted everyone's time by even bothering to show up this year.

Luckily, every loser has an excuse, and these 22 teams are no exception. So while everyone else is focused on the eight

Maple Leafs want to bring back Tyler Bozak [Video]

Source: Toronto Sun

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their end of season media availability on Thursday, May 16 at Air Canada Centre.

Maple Leafs want to bring back Tyler Bozak

Source: Toronto Sun

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their end of season media availability on Thursday, May 16 at Air Canada Centre.

Thoughts from Dave Nonis' presser

Source: The LeafsNation by Cam Charron

It was locker clear out day in Toronto Thursday morning, which means the coaches and players are available to talk about the disappointment of not getting the job done.

Randy Carlyle and Dave Nonis also spoke. I'll focus more on Nonis because ultimately, he's the guy who runs the team and makes the final decisions. Nonis is a very reserved talker and is as conservative with words as he is as a manager—it's rare he'll open up or deviate from the script.

Here are Nonis' thoughts on Phil Kessel, the Meltdown, his strategy and what they'll do going into the draft:

On James Reimer

At this point he'll be back as No. 1, he did a very good job for us. His mental

Will Ferrell feels the pain of Maple Leafs loss

Source: Toronto Sun

Funnyman Will Ferrell feels the pain of Leafs Nation.

Maple Leafs clean out lockers after post-season loss

Source: Toronto Sun

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their end of season media availability on Thursday, May 16 at Air Canada Centre.

Maple Leafs clean out lockers

Source: Toronto Sun

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their end of season media availability on Thursday, May 16 at Air Canada Centre.

Leafs post-season news conference

Source: Toronto Sun

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have their end of season media availability on Thursday, May 16 at Air Canada Centre.

YakovMironov's Leaflets: May 16th

Source: The LeafsNation by Jon Steitzer

Say Good Night Gracie 

I guess it would be foolish not to start off this post with at least addressing Game Seven, though frankly, I’m over it. There is nothing this franchise can do anymore that legitimately surprises me. While a collapse like this is unprecedented and unlikely statistically, it doesn’t change the fact that the Leafs struggle defensively, and the Bruins are a more talented team that Toronto is incapable of matching when they are firing on all cylinders.

I’ve divorced myself from the last ten minutes of the Leafs season, which is a pleasant change after normally trying to rid my brain of entire Leaf seasons, instead I’ll

Fearing the Jinx (Rotoworld)

Source: Yahoo! Sports

This week's Dose is all about the facts (and a superstition or two) when it comes to the first-round results.

Maple Leafs: Phil Kessel a great building block

Source: Toronto Sun

When the Maple Leafs held their exit meetings with team brass on Wednesday, it’s probable that Phil Kessel got a big pat on the back from management and was told to have a great summer.

Draft Intrigue and the Next Domi Generation

Source: The Spin by DamienCox

Twenty-four years ago, the Memorial Cup was held in Saskatoon and included 19-year-old enforcer and Maple Leaf draftee Tie Domi of the Peterborough Petes, who spent most of his time riding shotgun for star centre Mike Ricci.

Starting Friday night, the Memorial Cup, now attached to a major sponsor in Mastercard, is again being held in Saskatoon, and lo and behold the next generation of the Domi clan will be at centre stage.

Just like his dad back in 1989, Max Domi of the London Knights will be a prominent performaner over the next 10 days in a star-studded tournament featuring a glittering array of NHL-bound talent, including the three players expected to go one, two and three in the June entry draft.

Domi, in

[Thursday's FTB] Picking Up The Pieces

Source: Pension Plan Puppets by JP Nikota

As a matter of fact, you can stream his press conference live at 11:00 a.m. EST over at the team's official site. Watching Nonis in the booth during Game 7, he was completely emotionless throughout the whole game, whether his team was up 4-1 or... that other thing. Should be interesting to hear his thoughts.

Just a few links, today:

Sober second thoughts: The "Meltdown in Beantown"
From Cam Charron.