Stormin Norman Rumack

Near the end  of January, the Toronto Maple Leafs were 14 points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference of the NHL.  A combination of Toronto winning much more often- they are 6-2-2 in their past ten games- and a drastic fall off in the play of the Atlanta Thrashers,along with the up and down trends of the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres, have created the perfect storm for Ron Wilson’s team, in spite of the recent trades of veterans Tomas Kaberle, Kris Versteeg, and Francois Beauchemin. 

Entering Friday evening, the gap between the Maple Leafs and the eighth place Hurricanes, had been narrowed to just four points, with around 19 or 20 games remaining for most of the teams before the end of the season.

Like most fans right around the world, the focus of their faithful has shifted from chanting “fire Wilson”, referring to the Toronto coach, to post season fever and how excited “Leafs Nation” ,about the dramatic upswing in the good fortune of the team, along with...

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I intended to write a commentary about booing when former Toronto Raptor Chris Bosh returned as a visiting player for the first time last week, but I was pre-occupied with some other stories and distractions. So I decided today is the day, not because of anything Bosh is doing, but just because the entire topic of booing by fans for any reason, is even more fascinating to me.

For the professional athlete, there are a number of reasons why fans might boo. Some are justified and some seem quite stupid.

When Bobby Orr, perhaps the greatest defenseman of all time, or in the same conversation with former Canadiens Hall Of Famer Doug Harvey and six time Norris Trophy winner Niclklas Lidstrom, would visit Maple Leaf Gardens as a member of the Boston Bruins, some of the fans acted like idiots and would boo him constantly, for no particular reason, other than the fact that he was a great player who would mesmerize the Leafs with his exceptional skill. There were times when he would skate with the puck and...

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As a season ticket holder with the Buffalo Sabres since 2006, I was absolutely thrilled, when I read and heard the comments from new owner Terry Pegula. For the first time in a very long time, probably since the team joined the NHL, the club has an owner whose primary objective is to win the Stanley Cup. Money and profit are no longer front and center, for the franchise that started out so well in its early years, under the leadership of former four time Stanley Cup winning Leafs coach and general manager Punch Imlach, earning a birth in the Stanley Cup finals by 1975 against the Flyers, losing to Philadelphia in six games, after having joined the league as an expansion team in 1970, along with the Vancouver Canucks. Buffalo also lost the Stanley Cup final to the Dallas Stars in 1999, on a controversial goal by Brett Hull in triple overtime of the sixth game, giving the Stars their first championship.

Pegula is a former resident of suburban Orchard Park, and was also a Sabres season ticket subscriber for...

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Anytime a trade is made in any sport, the very first thing that fans like to do, is to assess who won the trade, a question that usually takes a few years to answer, in order to grade all the players who were involved, along with the impact of draft picks, if they were involved.

Initially, in examining a blockbuster type deal such as this one, one of the first points that is examined is which team got the best player or players ? That is very easy to assess in this deal, with Carmelo Anthony being joined by Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter, and Renaldo Balkman in New York, coming over from Denver. The Knicks are sending Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and a 2014 first round draft pick to the Nuggets. It was also reported by ESPNNewYork.com, that the Nuggets will get two second-round selections which belong to New York, form another transaction with Golden State, when they signed forward David Lee last summer. Additionally, the Timberwolves helped the Kicks...

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Sunday was Hockey Day in the USA, with  NBC, the NHL’s American broadcast partner, along with Versus, telecasting an entire afternoon’s worth of games, in solid hockey markets, like Buffalo, Chicago, and Minneapolis-St.Paul. It’s a great idea, picking up on Hockey Night In Canada’s similar theme north of the border, which has been an annual event for several years.

The NHL’s popularity in the United States, is sometimes ridiculed by some Canadian journalists, who will go out of their way to highlight a game, quite often in Atlanta, or earlier this season and last, Phoenix, when the attendance is poor. There are several NBA teams that have small crowds, and yet, that it is rarely highlighted by these same journalists. Similarly, Major League Baseball has teams that struggle at the box office, including, the Florida Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, and sometimes the Tampa Bay Rays, even with a contending team. The poor attendance for those teams at home, is not mentioned or highlighted to anywhere near the degree...

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Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke, made yet another transaction, on Friday, and is wisely stockpiling draft picks, in his deals with the Flyers in trading Kris Versteeg for first and third round picks, and now in moving Tomas Kaberle to the Bruins.

In return for the veteran Leafs defenseman, Toronto gets Boston’s first round pick in 2011, a conditional second-round pick, and Joe Colborne, the Bruins first round pick in 2008. Kaberle can become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Boston GM Peter Chiarelli told ESPN.com: “He’s a guy that we want to re-sign……I think it would be smooth sailing to sign him when it comes to that time. So it’s an important part of this deal because we are giving up significant assets.” The Bruins still have Toronto’s first round pick for 2011, as part of the Phil Kessel trade.

Colborne is 6 foot 5, 190 pounds, and was selected 16th overall. The University Of Denver alumnus, had 12 goals and 14 assists for Providence of the AHL this season. Burke likes the total...

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One of the most debated topics for fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club, is the strategy that should be utilized, to try and build a team that can someday contend for a championship, as opposed to one that can only contend for a spot in the playoffs, on an annual basis.  The Detroit Red Wings are the model franchise in the NHL, for how to build a top team that remains a championship contender for years on end. With the blueprint of Hall Of Fame executive vice president Jim Devellano,and general manger Ken Holland, the Wings game plan, which has evolved into a dynastic four Stanley Cup championships since 1998, is quite simple,and enormously successful,as illustrated by not only their championships, but also their 20 straight years of qualifying for  the NHL playoffs, ( 1990-2010, as detailed by Wikipedia.) which is an incredible achievement as well.

When Devellano took over as general manager in 1982, he told the then new team owners, Mike and Marion Ilitch, that he would not be trading any first...

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Now that football is finished for the year, this time of the sports season is the equivalent to the dog days of summer for baseball fans and players. Both the NHL and the NBA are getting closer to their trade deadlines, and while there are some close races for playoff spots in both leagues, the schedule is to the point in time where you wish it was one month further along than it is now, and that much closer to the start of the playoffs for both leagues.

Psychologically, one month from now is also that much closer to the beginning of spring weather, which makes everybody feel good.

For those who follow football closely, you get into a routine with the National Football League. When you get up on Sunday morning, you start to watch the pre-game shows, as early as 10am if you watch the NFL network, and of course ESPN’s television programming for the NFL starts at 11am, with the early games kicking off at 1pm. With the west coast games starting around 4pm, and a Sunday night game as well, the football...

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It probably doesn’t mean much to a lot of people, other than a few sports fans, but for me watching one of my favorite teams come close to completing a 20 point comeback in basketball, was very inspiring this past Saturday.

I am referring to the Syracuse Orange, (20-6) ranked 13th this past week, who were playing Big East rivals Louisville, (19-6) 15th in the country, in Kentucky, which is a place that they almost never win. The Cardinals are coached by former Orange assistant coach (1976-1978) Rick Pitino, who was Hall Of Fame coach Jim Boeheim’s first hiring, when he became the Syracuse head coach. Pitino won a national championship with Kentucky in 1996, defeating Boeheim’s Orangemen ( as they were known then ) in the final game at the Meadowlands. Boeheim and Pitino also met in the 1987 Final Four, when the Syracuse coach led his team past Pitino’s Providence Friars, in the semi-final game, before losing on a buzzer beating three point shot by Keith Smart, which secured an Indiana Hoosier national championship...

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As detailed by ESPNDallas.com, Texas Rangers outfielder and AL MVP, Josh Hamilton has signed a two year, $24 million dollar contract with the American League champions. He hit 32 homers, to go along with 100 RBI, and a .359 batting average. The Raleigh, North Carolina native, will be turning 30 in May.

Hamilton is the sort of athlete you like to see do well. He has overcome a lot of personal demons, to climb back to the top of the baseball world. The prolific slugger struggled with both drug and alcohol addiction, for several years after being drafted number one in 1999 by Tampa Bay. His battles with addictive behavior began in 2001, and got so bad, that at one point, he recalled waking up at the side of a road not knowing how he got there. He told me in an interview a few years ago, that he knew that he had reached rock bottom, when his wife ( Katie ) told him that she was going to leave him. The former Chicago Cub and Cincinnati Red, was out of baseball completely from 2004 until 2006, and was also suspended...

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