Hope is a cruel thing for a sports fan: no matter how bleak the situation, as long as there's a straw in sight we'll happily clutch at it. Case in point: Leafs Nation, of which we're proud, occasionally defiant members. We've been flip-flopping over the Leafs all season long. A few weeks ago we'd written them off, then watched as the team put together an impressive run (which included comprehensive victories over the Ottawa......

It was one of the wildest final weekends in NHL history. The Toronto Maple Leafs delivered a knockout blow to the Montreal Canadiens in one of the most electric matches in recent memory, only to have the New York Islanders break our hearts and take the final playoff spot in a shootout against the New Jersey Devils the following day. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin tonight, but for the second consecutive year, the Leafs won't......

On Tuesday, the second-place New Jersey Devils came to play their road game at the Air Canada Centre, clogging up the neutral zone and waiting for the Maple Leafs to make a mistake. Which might have worked, had they been able to take the lead. But the Leafs played patient, capitalized on the power play, and held on for a 2-1 win. It was only after the oft-maligned Nik Antropov scored the Leafs’ second......

Bramptonite and ex-NHLer forward Mike Danton was sentenced yesterday to a seven and a half year prison sentence for a bizarre murder-for-hire plot in East St. Louis. And by the by, the word 'bizarre' is not our word, but a term used by U.S. District Judge William Stiehl, when he said, "I do not believe in over 18 years on the bench I have been faced with a case as bizarre as this one." The......