Leafs Nation can slowly start beLEAFing

Finally, the Leafs have done something positive. They have shed useless baggage and acquired some heavy duty talent. Beautiful! Here’s how the shake-up went down:

In the Calgary deal, the Leafs traded Ian White, Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman and Jamal Mayers to the Calgary Flames for all-star defenceman Dion Phaneuf, six-foot-six defenceman Keith Aulie and winger Fredrik Sjostrom.

In the Anaheim deal, Leafs traded Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake for JS Giguere.

TSN has done an excellent job covering the trade story. Check out: http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=308479 for all the details.

With regards to all these trades, all I can say is ‘beautiful!’ ... for 3 distinct reasons.

1. Dion Phaneuf.
What a stud. Enough said. He may not be having his best season, but he is young and incredibly talented; he’ll be dominating again in no time. Straight-up, when Phaneuf is on, he is unstoppable. Bone crushing hits, a dynamite shot and some much needed leadership, he is the complete package. I give it a month before he wears the Leafs’ C.



Are you kidding me? What an animal.

2. JS Giguere.
This guy was once a top NHL goalie and it’s only a matter of time before he returns to his great form. Heck, even if he doesn’t become a top level goalie again, he’s still infinitely better than Vesa Toskala. He can back up Gustavsson and come in to any gaming confidently. He’s a big goalie who squares himself well to every shot. And with a Stanley cup win under his belt, he knows how to win. A Great move.

3. Jason Blake – Goodbye and good riddance.
Thank God, he’s gone...finally. Blake has been nothing but an overpaid, undersized, third liner who’s done nothing for the Leafs. I know as soon as we acquired him, he wouldn’t be nearly as good as he was with the New York Islanders. Yeah yeah, he once had an impressive 40 goal season, but seriously, that was a fluke. He lacks skill, size and game saavy. And with his huge $5 million a year contract, he is the most overpaid player in the NHL. Now we can move on and use that money elsewhere.

Good riddance Blake.




To see what Brian Burke and the rest of Leafs Nation has to say about the trades, check out: http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/index.html

And to see what is in store for the Leafs, check out The Globe and Mail's David Shoalt's report. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/whats-next-for-leafs/article1452609/

Blogspot blows..... your mind!

I love blogspot. I think you should too. If you aren’t a member yet, what are you waiting for? If it’s convincing you need, then here are the top 5 reasons why you should start a blogspot account. Quit lagging, start reading, then start blogging. I’d love to converse with you, ‘blogspot styles’.

1. You are the boss. With blogspot you are no longer just a media consumer; you are a media producer. You have your say, whatever that may be. Talk about anything that interests or excites you. Heck, even write about stuff that makes your blood boil. It’s all free game.

2. Live in web 2.0's democracy. Having an account with blogspot always you the freedom to write whatever you want. No longer is blogging just for journalist and reporters. Now you have the forum to write whatever you want, however you want to write it. Stand on your soap-box and profess to the world. With blogspot, you don’t need to own a newspaper company, a radio station, or a TV network. You just need a computer and an opinion.

3. You can converse. Every blogspot post comes with a comment box. Readers can contribute to your blog, express their opinion on your subject or just say they appreciate what you wrote. It’s simple and requires no advanced training. The comment box allows you to understand a reader and speak to them. Blogspot allows for a 2-way flow of information; sender to receiver and receiver to sender. Have a debate, contribute to a topic or just acknowledge a good opinion. It’s fun.

4. It’s user-friendly. You don’t need a degree in computer engineering in order to write a blog. Blogspot has taken your tech ineptness into consideration. Once you sign in, you can compose, edit, and preview your posts. You can also quickly and easily change the formatting and layout of your posts. If you can read and have a left clicker on your mouse, you can have your posts up in no time. It’s simple.

5. It’s free! Does it get any better? Not only can you write whatever you want, but you can do it without opening up your wallet. All you need is an email account and a blogspot account to start creating magical prose. If you still aren’t convinced that blogspot is right for you, check out Kelly Duffus’ blogspot review

6 reasons why it's good to be a Leafs fan.

Reporters everywhere are constantly belittling the Leafs. They are always panicking and putting a damper on every Leaf season. This is no way to support Leafs nation.

Just look at some recent headlines:

“Dissecting a Leafs season gone wrong” (Toronto Sun – Jan. 25, 2010)

“Leafs fail to finish deal ... again” (Toronto Sun – Jan. 24, 2010)

“Maple Leafs show ‘effort’ but no fire: Wilson claims Leafs are trying hard, but that means they simply aren't good enough to compete” (Toronto Star – Jan. 24, 2010)

“Battle of the bottom dwellers lives up to its billing” (Globe and Mail – Jan. 21, 2010)



Yet, I feel it is necessary to present another side to the debate. Let’s look at the bright side for a change. Let’s embrace losing … the odd win will be that much sweeter.

Here are 6 reasons why being a Leafs fan is in fact, a good thing.

1. Leafs don’t sign big name players. I know what you’re thinking, “how is having a team of crappy players a good thing?” But listen to this, if the Leafs signed big name players then these players would come to Toronto and ruin their careers – we would have no reason to like these players anymore. So by not signing the best players in the league, we can still appreciate the talents of Ovechkin, Crosby, Iginla, Nash, etc. as they play for other and better teams. Hockey heroes can remain heroes and do not have to give up their incredible careers. The result? We still get to see some amazing goals and hits from these players on TSN as they play elsewhere because if they came to the Leafs, their excellence would vanish.

2. Leafs haven’t won a cup in a super long time. How is this a good thing you ask? Well, simply put, we don’t know or remember what it’s like to win a cup. And if you’ve never felt the joy of winning a cup then you don’t really know what it’s like and thus, aren’t missing it. You see if you haven’t experienced something great then you don’t get to miss it when it’s gone. For example, chocolate is delicious, but if you’ve never tasted it, then you don’t know what you’re missing. Chocolate then stands for nothing; a foreign food that to you, is tasteless. The same goes for winning a cup, if you’ve never experienced winning one then you don’t know what you’re missing.

3. Leafs will never win a cup. “But how can you claim that not winning a cup is something to desire?!” This one is easy; Leafs fans don’t get their hopes up. If we actually thought they could win a cup, not winning the cup would make us feel horrible. So if you aim low, and I mean really low, then you can’t be disappointed. Leafs fans don’t even think about winning a cup because it won’t happen and therefore, can’t be disappointed when we lose in the playoffs. Hell, we won’t even get to the playoffs. No expectations = no heartbreak = enjoyment in just watching teams beat up on the Leafs night in and night out because a Leafs loss is something we can always guarantee.

4. Pro-line wins. Another easy argument. Bet that the Leafs lose and you will always win pro-line. It’s simple math that never fails.

5. Leafs don’t win games very often. Yes, it’s true, Leafs lose way more than they win but every so often they DO win. And when they do somehow pull out a victory, Leafs fans are the happiest fans on the planet. You know that expression, “it’s the small victories that count?” Well, this saying holds true with the Leafs because if you’re a Leafs fan, every win is like winning the cup. Therefore, if the Leafs win 20 out of 72 games in a season, then Leafs fans will essentially win 20 cups that year. So when other fans laugh at Leafs fans because we never win the cup, we can laugh back at them because to us, every win is a cup win.

6. Every other NHL team is better. Fans across the league who cheer for good teams only get excited when their teams win cups and if you look at the numbers, chances are they won’t win very often (even if they cheer for the Red Wings). So the fans of good teams are constantly being disappointed because their teams don’t win the cup every year. Whereas, since Leafs fans are ecstatic with just winning games, we actually get excited many more times in a year than those other fans of cup-contending teams. Red Wing fans are happy only once in every 5 years but Leafs fans get excited 20 times every year. So in a 5 year span, we actually feel good about our team 100 times and not just once.

In the end it’s simple, being a Leafs fan is a good thing. We cheer for a goal, a rare win, and the slightest glimpse of a winning streak. Our expectations are so low that we can’t get disappointed, which is more than we can say about other fans of good teams who actually think their teams can win it all, all the time.



All I can say is: Shame on you short-sighted reporters and thank you Leafs for sucking - you make every victory a Stanley cup win.

*I promoted this blog post on twitter, FaceBook, and ning in order to examine how quickly people would read it/respond to it. On the Toronto Maple Leafs fan page, on Facebook, this blog post received attention within 2 minutes of being promoted.

Here's the thread on Facebook -> blog attention.

Thanks for being my test subjects.

UPDATE!!! Check out one of my newer posts that gives a few more reasons why it's good to be a leafs fan...just click here!

How to use Flickr for the tech saavy-less

For those of us who are not ‘tech savvy’, any web 2.0 application may seem foreign at first. We even tend to shy away from anything that requires a screen and a key board. Fine, we have different strengths. But smart ‘tech savvy’ people have realized that not everyone using their applications have a degree in software engineering. Thus, they have worked hard at making their applications user friendly and have helped us reap the benefits of some useful web applications. Howcast videos have taken all our questions into consideration and have designed helpful DIY videos to ease our sorrows.

So, get tough and don’t shy away from Flickr or any other web application any longer.

With that being said, I initially thought Flickr was just another one-hit wonder. I was wrong. Maybe I originally thought Flickr was only for trek’ies and voyeurs or maybe I just wasn’t interested in learning a whole new social media application. (It was probably the latter)

But it’s not my fault... when you think of an application that solely shares photos, you think that it would come complete with all the tech jargon and pixel size ramble.... if you, like me, thought this, you’d be dead wrong.

Flickr is actually one of the more interesting and ‘easy to use’ applications out there. How did I come to this realization? Well, first, I decided to give it a shot. Then, because I’m down with DIY tech vids., I looked one up. First hit in google was the one. It was perfect. Howcast’s video on Flickr made everything easy.

Check it out:


I hate long, dry instructional videos. This is not one of those. It’s quick, snappy, peppy, and just gets the job done. You may need to look at it 2 times because it is pretty fast, but it’s worth it. Does it give me step by step account for everything you will need to get started? Your damn right it does - does it well too, actually. I wanted to dislike the video, but I couldn’t it was perfect.

For efficiency, it’s top notch; no wasted time and no techie jargon. Straight A’s in my book. It gives you a 10 step breakdown of how to use Flickr properly. What more could a non-techie ask for?

If you don’t believe me, just look at these other ‘takes on it':
Megan Vickell's Megan in Nut-shell
Johnny Santilly's Juan Time For Your Mind
Jessica Sanchez's Jess and Thou
Sophie Tupper's Learning Made Simple

Oh, and for more good DIY tech vids. Click here