Happy Monday, everyone.

Later today (or earlier if you're getting to this late) the final votes and rankings for the best T25 ever will be posted. Brian has a piece on Greb, so don't think prospect talk is done.

In fact, the Leafs have to admit publicly at some point this week who they are sending off to Traverse City. Maybe today! The first game is Thursday.

The Leafs are likely already gathering in Toronto for the so-called Captain's Practices that are the unofficial pre-preseason workouts. Expect to see the occasional scintillating quote. We're looking ahead to who will be in the "best shape of his life". My bet is John Klingberg, who has a few things to prove.

Tomorrow you can look forward to one of the longest articles I've ever written – it enters the Brian-zone, where I ruminate about Timothy Liljegren, how to categorize defenceman and what we've been really wrong about until now..

No one, and I mean no one, is better at milking the social media desire to shit on the NHL by finding a way to make the claim they are taking over the coveted number four spot. It's not true, but if you want it to be, you should definitely decide that this is the true measure of business success.

September retirements are bittersweet because you wonder if they were thinking maybe they could do one more year, and when serious business time started up, and the kids went to school, they decided no, maybe not.

Easton Cowan scored a goal yesterday in preseason and this is not it. I'm not showing you, you'll have to go search it out because even for "Cowboy" I won't take preseason seriously.

Dark Mode
All cats are black in the dark.
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

Dark Mode is here! Check out the article linked above for way, way, way more detail than you need – unless you're building a dark mode on a Ghost blog, in which case, it might help.

Executive summary: scroll down the footer, pick your mode, complain at the link above.

Today is Nick Robertson's birthday, and he is 22 now. That means the rush of Leafs late birthdays is coming. (And yes it is the anniversary of that other thing, but I reckon a lot of news sites have that covered.)

Auston Matthews is the 17th, Conor Timmins is the 18th, Simon Benoît is the 19th, John Tavares is the 20th, Calle Järnkrok is the 25th. October is when the real party starts, though, when the important people get cakes.

I honestly can't come up with anything else for this Monday morning, and I've exhausted all the good Monday songs so funk it up:

From The Branches