Results tagged “mapleleaf”

The saga of John Ferguson, Jr. is mercifully over: the beleaguered General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who's been a whipping boy for the team's misfortunes ever since his appointment in 2003, has been fired.

Say what you will about the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they’re not boring. Incompetent, sure, but definitely not boring—not even during their recent, well-publicized losing streak. The Leafs are a middling 3–4–3 in their last ten games, yet they're oddly compelling to watch: they’re tied for third in league scoring (this, despite the inability of some of its key players to put the puck in the net) and they’re by far and away the...

Last week, Maple Leaf Gardens quietly turned 76. When the Gardens was sold to Loblaw in 2004, it appeared that the grocery store chain would fast-track the historic building into a supermarket. Now the projected summer 2007 construction date has come and gone, and nothing has changed since Torontoist covered the Gardens' 75th anniversary. We worried that the Gardens would be neglected while Loblaw dealt with its financial woes and ailing restructuring of existing...

These days, everyone and their grandmother has a celebrity gossip blog. Perez Hilton became a millionaire by outing Lance Bass and defacing paparazzi photos, while TMZ.com (named for the Thirty Mile Zone surrounding Hollywood) came out of nowhere in 2005 and almost instantaneously became the top site to see celebrities behaving badly.

It's the last day of Inside Out, and this afternoon, the gay and lesbian film fest presented a pretty exciting Q&A session with director Laurie Lynd. Lynd directed, among other things, gay-friendly fare like the film version of Torontoist-fave Daniel MacIvor's House as well as episodes of Queer As Folk, Degrassi: The Next Generation and Noah's Arc. But it was his latest project that brought him to the immediate attention of Inside Out. Lynd directed the upcoming film Breakfast With Scot, which is that "gay Maple Leafs movie" you may have been hearing so much about. The afternoon began, however, with a screening of two of Lynd's earlier short films, RSVP and The Fairy Who Didn't Want to be a Fairy. The former is a sad short about a man grieving for his partner who has died of AIDS and the latter is a musical fantasy with Holly Cole about (literally) a fairy who decides that he wants to have his wings surgically removed. Both star Daniel MacIvor, at his loveable, charming best. Torontoist gives him a hug!

The Lunch Express rides again. It's a shuttlebus service that takes office workers in Markham and Richmond Hill to nearby shops and restaurants so they don't have to drive their own cars. Assuming you count Quizno's as a "restaurant." Admittedly, they GOT A PEPPER BAR! And a pepper bar is important. For starters, it makes the Quizno's food taste like peppers, instead of like nothing.

In the 1978 book, Lost Toronto, William Dendy wrote that in the 20th century, many Georgian and Victorian buildings were fated to a date with the wrecking ball because of neglect and "changing tastes." Now, the architecture that took their place has fallen out of favour and structures such as the Massey Ferguson plant and Riverdale Hospital (pictured above), have been torn down or are slated for demolition.

Development of Maple Leaf Gardens has been in limbo for several years, but it finally looks like things are about to get moving. The 75-year old building, having been vacated by the friendly neighbourhood hockey club in 1999, was purchased by Loblaws in 2004.

Depressed by the current deep freeze? Here’s something to make you feel warmer – next week, the boys of summer (or at least the pitchers and catchers) report for spring training for the Blue Jays’ 30th anniversary season.

Yesterday marked the official release of Google Earth 4 (the public beta has been available since the summer), a free product with a cleaner interface and a beefed-up focus on 3-D architectural imagery.

Ah, convergence. It's a word fraught with different meanings, competing motives, and opinions up the proverbial wazoo. To some, convergence is a paradise of synergy, cross-promotion, and massive profits. To others, it's confirmation that more and more information is being disseminated by less and less people. Wherever you stand, however, the world of Toronto media overlords might be on the verge of becoming a whole lot smaller, as Alliance Atlantis confirmed today that one of the companies it is in exclusive talks to sell itself to is none other than Canadian broadcasting and publishing behemoth CanWest Global.

Following the success of gay cowboy epic Brokeback Mountain, it was inevitable that there would be more films about other traditionally uber-hetero occupations considered from a queer POV, and Hollywood desks must have been groaning under stacks of scripts about gay race car drivers, Navy SEALs, and oil patch roughnecks.

Since 2004, signs have hung on the southeast corner of Maple Leaf Gardens promising an historic Loblaws Real Canadian Superstore. "Soon you'll discover a store filled with fresh flavours, shops and services," the billboards cheerily stated, but the Gardens at Church and Carlton has loomed a decrepit shell since it went dark in 2001, despite some minor action hosting the filming of Cinderella Man. The last Leafs game was on February 13, 1999, where they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks just as they did on opening day.

Nope, Torontoist isn't referring to the classic movie series. With Halloween just around the corner, it's a different goalie mask creating this sequence of horrors. Although it may be Friday the 27th, the number 13 represents the total amount of goals Toronto Maple Leaf netminders - mainly Andrew Raycroft - have allowed to Ottawa Senator shooters this week. Even by factoring in his day off in between, Raycroft's goals against average over those 3 days would still put him near the bottom of the NHL. Now Torontoist has been quick to jump to conclusions in the past. Granted the Leafs were off to a rather decent start this season, and it was Raycroft who was indeed leading the way. However, Tuesday's 6-2 and Thursday's 7-2 losses to their provincial rivals are an all too familiar occurance over the past couple of seasons, and surely have to serve as a reality check for Paul Maurice's club.

On this, the eve of the 2006-07 NHL season, take a moment and consider how unhealthy our relationship with hockey in this town is.

Council is dealing with the fallout of the landfill deal. The Star found data that the city could've bought land at the Green Lane landfill site for much cheaper last year but did nothing. Jane Pitfield realises a day after the vote that she voted the wrong way and ended up supporting the mayor.

Spacing Wire pointed out that the National Post has run a contest to redesign Toronto's flag (grand prize a National Post mug, hopefully unused). Their chief complaint, "what's with the obsession with the Maple Leaf?"

The Canadian Olympic team had a strong finish to their first week of competition on Sunday. Cindy Klassen received her third medal of the games in the women's 1000m speed skating. Finishing four one-hundreths of a second behind the Netherlands Marianne Timmer, Klassen was awarded her second silver medal to go along with her bronze from last week's 500m competition. Along with Pierre Leuders and Lascalles Brown's 2-man bobsleigh silver, the Canadians finished the first week in a tie for fifth place with 13 medals. Canada looks to add to add to their pair of golds Monday afternoon, as the women's hockey team is virtually a sure thing against their over-matched Swedish oppontents.

Ed Blefour's play in the Maple Leaf goal this season has for the most part been the calibre of play his team has relied on from the Ottawa Senators in four of the past five playoffs. He has yet to record a shoutout in 24 games this season - a stat that illuminates when you realize that the St.Louis Blues' Curtis Sanford already has a pair. When the Eagle takes the ice in Ottawa this weekend, nineteen days will have passed since his last victory, while backup Mikael Tellqvist has won two games, stopping 55 of 57 shots in that span. So when Torontoist looked at the goalie ratings on YahooSports today, it was no surprise to see Tellqvist ranked 15, while the aging Belfour sat 25th.

Maple Leaf play-maker Jason Allison is so hot right now, he almost warrants a peculiar fan site like this. And he's not just hot for those lady-killing (and, to be fair, male-killing) good looks...As of late, Allison's on-ice performance has been nothing short of blog-worthy despite the continual Maple Leaf meltdowns.

Of course, the relationship between Allison frequenting a generic local pub and his less-than-stellar performance thus far is purely speculative - though his conditioning and play-making should be scrutinized as such. The last time a Leaf was regularly spotted out on the town, it was Shayne Corson and it was an embarrassment.

Following a league-wide signing frenzy that included names such as Forsberg, Iginla, Naslund, Niedermayer and Gonchar, Maple Leaf GM John Ferguson answered the call early Thursday evening, inking sharpshooter Tie Domi to a 2-year deal worth a reported $2.5 million. The Maple Leaf veteran will be expected to fill the scoring void left by last week's departure of forwards Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk, and will likely hold a spot on coach Pat Quinn's top powerplay unit.

Speaking last week to the New York Times, Maple Leaf Tie Domi hinted at toppling the current NHLPA and league administration. The Quizno's spokesman doesn't like the way Player's boss Bob Goodenow or NHL commish Gary Bettman have handled the current lock-out situation. But unlike the average TSN talking head, Domers went so far as to suggest that the two administrators be replaced. (This is a better alternative to replacing players, although Mr. Domi could have been replaced three seasons ago.) Here is what the large-headed tough guy said:

Listening to the Fan590 on the ride home last night, Torontoist was disturbed to hear the words idiots and applause when referring to tonight’s matchup between the Toronto Raptors and the New Jersey Nets. They suggest that it is inappropriate for Vince Carter to be punished for “quitting” the Raptors. Torontoist disagrees.

"Target="new">Vince Carter’s resurgence and this weekends’ NBA All-star game.

The puck drops on the big game at 7 pm this evening. The tailgate, however, begins at 4:30 pm, as I look to extend my five game winning streak against Drew in the classic Sega Genesis game, NHL'94.