The rumour mill is swirling around the Maple Leafs this week, as a less-than-stellar season and mixed signals from club ownership lead to daily reports about the fate of the team's management and captain. With all signs pointing to a third straight early vacation at season's end, the team's followers are steamed. Fans 70 years ago may also have been frustrated with the club, though in their case the problem was a team that......

In some households, hockey is a key element during the Christmas break. Skates under the tree. That long-desired California Golden Seals sweater from Santa. Fans that cannot be pulled away from the TV during holiday games and tournaments. Christmas songs recorded by a favourite player. We didn't make the last one up. There were people who believed that goaltender Johnny Bower had patrolled the net since the dawn of man, which wasn't far off......

If you haven't been following the Raptors too closely this season, it's possible that you may have missed one of the greatest stories in professional sports at the moment. Jamario Moon is a 27-year-old rookie who had been kicking around just about every minor league on the continent until he finally got his shot with the Raptors this year. And he's tearing things up. Even though he's years older than a number of Raptor veterans,......

It’s funny that we mentioned The Rocky Horror Picture Show in our introduction last week, because it’s showing tonight at 11:30 p.m. at the Bloor. It’s been a while, in our memory, since the last time it showed, which would imply that the fans in Toronto aren't as rabid as elsewhere, but we’d still recommend that you don't head along unless you’re very familiar with the film. Who knows what could happen. Speaking of......

In a strange moment of synchronicity, there are currently two musicals on the Toronto stage about a man who kills people and disposes of their bodies by feeding them to someone/something. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has been playing at the Princess of Wales since early November, and closes on December 9. Sweeney tells the story (which we are all likely to become more familiar with after Tim Burton's film adaptation......

Eat Me is a regular feature about the nooks and crannies of Toronto's restaurant scene, about the amazing restaurants that are––for some reason––criminally underpatronized. It's pretty easy to find sushi places in this city. From the Bloor Street strip to North York, sushi places range from suspiciously cheap to ridiculously expensive, from having incredibly creative culinary creations to the same old rolls. Quietly tucked on the east edge of Little Italy is Jun Jun Sushi......

Taking a page from David Miller's Big Book of Intergovernmental Panhandling, Dalton McGuinty is complaining that Ontario is going to need a hot cash injection from the Feds if we're going to get those manufacturing jobs back from Bangladesh. Q: What do you get when you have an NDP mayor, a Liberal Premier, and a Tory Prime Minister? A: If you pay taxes in Toronto, pretty much nothing! In related "news," New York Governor......

Photo of delighted fans by Carrie Musgrave. It's a curious bit of magic that can connect eighties synth-pop, Bob Marley, and bouncing castles with a seventeen-year-old boy wizard. It's even more curious to see how far that wizard and his multi-billionaire creator have come in just a few short years. Last night, magic and wonder invaded the typically staunch and business-like intersection of Bay and Bloor. To celebrate the release of Harry Potter and......

Fans of the Colbert Report need no introduction to Tek Jansen. He's the intergalactic swashbuckling alter-ego of Stephen Colbert who is the subject of a sci-fi book and cartoon series called Alpha Squad 7. Oni Press is releasing a five-part comic book serial based on the Tek Jansen adventures called Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen in Alpha Squad 7. Although Colbert is credited as the comic's "Galactic Overlord," writing credits have also been benevolently awarded......

One of the first things aspiring journalists learn is to keep themselves out of the story, if not completely, then as much as possible. "No one cares about you," is how one editor once put it. But with only a small portion of questions posed and stories heard actually making it to print, journalists are often full of great anecdotes and hilarious insights that never get a proper audience. Also, they often like to......

One of the greatest collaborations in Canadian musical history is coming to an end tomorrow night at Massey Hall. The Rheostatics are bidding farewell to bassist Tim Vesely, who is leaving the band to spend more time with his young family and dedicate more energy to his side project, The Violet Archers. The break-up is amicable. Well, as amicable as these things can be. Custody of the Tarleks has yet to be determined. Current......

Every weekday, Torontoist is facing off local memes and blog drama in a tournament-style ladder and you, the reader, decide the outcome. View the full ladder here. Some highlights: ROM Crystal's sharp edges cut Miller's Hair (104 - 101): In the closest and most depressing match of the tournament so far, a napkin sketch gone wild shears the mayor's golden locks from atop his head. The late game upset may qualify for a recount......

Each weekday for the next two weeks, Torontoist is facing off local memes and blog drama in a tournament-style ladder and you, the reader, decide the outcome. View the full ladder here. Some highlights from Saturday's matches: 416 trounces 905 (95-12): In perhaps the most dramatic victory of the evening, the Toronto area code showed up the surrounding suburbs in a true show of telecommunications muscle. Miller's Hair buries Zombie Walks (59-47): The closest......

Fans of Toro rejoice: the remains of the men's magazine have risen from the ashes for one last hurrah. The news of their death just over a week ago was made all the more cruel with the information that the completed March 2007 issue featuring Hayden Christensen, due to be released tomorrow, would not be distributed. Luckily, the staff have decided to release that final issue on their website today -- all 68 pages,......

Edmonton's Cup run is over, while Carolina has proven that they're a hockey town. Last night, in an incredibly exciting game seven of the Stanley Cup finals, the Oilers lost 3 - 1 to the Hurricanes. That there even was a game seven is a testament to how hard the Oilers fought, but in the end Carolina was just way too strong. The Globe & Mail has an excellent write-up of the game. Photograph......

On the eighth extreme heat warning, the city offers these cool* hangouts: Etobicoke - 399 The West Mall (Burnhamthorpe and Hwy 427) East York - 850 Coxwell Avenue (Coxwell and Mortimer) North York - 5100 Yonge Street (Yonge and Sheppard) Metro Hall - 55 John Street (John and King) But if Civic Centres aren't necessarily your scene, and you don't want to be an electricity swine, run through the following low temp checklist and you'll......

The Globe reports today that AGO membership is up by 45%. This, when amazing artist Seth's show opened yesterday. Coincidence? We think not. Nevermind the fact that the 45% stat is for the entire fiscal year. We're sure it's Seth's show that's bringing in the numbers. The Seth show, a first for the AGO, "features original ink drawings from Clyde Fans, his current and ongoing story, plus a tableau of cardboard buildings created from the......

For Torontoist's second JT reference of the day, we'd like to report that Britney's ex is lovin’ the Halo X-Box game so much that he specially built a Halo-themed theatre in his basement. Julia Roberts, Bill Gates, and metal-dorks Linkin Park are also said to be intense Halo gamers. But if they all are such big fans, where were they for the midnight Halo 2 release party in Toronto? Fans of the game snatched up......