J.P. Nikota

James Mirtle? Win. Mikhail Grabovski? Win. Grabbo love? Win. Insanity quotes? Win. Exhibit A: There, for the past six years, he has had a large tattoo that depicts himself as a young hockey player in full equipment with a woman’s face looking over him. It’s not something he

That's the Leafs' fighting record so far this year. 13 wins, 18 losses, and 11 ties. Before digging into these numbers a bit, a short preamble: This past off-season, while writing for LeafsHQ under my old moniker ‘Fleet Fox', I put together a win/loss fight

While to many, the stars of the show last night were Mikhail Grabovksi and Phil Kessel, it's still hard to ignore the fact that James Reimer stopped 27 of 29 shots last night for a .931 save percentage yet again. I would say that although the first goal

Yesterday afternoon, Brian Burke scored with a buzzer beater to trade John Mitchell to the New York Rangers for a seventh-round draft pick. After what was a relatively quiet deadline day, expensive champagne was uncorked, fine bottles of single-malt whiskey were shared, and later, several Colt 45's were

PPP Rabble: A statue! A statue! We found a statue! Can we erect it!? Sir Hawerchuk: But, how do you know he is a statue? JP: BECAUSE HE LOOKS LIKE ONE! (There are many cheers from the surrounding rabble.) Sir Hawerchuk: Bring him forward. James Reimer: I'm not

If so, please enjoy this photo of Brett Lebda being thrown into the glass. I hope it makes your day a little sunnier; it sure put a smile on my face. In the Land of Leaf-Related Links there is precious little to choose from, but the one I'm

Well, only a few. It's only natural that Tomas Kaberle trade talk is going to dominate the day's chatter. I, for one, won't pretend for a moment to be more interested in anything else, or even to be sick of hearing about the upcoming

Oh, who am I kidding? The Leafs hardly stand any chance at all of making the post-season. Let's just be thankful that they moved ahead of the Florida Panthers to slide into 25th overall, and now sit only one point behind The Colorado Avalanche for 24th. There are

Mouth guards in the GTA will rest easy knowing that public enemy number one Kris Versteeg will no longer be chomping their friends, relatives, or neighbors anymore. He's moved on to greener pastures. If you're not a mouth guard, however, it's hard to feel

I usually take a small break during my Sunday morning (Vietnam time) classes to check on the progress of the Leaf game on each Saturday. The Leafs lost? Bummer. The Leafs lost to the Canadiens? Even more so. It's extra homework for those kids today. If life hands

It's good to be back doing the FTBs. It's always nice to take a break, but I'd never want to miss out on Leaf action for too long. I've barely unpacked my bag from my vacation to Thailand, and François Beauchemin is

So Phil Kessel will go to the All-Star game instead of Mikhail Grabovski, which is whack, but at least we have a player representing the Leafs. Being that this is a mediocre team (at best), it's hard to get too worked up about it. Dave Shoalts has a

Not a whole lot of new, Leaf-related articles to talk about today, but as usual, there's plenty of other interesting stuff from around the league for your perusal to be found in today's links. Most of the Leaf content focuses on the goaltending-triangle we have going

Hey gang, sorry today's FTB is a little bit tardy. I got stuck at work a little earlier than I expected, so If I'm missing your link, please throw it into the comments, and I'll be sure to update the list in a bit.

There hasn't been a whole lot of Leaf-related news to talk about over the last twenty-four hours with the Leafs being off, but there's been no shortage of love for a few individual players. First, Nikolai Kulemin gets some love from Jonas Siegel, as well as

Today's Leaf links focus on three things: Reimer (stop), the team's recent surge in the 'W' column (move up), and who will go at the trade deadline (move out). As a result, if your article was left out, don't feel bad; everyone&

As of right now, the Leafs sit at 38 points, good (er, bad) for 26th in the league. They are tied with Florida for 25th in terms of points, but the Panthers have a game inhand. Also, the Leafs are also only two points back of the Flames, and have

This title applies equally to the hearts of Canadian hockey fans (many of whom are no doubt still sullen about their Junior team's Chernobyl) and to the state of several Leafs players. Most Leaf-related articles today focus on injury updates for Mike Brown, Jean-Sébastien Giguère, and John Mitchell,

Tell me if you've seen this sequence of events before: The line of Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin, and Clarke MacArthur was the only one to score. Luke Schenn is good at things like hockey. Phil Kessel was stymied by a Bruins' goaltender. Tuukka Rask was good. Less

This morning's FTB is all over the place. From Michael Langlois over at Vintage Leaf Memories on Kadri: Right now, though, my biggest question has to do with the team’s judgment. They thought this kid wasn’t ready in early October. Then after only 14 games of

Last night's loss to the Hurricanes wasn't without positives; Kessel scored two goals and looked dangerous all game, Versteeg also had an excellent game and picked up an assist, and as usual, the MGK line was good. Overall, a good effort that saw the Hurricanes hemmed

As we all saw yesterday, Tyler Bozak was tweeting about the team's struggle to get out of New Jersey. I suppose he and the rest of the team can take solace in the fact that they're not the only people to ever be desperate to get

Yesterday, the Leafs held an outdoor practice at Trinity Bellwoods Park, and had a chance to answer a few more light-hearted questions. Mark Zwolinski, over at The Toronto Star, asked each Leaf what their best Christmas gift ever was, both given and received. Unfortunately, Colton Orr and Phil Kessel were

Among the many problems the Leafs are facing right now - from breakouts to special teams to scoring - one that has begun to catch my eye is their faceoffs. Currently, the Leafs win 48.8% of their draws, which is good (or, rather, not so good) for 23rd in

"I don't know if we need to bring a cattle prod in here and poke everyone in the ribs before we go on the ice or what," MacArthur said. "Come out sleeping, down 2-0 – I mean, what are the odds of coming back in 2-0