Leafs: So that’s what the playoffs are like

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 11:43 PM - 0 Comments

James Reimer reacts to the game winning goal during overtime in Game 7. (Charles Krupa/AP photo)

If will be of little comfort to disconsolate fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but in the wake of a heartbreaking Game 7 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins, the old saw is as true as ever: Close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.

Yes, the Buds, making their first playoff appearance in nine long years were tantalizingly, agonizingly, impossibly near—battling back from a 3-1 series deficit and standing on the cusp of victory having built a 4-1 lead halfway through the third period, only to see it slip away. First the Bruins’ Nathan Horton scored with a little over 10 minutes left to make it 4-2. Then Milan Lucic made it 4-3 with just 1:18 remaining. Then Patrice Bergeron tied the game with only 51 seconds on the clock.

And finally, iresistibly, inevitably, in overtime, after Toronto’s Joffrey Lupul had twice been denied on the doorstep, first by Tuukka Rask’s arm and then a few seconds later, his mask, the payoff came at the other end of the ice. A scrambley goalmouth sequence where Toronto failed to clear the loose puck and it again ended up on the stick of Bergeron and in the back of  net. And just like that, the season was over.

But while the manner in which the defeat came about stings, it won’t be what is remembered.  In the NHL playoffs, your team wins, or it loses. And even moral victories quickly fade.

(Pop quiz: How many games went to OT in the Leafs 2002 Conference Final against Carolina?

Answer: It doesn’t matter, they lost.)

What is clear is that after waiting 46 years and counting for a Stanley Cup, and finishing out of the playoffs every single season between the NHL’s last two lockouts, Toronto has once again discovered that even futility can be fun. These past two weeks when the Maple Leafs finally gave their fans a reason to care about spring hockey, the city came alive.  Blue and White sweaters were pulled out of the deepest recesses of closets, dusty flags reattached to car windows, and face-painted crowds gathered in bars and downtown streets to cheer and—for a little while at least—hope.

Up against the Bruins, Cup winners just two years ago and a team that has all but owned Toronto in regular season play over the past decade (28-17-7), it was never going to be easy. But a stirring 4-2 victory in Game 2 (on the heels of the 4-1 drubbing Boston handed them in the series opener) fanned the embers of playoff passion back to life.

In the hours before Game 3, Toronto’s first home playoff tilt in 3,289 days, the city took on a holiday feel with thousands of fans flooding the area around the Air Canada Centre. (Police eventually had to close off access to a packed plaza where the TV broadcast was being shown live on giant screens.) And inside the building the atmosphere was, for once, no less electric.  The rinkside platinum seats—$796.75 each, including tax and surcharge—were actually filled before the puck dropped. The pumped up crowd made noise without the score board’s urgings, booed villains like Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, and Mayor Rob Ford, and even looked the part, abandoning suits and ties in favour of Leafs jerseys and freebie team scarves. And late in the second period when 22-year-old defenceman Jake Gardiner, playing in just his second career post-season game, scored to half a two-goal deficit, the roof almost lifted off.

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The hard life of being a Leafs fan

By Aaron Hutchins - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 11:02 PM - 0 Comments

Resilient Toronto Maple Leafs keep on #winning

By Aaron Hutchins - Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 11:45 PM - 0 Comments

Cherry praises fans for peaceful viewing of Leafs 1st playoff series in 9 years

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 11:40 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – Don Cherry took a veiled shot at Vancouver that earned him an ovation from Toronto Maple Leafs fans.

Speaking during the Coach’s Corner segment on “Hockey Night in Canada,” the hockey commentator noted Sunday there were thousands of people watching Game 6 between the Leafs and Boston Bruins outside Toronto’s Air Canada Centre but no signs of violence or discord.

“There’s 20,000 people outside this building there,” said Cherry. “They don’t wreck things, they’re good Canadian hockey fans and they don’t wreck things, they love hockey and that’s the way it should be.”

CBC cut to a shot of the crowd outside the arena, which cheered as Cherry praised them.

A riot broke out in Vancouver after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final to the Boston Bruins. An estimated $4.2 million of damage was done to the city, with almost 200 people charged with various offences and 56 convictions.

Despite Cherry’s assertions on Saturday, the crowds gathering outside the ACC for the Maple Leafs first playoff series in nine years have not always been peaceful.

After Toronto’s 2-1 victory in Boston on Friday, a group of hockey fans damaged a taxi cab north of Maple Leaf Square by standing on top of the car and ripping its sign off the roof.

Police dispersed the rowdy group, moving them further north toward the city’s subway system.

Is Leafs legend Doug Gilmour swearing on TV?

By Aaron Hutchins - Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 10:06 PM - 0 Comments

Toronto Maple Leafs legend Doug Gilmour has done plenty of commercials before, but his latest for Asus left many at home wondering: “did he just say what I think he said?”
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Why Ottawa hockey fans want to stop traffic for their team

By Nick Taylor-Vaisey - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 6:04 PM - 0 Comments

Graham Hughes/CP

Ask a cynic about the people who cheer for the Ottawa Senators, and you’ll hear about how you can hear a pin drop at Scotiabank Place when the Senators play, how the fans can’t even pack their own building when the Maple Leafs pay a visit, and then various other laments about how the team plays in the suburbs and what a waste of time it is to make the commute. Mostly, you’ll hear all of that from people who prefer blue and white to red and black, and just like to complain.

Those cynics, for the most part, can’t be entirely dismissed. The Senators’ arena is loud when it matters, but rarely when it doesn’t. Daniel Alfredsson, the team’s beloved captain and a man basically beyond reproach inside city limits, is booed on his own ice by hostile Toronto fans when the Leafs are in town. And, of course, everyone wishes for a downtown arena. No matter its success, the team will always be the Kanata Senators to any and all of its detractors, a team indelibly linked to the suburb it calls home.

None of that mattered when the Senators embarrassed the Montreal Canadiens in the fifth game of their Eastern Conference quarter-final series. They’d already skated circles around the Canadiens in the third game, a 6-1 rout at Scotiabank Place. And they’d won twice more, including once in overtime, conceding just a single loss to the Habs heading into the fifth game. The Sens took Montreal to task in the clincher, surrounded by the more than 20,000 rabid fanatics who fuel the Bell Centre, one of the continent’s loudest arenas. Six goals and sixty minutes after it all started, the Sens were through to the second round.

Fans congregate at Elgin Street and Maclaren Street whenever the Sens win big. That intersection lies in the middle of Sens Mile, the stretch of Elgin Street devoted to hockey madness during playoff runs. Bars occupy three corners. One of them has a lot of very big screens, the other a top-notch beer selection, and the other a popular outdoor patio on the second level. Maybe those selling points have nothing to do with it, but the army of Senators fans—they’re loud, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise—probably doesn’t care why they choose that corner. They just do, and the rest is a party.

Celebrations at Elgin and Maclaren always follow the same formula: congregate until there’s critical mass, parade into the intersection when Elgin’s traffic hits a red light, and linger as long as possible when that light turns green. Eventually, police intervene and help traffic along, and everyone keeps screaming and chanting, and there’s usually a mock Stanley Cup bobbing along with the crowd. Such was the scene last night.

It was only the first round of 2013′s playoff marathon; an initial test, passed. Already, Sens fans are hungry for more. They came so close in 2007, when they fought their way to the Stanley Cup Final only to lose decisively to the Anaheim Ducks. They’re itching to get back there, to burst into the street after the final buzzer, and to not have to worry about traffic getting in the way. They want to own Elgin and Maclaren, just for a night. The cynics who openly detest the Sens would be forced into their homes, isolated from the rest of the city’s glee, brooding and talking about next year. Maybe some of them—not many, and only quietly—will even cheer for the Sens, if they end up Canada’s best chance at a Stanley Cup. Sweet justice for the home crowd.

And just like that, the Canucks head to the greens for the summer

By Nancy Macdonald - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 5:53 PM - 0 Comments

(Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

Never mind the summer-like weather. The mood in Vancouver this week is grim.

Two years ago, the city fielded the best team in franchise history, and came within a game of hoisting the Stanley Cup. Last night, the city’s beloved Canucks became the first team to exit the playoffs, unceremoniously swept in four straight by San Jose, a 4-3 overtime loss that marked the passing of an era.

Gone was the team whose Sedinery once dazzled, whose wingers skated as if shot from cannons, which boasted the league’s best goaltending duo. The club—the only one of the NHL’s 16 playoff entrants to fail to win a single post-season game—is a shell of their former selves, replaced by a group that is no longer good enough to challenge for a cup.

No wonder so many Vancouverites are frowning through the glorious, afternoon sun.

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Justin Trudeau and Jose Canseco discuss the Montreal Canadiens

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 11:23 PM - 0 Comments

When the Ottawa Senators scored late in tonight’s game with the Montreal Canadiens to tie the score, Justin Trudeau was displeased.

Merde! #GoHabsGo

This was retweeted by National Post columnist Bruce Arthur, who is followed by former baseball star Jose Canseco, who then directed a tweet at Mr. Trudeau.

hey buddy @JustinTrudeau habs or leafs?

Mr. Trudeau responded.

.@JoseCanseco Sorry bud, as long as the #Habs are still in, they’re my team. Then it’s whatever Canadian team is left.

Mr. Canseco then attempted to continue the conversation.

@JustinTrudeau blue and white for me buddy #leafs .what should we do about rod ford @tomayorford?

As of this writing, Mr. Trudeau has not commented on what they should do about “Rod Ford.” But Mr. Canseco does now credit Mr. Trudeau with his knowledge of French swear words. Also, Mr. Canseco seems to think that, given the electoral significance of Ontario, Mr. Trudeau might consider supporting the Leafs.

See previously: Stephen Harper vs. Homer Simpson

Toronto remembers how to cheer for playoff hockey

By Nick Taylor-Vaisey - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 7:23 PM - 0 Comments

Nathan Denette/CP

When playoff hockey returned to Toronto, the rust showed, here and there, somewhere between the fans and the game.

The fans were ready. What used to be normal, and was for nine years starkly absent, all of a sudden returned. That feeling of palpable excitement, formerly a spring rite of passage in a city that loves its hockey team, consumed the outdoor plaza at Maple Leaf Square before the game. Even the traditionally staid crowd inside the arena found its cheering legs, now and again. The fans weren’t the problem. They never forgot what a playoff goal looks like, how it sounds, and all the revelry that briefly follows.

The team was, more or less, ready. A few nights ago, they’d shown that they belong—or can belong—on the same ice as a Boston Bruins squad that’s chock full of Stanley Cup champions. Last night, with the first round series of the 2013 NHL playoffs knotted at a game apiece, they never managed enough momentum to discourage the powerful Bruins. They were rarely awful, and mostly just mediocre. Phil Kessel, the man everyone will watch for however long this series lasts, had sad moments—he coughed up the puck in his own zone and watched as winger Daniel Paille deposited it in the net—and happier moments, including a goal to call his own less than a minute into the third period. But, all told, despite demonstrating a rare ability to outshoot their opponents, the blue and white fell 5-2.

None of that, however, accounted for that lingering rusty feeling in the building.

Do you remember Jeff Douglas? Joe, of “I am Canadian” fame? He who was a small celebrity in Canada when, by coincidence, the Leafs used to make the playoffs on a regular basis? The Leafs brought him back last night, in between plays, to proclaim his love for the home team. “I wear blue and white, not black and yellow,” he proclaimed. “I cheer for Sundin, not Alfredsson.” There was only one problem with the scene: Joe wasn’t wearing blue and white. He was wearing the same black and red—in a checkered pattern—that Daniel Alfredsson’s Senators don on a nightly basis. Oops.

During an earlier stoppage, Leafs announcer Andy Frost alluded to one man in the crowd who was celebrating his 105th playoff series as a Leaf fan. The camera panned to a private box where an 88-year-old Johnny Bower, a legend if ever one graced the arena’s halls, stood and blew kisses to the crowd. In so doing, Bower continued that fine modern tradition in Toronto: celebrate a glorious, fading past while you still can. Johnny Bower, Joe Carter, you fill in the blanks. It’s something to cheer in between whistles.

With fewer than 10 minutes left in the game, that other great tradition took hold of the ACC’s speakers: The Hockey Song. The Leafs had narrowed the score to 4-2, and were pushing in fits and starts to further close the gap, and Stompin’ Tom’s classic tune whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Only the song was cut off by the resumption of play—by a few seconds, but nevertheless.

Before last night, I’d never really listened to Carry On My Wayward Son, the hockey-rink staple that Kansas pumped out in 1976. But when it took over the arena at some point in the third period, the second verse—meant to energize the crowd, remember—struck me.

Masquerading as a man with a reason 
My charade is the event of the season 
And if I claim to be a wise man, well 
It surely means that I don’t know

A cynic would say those four lines define what it means to be a fan of the Maple Leafs or Blue Jays or Raptors, or—credit where it’s due—any team that doesn’t play lacrosse (the Rock) or football (the Argonauts), since those teams occasionally win when it counts.

Leafs fans harbour a perennial obsession with their team unlike any other in Toronto’s sports universe. When the Jays are in last place, the Rogers Centre’s sea of empty blue seats serves as punishment. When the Raptors are determined to lose, their fan base remains intact—but who talks about them, anyway? Everyone’s stopped noticing Toronto FC altogether. Few non-diehards ever noticed the Argonauts, even if they were Canadian football’s best team last year.

Somehow, Leaf Nation forges ahead. Forget the Cup drought, they say. Forget the playoff drought. Our guys are back, aren’t they? It’s all worth it, even in an ultimately losing cause, if the Senators or Bruins or Canadiens suffer just a little bit. Does it even matter that most of the team’s fans weren’t born when the Stanley Cup paraded around town? Does winning matter anymore? Leaf fans are masquerading as people with a reason. Period.

Before the puck dropped at the ACC, the CN Tower lit up in blue. As fans filed out of the arena, the tower’s lights had gone purple. The game was over. The page already turned.

Now, the city does it all over again on Wednesday, when the series moves to its fourth game. And, once again, the fans hope everything clicks: their peers yelling, their players excelling, the Johnny Bower and Joe Canadian moments finely tuned. If that doesn’t work, there’s always Game 5.

Molson Coors rooting for Canadian teams to defy odds in NHL hockey playoffs

By Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 3:49 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Molson Coors is rooting for Canada’s NHL hockey teams to come from behind and go deep in the playoffs in order to spur beer consumption.

“The longer the Canadian teams stay in the playoffs the happier we’ll be,” CEO Peter Swinburn said in an interview Tuesday after releasing disappointing first-quarter results.

The NHL sponsor has already endured the ill effect on sales from the 113-day lockout that ended in January. An early end to the season for the Canadian teams could cap the challenging year.

Although four Canadian teams made this year’s playoffs, only one is guaranteed to make it to the next round.

The Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs are trailing in their series. So are the Montreal Canadiens, but they face the Ottawa Senators, guaranteeing at least one Canadian team a little more ice time. Continue…

Habs fans start ‘Adopt Prust a Walrus’ after his comments about Sens coach

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 7:11 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Two Montreal Canadiens fans are trying to put a positive spin on some of the nastiness that has surfaced during the Habs’ playoff series with the Ottawa Senators.

They’re using Brandon Prust’s reference to Ottawa coach Paul MacLean as a “bug-eyed, fat walrus” to help raise funds for worthy causes.

The Montreal forward made the comment after MacLean’s reaction to the bloody hit on Canadiens centre Lars Eller by Eric Gryba in Game One.

MacLean blamed Raphael Diaz for making a dangerous rink pass to Eller.

Habs fan Ashley Marah says she doesn’t bear any ill will toward MacLean or the Senators.

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Habs fans start ‘Adopt Prust a Walrus’ after his comments about Sens coach

By The Canadian Press - Monday, May 6, 2013 at 9:45 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Two Montreal Canadiens fans are trying to put a positive spin on some of the nastiness that has surfaced during the Habs’ playoff series with the Ottawa Senators.

They’re using Brandon Prust’s reference to Ottawa coach Paul MacLean as a “bug-eyed, fat walrus” to help raise funds for worthy causes.

The Montreal forward made the comment after MacLean’s reaction to the bloody hit on Canadiens centre Lars Eller by Eric Gryba in Game One.

MacLean blamed Raphael Diaz for making a dangerous rink pass to Eller.

Habs fan Ashley Marah says she doesn’t bear any ill will toward MacLean or the Senators.

“I’m not going to bash them or be mean,” she said in an interview Monday.

The 31-year-old woman, who did not want to give her family name, has decided to use the occasion to promote awareness about the walrus, a threatened mammal.

She “adopted” a walrus for Prust after googling the World Wildlife Fund.

“Let’s do something good with this,” she said.” I find it a unique touch to what this whole thing had escalated to.

“Because at the end of the day we’re all just people and people say things and people don’t mean things.”

One stuffed plush walrus for Prust cost her and her friend, Lissa Albert, about $40. That donation will go to the WWF’s conservation efforts.

As of Monday, they had collected about an additional $300. That money and any extra funds will go to the Montreal Canadiens’ Children’s Foundation.

The campaign was brought to the attention of MacLean on Monday, but a team spokesman said in an email the Senators coach would pass on the opportunity to comment.

Besides the walrus, Prust will get a card with the names of all the people who donated money. A card will also be sent to the children’s foundation.

On its website, the wildlife fund says that with Arctic ice melting, the walrus is losing its primary habitat for resting, birthing, nursing calves and protecting itself from predators.

The two women began the campaign last Friday. It will end at noon this Friday.

They also thought of getting two more walruses, for Diaz and Eller, “because of what they went through,” but decided to focus on the children’s foundation.

The pair hope to present the walrus to Prust before the end of the Ottawa series.

“We’re just happy that people are helping out the WWF as well because we need to help save animals as well,” Ashley Marah said.

Anyone wanting to donate can go to the website that was set up for fans of Brendan Gallagher, Bgally.com, and follow the links to a walrus for Prust.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had a wrong name for the World Wildlife Fund

Sens and Habs brawl: ‘Are we all inside Don Cherry’s dream?’

By Aaron Hutchins - Monday, May 6, 2013 at 5:41 AM - 0 Comments

Tim Leiweke on the Leafs, Raptors and championship mentality

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Friday, May 3, 2013 at 3:00 PM - 0 Comments

Photo by Stephanie Diani/Getty Images

Tim Leiweke has always been known for his sales flair and relentless optimism, qualities that served him well over the last decade as he transformed AEG, the L.A.-based arena, sports and concert conglomerate into a major player in the global entertainment biz. But as the new president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE)—owners of the Leafs, Raptors, TFC and Toronto Marlies—he’ll have his work cut out for him as fans and his bosses (including Rogers, the owner of this magazine) look for someone to finally show them the winning way.

Q: Running MLSE is a big-deal job in Canada, but it doesn’t have anywhere near the scope of your last gig at AEG. Why did you want this position?

A: Well, neither did AEG when we started it, and so I never look at things that are fully baked and get excited about being a part of that. You always want to be a part of something that has great potential. And I am absolutely certain that there’s growth with the Maple Leafs, and it’s called the Stanley Cup. I think all would agree that there are better days ahead for the Raptors and that we have our work cut out, and I like that challenge. I think that TFC is a work in progress and, again, the best days are ahead of it. I happen to believe that there are a lot of opportunities there to grow that brand and to grow the company and, in particular, for the three teams to have much more success.

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Who to cheer for in the Stanley Cup playoffs

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Photo by Francois Lacasse/Getty Images

It has been deemed appropriate for Maclean’s to address the most urgent question of the day: what is the right attitude to adopt toward other Canadian NHL teams once your own has been eliminated from the playoffs? This is one of the rare issues in which public sentiment appears to lie in an enduring, almost perfect 50-50 balance. (Note: this is one of the 4.7 per cent of statistics cited in magazines that is completely made up on the spot.) People of a naturally patriotic bent—and while Canadians do not think of themselves as aggressive flag-wavers, outsiders with experience of us will contradict this instantly—believe in transferring one’s primary loyalty to some other Canadian club that has a chance of bringing home the Cup. Others prefer to cheer against surviving Canadian teams. They want their own club to be the one that finally brings the grail back to Canada after what may shortly become a 20-year absence.

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Don Cherry repeats himself: ‘I don’t think women should be in there …’

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 9:31 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – Don Cherry hasn’t changed his mind — he still doesn’t believe women should be in men’s locker-rooms.

The CBC hockey commentator reiterated his opinion Wednesday during his Coach’s Corner segment of “Hockey Night in Canada.”

Cherry defended himself as the first coach in a major sports league to let women in the locker-room, which he did in the 1970s when former New York Times reporter Robin Herman covered the Boston Bruins.

But Cherry said he wouldn’t do that if he were coaching today.

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Fill in the blank: The last time the Leafs were in the playoffs …

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 9:06 PM - 0 Comments

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Making fun of the Leafs playoff drought ends tonight, right?

By Aaron Hutchins - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 6:01 AM - 0 Comments

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Catching trolls won’t be easy for Brian Burke

By Charlie Gillis - Monday, April 29, 2013 at 5:20 PM - 0 Comments

Chris Young/CPChris Young/CP

Brian Burke is thought to have struck a blow for accountability on the web with his defamation suit against 18 internet commenters, who last January spread rumours suggesting the erstwhile Toronto Maple Leafs general manager had an affair with sports TV anchor Hazel Mae.

“This will be a very public reminder to people that you can get sued for what you publish on the Internet,” libel lawyer Rider Gilliland told the Toronto Star in a typical response.

But is nabbing pseudonymous trolls the slam-dunk some analysts suggest?

Not by a long shot, says Michelle Awad, a Nova Scotia lawyer who fought a similar case, and has argued issues of Internet anonymity before the Supreme Court of Canada. While it’s true that case law empowers plaintiffs to unmask commenter who post libelous material, she says, the practical hurdles are considerable.

For starters, many web messages originate from IP addresses that host multiple users, such as cafés with unsecured wireless. “Once you have your court order,” Awad explains, “you go to the Internet service provider and ask for the customer information that goes with a particular IP address. But if it’s wireless Internet in a hotel lobby, you’re not going to get very far.”

Information held by the website where the comments are posted can be no more helpful, she adds. “Sometimes they log and say ‘I’m the Easter Bunny at Gmail.’ The site’s automatic registration system doesn’t recognize that’s probably not real.” At that point, says Awad, the plaintiff might take his court order to the webmail host—Google, say, or Yahoo—and seek user information from them. But there again, people can set up pseudonymous accounts from IP addresses that host many users.

So from a legal point of view, the web remains an untamed and unfriendly environment.

The better question arising from Burke’s suit: why does it name commenters but not websites or media companies? Sites, after all, are typically easy to trace to a specific IP address, and the offending statements in this case landed on some well-read ones. Moreover, those linked to major media agencies have deeper pockets, which means a successful plaintiff has the prospect of winning significant financial damages. The messages that so angered Burke appeared on, among other sites, Hockeyinsideout.com, a Montreal Canadiens-themed site run by the Gazette newspaper and owned by the Postmedia newspaper chain; and a popular blog called Canuckscorner.com.

At least one clue lies in a statement Burke’s lawyer, Peter Gall, issued Friday saying his client will seek damages from “everyone who has failed to take down these lies” when Burke first asked them to. According to Awad, the case law on a website operator’s responsibility is far from settled, but the courts look more kindly on sites that take responsibility for what they publish—who make a reasonable effort given the reach of their websites and their resources. Editors with Hockeyinsideout, for example, closely monitor comments, encouraging readers to alert them to potentially defamatory material and taking it down when they decide it crosses the line (a message from a commenter identified as ‘Ncognito’, who is named in Burke’s suit, is no longer on the site).

But others seem keen to play with fire. As the Star noted Saturday, one of the defendants named in the suit, THEzbrad, is linked to a blog where the comments appeared, and where an anonymously posted message this weekend dismissed the suit as “ridiculous.” “Burke obviously did not appreciate these few comments,” the post added, “but the fact that he is going to attempt to sue online commentators is pretty hilarious.”

That’s admirably nonchalant. But here’s some free advice to THEzbrad: take some time out from laughing and get yourself a lawyer.

Leafs make playoffs, Twitter goes ‘WWOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!’

By macleans.ca - Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 9:55 PM - 0 Comments

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Kevin Lowe apologizes for classifying Oiler fans

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 2:48 PM - 0 Comments

Kevin Lowe has apologized to Edmonton Oiler fans.

In a video posted on the NHL team’s website, the president of the team’s hockey operations climbed down from suggesting there are two tiers of club fans.

Lowe made the following comments earlier this week as he explained changes to the team’s office:

“We have two types of fans. We have paying customers and we have people that watch the game that we still care about. But certainly the people who go to the games and support, we spend a lot of time talking to them, delivering our message. I would, uh, think it’s safe to say that half the general managers in the National Hockey League would trade their roster for our roster right now. And in terms of the group that messed things up, you’re talking about the group that had the team one period away from winning the Stanley Cup.”

Today, he clarified his comments:

“Yesterday was a day full of excitement and passion and emotion, and I must admit my emotion ran a little high, and I have a few things to say to our fans in particular to clarify. First of all, we are appreciative and are grateful to every one of our fans who cheer for us through good times and bad. We understand that we see many of our fans at Rexall Place, but we have hundreds of thousands of fans that never get to Rexall Place, and we appreciate each and every fan. I did not make that clear yesterday and if I offended anyone, I apologize.”

Noted one blogger at the Edmonton Journal: ”Apologies do not come naturally to Kevin Lowe. So, rest assured that the mea culpa to Oilers fans posted to the team’s website (www.edmontonoilers.com) was difficult for a proud, fiercely combative man like Lowe.”

To sum up: Kevin Lowe is sorry. And, well, go, Oilers, go!

PM to Bettman: Let NHL stars play in Sochi Winter Olympics

By The Canadian Press - Monday, April 8, 2013 at 5:03 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is urging NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to let the league’s stars play in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Harper says he speaks for all Canadians who want to see the country’s top players don the Maple Leaf at the Winter Games.

NHL players have been part of the Olympics since 1998 in Nagano, Japan.

The league is mulling whether it is worth shutting down the NHL season for a few weeks to let its players take part in the 2014 Games.

The NHL, International Olympic Committee, International Ice Hockey Federation and NHL Players’ Association held meetings earlier this year to discuss the league letting its players go to Sochi.

But so far no decision has been made on the NHLers’ participation.

Jarome Iginla moves on: ‘I really do want to win a Stanley Cup’

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 3:09 PM - 0 Comments

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Jarome Iginla traded to Penguins

By Aaron Hutchins - Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 5:48 AM - 0 Comments

Flames fans say farewell to Jarome Iginla

‘Thank you for the hits, goals, fights and for putting the Flames on your shoulders for so long’

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine· Thu, Mar 28 2013 03:04:24