Brian Burke needed last night's performance to keep the media from calling him a moron for trading away so many players, and boy did his new hires have their bosses back. Three new Leafs; three stars of the games. Dion Phaneuf smashed and punched people; Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped ever puck shot his way; Fredrik Sjostrom helped make the Leafs a perfect 2 for 2 on the penalty kill.

Yeah that's a pretty good first impression made by all of them.

Aside from the newbies, the Leafs of old (last Saturday) also played a very impressive game with solid play and few mistakes. All around it was a great game for the Buds.  Twenty more like that for the rest of the season and we'll be talking PLAYOFFS!!!1

Game Recap #1 [Globe and Mail]

Game Recap #2 [MLHS]

Game Recap #3 [NHL Fanhouse]

Game Recap #4 [Space Weed Says...]

Game Recap #5 [The Hockey News]

Game Recap #6 [The Hockey Writers]

Game Recap #7 [Puck Daddy]

I love the smell of victory in the morning; it smells like hope [Heroes in Rehab]

A fantastic look at the number of players drafted by a team, still playing for said team or in the NHL [Behind the Net]

Gary Bettman has his email hacked into and the contents are hilaroius [Down Goes Brown]

Welcome new comer to the Barilkosphere, The Luck of the Irish Leafs. Hard to argue that he hasn't already done some good [Luck of the Irish Leafs]

Change is coming and it is good [Greetings from SoCal]

Leafs Phan Phoever might want to consider a name change [Leafs Fan Forever]

WrapAroundCurl is pretty famous now [WAC]

Breaking down the forwards involved in the Flames trade [MLHS]

Easy minutes for Dion Phaneuf in Calgary? Think again [Behind the Net]

Eyebleaf has gone on sabbatical to India; should have just watched last night's game to ease his mind [Sports and the City]

Saying goodbye to Niklas Hagman and his smoking hot wife [WWoLD]

Bryan McWho? Never heard of him [Vintage Leaf Memories]

Morning Latecomers

Looking at the Old and Busted versus the New Hotness [Handsome Man's Guide to Life]

Pick the Olympics top scorers and win an autographed Kaberle card [Hungry Leafs Fan]

From The Branches