One-time Maple Leafs greats Wendel Clark, Curtis Joseph and Doug Gilmour as well longtime Canadiens star Guy Carbonneau are some of the luminaries who will play the Leafs/Canadiens alumni game Friday night at Ivor Wynne Stadium. Puck drop is 7:30.

Toronto:

Coaches: Johnny Bower, Ron Ellis.

Players: Wendel Clark, Dan Daoust, Bill Derlago, Doug Gilmour, Curtis Joseph, Derek King, Kris King, Nick Kypreos, Gary Leeman, Brad May, Bob McGill, Jeff O’Neill, Mark Osbourne, Steve Thomas, Rick Vaive, Rob Zettler.

Montreal:

Coaches: Yvan Cournoyer, Rejean Houle, Guy Lafleur.

Players: Steve Begin, Patrice Brisebois, Guy Carbonneau, Mathieu Dandenault, ...

They came from Arnold Park in Binghamton, New York, Valois Park in Montreal and countless backyard rinks in between.

Safe then to say that when the Toronto Marlies arrived at Ivor Wynne Stadium to practice for the AHL Outdoor Classic against the Hamilton Bulldogs it felt a bit like coming home.

The outdoor game, the first convened in Ontario, will be played Saturday. Puck drop is 1 p.m.

After conducting a brisk hour-long practice, Marlies coach Dallas Eakins was sitting in the stadium dressing room, an enclosure where you seem to be putting ...

Ryan Miller is one Gloomy Gus but if he is right, the Maple Leafs season may not be headed for a happy ending. See the video here

It’s Miller’s contention that no deal can shake the formaldehyde out of the Buffalo Sabres. What’s worth noting here is that the Sabres beat the Leafs in their last meeting and sit six points behind Toronto.

With 37 games to play, that’s far from insurmountable and it sets a mind to wondering: if no trade would save the Buffalo Sabres, can one salvage the ...

When you work for a hockey team that hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, you don’t throw a lot of stones.

It seems especially foolhardy to criticize the Montreal Canadiens, historically the most successful of all NHL teams.

But Quebec politicians and cultural sticklers have eviscerated the Canadians over the hiring of unilingual coach Randy Cunneyworth. Since then, the owner and the general manager have backpedalled furiously.

Faced with a mob, the Canadiens’ management put a gun against their own temples.
The problem with blending culture and a ruthless competetiveness is that you ...

On New Year’s Day it will be exactly a year since James Reimer slid between the pipes for good and changed the direction of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Since then, the Leafs have gone 42-30-12. They have outscored their opponents 247-224.

Everything started with Reimer.

But concussion or concussion-like-symptoms – take your pick – have limited Reimer to just 16 of the club’s 37 games. This year’s statistics look ghastly, in part because Reimer has only accrued a small window of work, in part because the numbers are bad.

Reimer’s .899 save percentage ranks him 36th ...

People talk about the weather all the time, Mark Twain said, but no one does anything about it.

People talk about fairness all the time. Brian Burke even did Monday afternoon when giving his reasons for extending Ron Wilson’s contract.

“It’s easy to say ‘fire the coach’ when the team isn’t winning, but when you haven’t given the coaching staff good enough players, I don’t think it’s fair,” he said.

Brian Burke thinks and speaks about fairness more than just about anyone I know but listening to someone go on about fairness is ...

“He’ll be heading down to the medical room for repairs.”

How many times have you heard broadcasters casually intone those words when a player’s face has been sliced open by a stick, punch or puck?

Cuts to the mugs are so frequent, the play-by-play guys sound like they are issuing directions: turn left at the player’s bench, right at the dressing room door and head to the medical room for repairs.

This is someone’s face trickling if not gushing blood. Baseball blisters are a matter of much more concern than a wound to ...

If you are wondering whether the Leafs are indeed on the upswing, if the team’s play over the last 12 months is really just a bubble in a bathtub full of failure, ask yourself this question.
If you were starting a new franchise right now, and you could draft just one Maple Leaf, who would it be?

Go ahead. Indulge me. Who is the best bet to be a cornerstone player?

James Reimer. Good choice. He’s 23 and while the sample size of 45 games is perilously small, you can argue that a ...

I am a glass not just half full but a glass spilling out over the top soaking the feet of the ludicrously attractive, scandalously-attired female barkeep who has just won the 649 and is an instant away from announcing free drinks for everyone kind of guy.

I just don’t see how the Leafs aren’t going to make the playoff this year. Not only that, their odds increase substantially when the league re-aligns next season.

And I have some numbers to back it up in Ulmerstandings IX.

Ulmerstandings IX

To better gauge the strengths of ...

Remember those colouring books where if you connected the lines a jumble of numbers became a flower pot or a circus elephant?

In the NHL, most of the numbers are obscured because of the speed of the game, a bounce off the boards, an unexpected move from a veteran or the zeal of a rookie who has been just called up.

There are two kinds of great players. Some see the flowerpot. Others just ride on a heightened instinct. They feel it.

When the Oilers ran a young Wayne Gretzky through a battery ...