Remembering a special person, former Maple Leaf player and coach, Red Kelly

I was about to sit down today and pen a few thoughts about the passing of Leonard "Red" Kelly, the highly-regarded former Maple L...

What I can still remember (if faintly) 50 years to the day after Toronto’s last Stanley Cup victory…

The Maple Leafs concluded what really was a fantastic 2017-’17 NHL season a few days ago.  As we discussed here over the last few weeks, wh...

Some hopeful Maple Leaf Memories heading into Game 2 in Boston…

It’s easy to find fault with the Maple Leafs on the heels of their (not unexpected, in fairness) Game 1 loss in Boston. As fans, we can do ...

The Leaf legacy in my lifetime, Part II: The 1960s

This isn’t quite a cliffhanger like we had in the olden days- say, the Lone Ranger or Zorro or even Dallas (or some more modern TV show),...

When helmets were a rarity

Since the early 1980s, helmets have been mandatory for incoming NHL players.   Given the speed and physicality of the game now, no one woul...

Rick Vaive: Not just a 50 goal scorer—he chased the “Big M’s” Leaf record

In 1960-'61, when I was very young, in fact all of seven years old, a young Maple Leaf winger made the headlines with an unexpected run...

Arbour, Quinn and other former Leafs and Punch Imlach disciples who went on to coach

Like a lot of other kids in the early ‘60s, beyond being a big hockey/Leaf fan, I followed the other major sports, too. At the age of nine...