The Leafs have been shelled this season, allowing the fourth most shots per game, yet are still firmly in a playoff position, thanks in large part to their goaltending.

What began as a major question mark heading into the season has turned into the backbone of the team.

James Reimer and Ben Scrivens have led the Leafs to a .916 team save percentage, good for eighth best in the league. In recent years with the likes of Vesa Toskala and Andrew Raycroft, breaking .900 was a minor miracle. Now, the Leafs have received better goaltending than teams like Montreal, Vancouver, Nashville, and Los Angeles, teams with unquestioned No. 1 goaltenders.

But strong goaltending in Toronto hasn't stopped rumours from popping up over the last few days linking high-profile veteran goalies to the Leafs. Roberto Luongo, currently sitting on the bench in Vancouver, is once again being talked about, apparently. But the new rumour de jour—one that makes even less sense—claims the Leafs are talking to Calgary about bringing Miikka Kiprusoff to Toronto.

Joffrey Lupul is one of the few athletes I follow on Twitter. For the most part, if an athlete says something interesting it's bound to be retweeted into my timeline so I don't have to follow the inane "bro tweets" (see Brett Lawrie) that you have to filter through to get the lone nugget of interesting information.

Lupul, however, is a different case. While not as funny as Roberto Luongo, who has the most brilliant Twitter feed of any athlete, Lupul comes off as a likeable, genuine guy and is a really good follow.

He took over the NHL account for a few hours on Wednesday and was funny, interesting, and enlightening.

The most shocking Leafs news Wednesday was not a Roberto Luongo trade; it was Brian Burke's sudden firing.

Bob McKenzie first reported that Burke was being relieved of his GM duties and a press conference later in the day introduced former assistant GM Dave Nonis as his permanent replacement.

If the Leafs want Roberto Luongo, it's going to cost them, even when Luongo is retired.

As more details begin to emerge from the tentative CBA, we are getting a clearer picture of what is going to happen with long-term, back-diving contracts. The NHL initially wanted to hammer teams signing these monstrous deals, forcing the full cap hit upon the signing team during a contract's remaining years if a player retired early. It didn't matter if the Vancouver Canucks traded Luongo, the cap penalty would revert back to Vancouver. Now, the cap penalty will be shared among teams when a player is traded.

Originally, if the Maple Leafs traded for Luongo the long-term ramifications of his contract weren't much of a concern—it was Vancouver's problem. Now when Luongo retires, however, the Leafs will be stuck with a cap penalty, the severity of which depends on when Luongo decides to hang up the pads.

Rejoice! The lockout is over.

Teams now have only a short period of time to get their rosters settled before a sprint to the playoffs. 

And you only have a short period of time to get pumped up for hockey's glorious return! I know you've already forgotten all about your empty promises to never watch hockey again, so what better way to get ready than to read the five reasons to be optimistic, pessimistic, and realistic about the 2013 Toronto Maple Leafs.

A lockout hasn't stopped the endless Roberto Luongo rumours.

Last week, Sportsnet's John Shannon reported that there is an agreement between Toronto and Vancouver that would send the 33-year-old netminder to the Leafs once the lockout ends. Apparently Brian Burke and Mike Gillis (who both denied Shannon's report) have been in communication for a long time, ever since the Canucks reportedly asked for Tyler Bozak, Jake Gardiner, Matt Frattin, and a first-round pick at June's entry draft. That asking price was obviously a non-starter for the Leafs, but a deal surrounding Bozak is supposedly very much alive.

However, with the owners' latest CBA proposal, which would stick teams who sign a player for more than five years with that player's cap hit upon retirement, there is speculation in some corners that the price just went up.

A stray elbow to the head turned more than James Reimer’s world upside-down last season; it sent Brian Burke’s carefully constructed plan for contending crashing to the ground. Now Burke must search desperately to find a veteran netminder capable of leading the Maple Leafs to the playoffs.

Although Ben Scrivens just finished an amazing season in the AHL, winning goaltender of the year, the disaster of 2011-12 means the Leafs cannot start training camp pinning their hopes on two unproven goalies. With public anger rising around Burke, entrusting the keys to the post-season to Reimer and Scrivens won’t happen. Burke was burned by this same gamble last season and is in no position to roll the dice again.

More importantly, failing to find a goalie was the same problem that eventually caused his firing in Vancouver. If he doesn't find a proven goalie to share the net with either Reimer or Scrivens it could ultimately be his downfall in Toronto as well.

Our scene opens with Roberto Luongo curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth in a white padded room. He has bags under his eyes and looks like he’s been awake for days. He tries to focus on what his therapist said: “the seawall, Roberto, think of the seawall”.

We're on the eve of destruction. No, some radical church hasn't pronounced tomorrow the day of the rapture. Tomorrow is the start of NHL free agency, usually a time when general mangers forget their plans for spending money wisely and istead go money drunk. Because the salary cap took a huge jump and this year's crop of free agents is terribly weak (think, Ville Leino might be the second best UFA forward if we don't count Teemu Selanne), some teams are going to drop huge cash on 10 goal scorers. What's most frightening is that the Rangers have over $20 million in cap space. Glen Sather shall pronounce "$7 million contracts for all!"

To keep you occupied until tomorrow at noon, you can read my latest post over at The Good Point. This week's article focuses on the state of goaltending in Canada. It's a dark time for Canadian goaltenders. Carey Price might just be the best Canadian goaltender and he was being routinely booed last season. That's not reassuring.