It’s 100 years plus one day since the founding of the Maple Leafs franchise, and it’s already time for another game. Can the Leafs repeat yesterday’s stunning blowout of the Hurricanes?

The Maple Leafs kick off the next century by clobbering the Hurricanes.
WATCH: James van Riemsdyk scores the Maple Leafs 20,000th goal.
Check out the cool AreTnas jerseys from today’s Maple Leafs game

This time they are on the road to play the Columbus Blue Jackets. They’ll be wearing their normal away jerseys, and playing at a normal evening time of 7:30PM. The Blue Jackets were blown out 7-2 in their last game on Tuesday against the Bruins. I’m sure John Tortorella is not eager to repeat that outcome, nor his players eager to listen to him after another game like that.

Our preview of tonight’s game will be up later this morning.

ICYMI

Timothy Liljegren found the decision to move to Toronto easy - Katya
Almost as easy as the scoring last night against the Danes.

Maple Leafs by the Numbers: Fan vote results - ElSeldo
Who are your players to represent 100 years of the Maple Leafs?

Other News

The Penguins made some trades yesterday.

Coyotes acquire Archibald from Penguins - Five For Howling
They also shift their three goalie issue from the AHL to the ECHL.

Oleksiak acquired from Dallas for conditional 4th rounder - PensBurgh
A second trade within an hour for the Penguins to add depth defenseman Jamie Oleksiak.

“This is the definition of a pregnant pause.”

The NHL Has Accomplished Its Goal(s) - FiveThirtyEight
Scoring is up this season, but don’t blame the goalies.

Holy horse crap, this Belmont thing is actually gonna happen - Lighthouse Hockey
The official announcement isn’t until Wednesday at 11 am, but the horse has already been let out of the barn: the Islanders will be awarded the rights to build an arena at Belmont Park, per reports in Newsday and Bloomberg News.

You Survived At NFL Network By Staying Silent - Deadspin
Not asking questions. Moving on. Those were the two keys to working at NFL Media, the organization that includes the TV station, NFL Network, and the league’s website. You do not ask questions because the answers would be horrible.

From The Branches