Twenty-one-year-old Nazem Kadri is a Marlie with 50 games of NHL experience.

They are an odd group, your Toronto Marlies.

They are young but play like veterans. The Marlies have won five of six American Hockey League playoff games.

Nazem Kadri is 21 years old. He has played 50 NHL games.

Jake Gardiner turns 22 on July 4th. He played 75 Leafs games this season.

Matt Frattin is 24. He played 57 NHL games and has scored 18 goals in 29 Marlie playoff and regular season games.

“We feel a part of something big,” said ...

Ben Scrivens stopped 27 of 28 shots as the Marlies downed Abbotsford 5-1 to even their playoff series at a game each.

You’ve probably heard all about the Marlies excellent young defenceman.

His name is Korbinian Holzer.

Oh, you thought I was talking about the other guy.

Last night, and throughout the Marlies five playoff games, the other guy has been Jake Gardiner.

Holzer scored once and set up another with a rocket drive that ricocheted off Abbotsford goalie Danny Taylor. Holzer along with partner Mark Fraser made the Marlies’ end failsafe as the ...

Jesse Blacker, seen here during a Leafs exhibition game, has brought excellent skating and rabid enthusiasm to his first Marlies season.

This is what the playoffs are like.

An upper body injury meant Jesse Blacker hadn’t played since March 31 when he took the ice for Game 1 of the Marlies playoff against the Abbotsford Heat at Ricoh.

Late in the first period the rookie defenceman tried to beat a man near his own blue line.

The puck stayed in, a wild sequence ensued and the Marlies never got the puck back. Another ...

Nicolas Deschamps, shown here as a member of the Chicoutimi Saugeneens, was a prolific junior but he fell off the map in the Anaheim organization.

People talk about it all the time.

A change of scenery, a fresh take, a change is as good as a rest.

So it shouldn’t surprise that a player would rekindle his game in fresh colours.

But if you are going to move, you’d best man-up. Something stopped working and for whatever reason, that something was you.

Which brings us neatly to Nicolas Deschamps, a pleasant surprise for the ...

Whether it be with the Marlies or with Team USA, Jerry D'Amigo has shown he can score big goals and deliver a solid all-around game.

Jerry D’Amigo, the owner of five goals in the Marlies three-game sweep of the Rochester Americans, has been on a goalscoring run before.

The first came at the 2010 World Juniors where he scored six goals and added six helpers in half a dozen games for Team USA.

Last season with the Kitchener Rangers D’Amigo scored six goals and added three more assists in seven playoff games.

D’Amigo, ...

Note: While an employee at MLSE I have absolutely no idea whether the Maple Leafs will pursue Roberto Luongo. This post is a reasonable and hopefully reasoned guess. Anywhoo…

I have this great idea about marriage.

There should be a no-fault window for separation every five years; sort of a renegotiation where you can look at the Missus and say ‘up for another five?’

What the Leafs need to consider about Roberto Luongo is whether they want to be married to him for the rest of his playing life. How long he wants ...

Less than a year after Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke selected him in the first round of the NHL draft, defenceman Stuart Percy is logging big playoff minutes with the Toronto Marlies.

They call it the imposter syndrome.

It afflicts most everyone. The more you think about something the more unreal it feels when you get it.

Which brings us nicely to defenceman Stuart Percy, just 18, and drafted 25th overall by the Maple Leafs last June? A concussion meant a speed bump this season in junior but in 150 games with ...

Joe Colborne, shown here in a November game with the Maple Leafs against Washington, is looking to reclaim the momentum that made him the AHL's player of the month in October. Colborne had two assists as the Marlies won their AHL payoff opener 4-3 over the Rochester Americans.

Over the last five years Joe Colborne has scored 130 goals. If you did that over a week your arms would get tired.

He has scored all kinds of goals with all kinds of people. He has scored in the Alberta Junior ...

It began, as these stories always do, in a small Bavarian town known by a name I will not attempt to spell. A decade ago, Korbinian Holzer faced Marcel Mueller for the first time.

As 14-year-olds the two future Marlies met and pretty well instantly became estranged at a tournament in their native Germany. “He was the biggest defenceman and I was among the biggest forwards so we saw a lot of each other,” Mueller said Tuesday.

For lack of a snappier name, the two are known locally as The ...

By any measure, especially his own, Leafs’ GM Brian Burke did not have a good year.

But in one element, Burke has been in front of the curve.

Big and bad is the new black.

In January, Burke reluctantly sent Colton Orr to the minors and publicly fretted the era of the fighter was over.

At the Leafs season-ending press conference Burke stressed the need to be bigger and stronger. “We need to address the size of the group and the compete level of the group,” he said.

“I like teams that go into buildings ...