James Reimer is the rightful heir to Curtis Joseph's throne.

The young netminder has been a rock for the Leafs this season, essentially dragging the team into the playoffs. His .926 save percentage is sixth in the league, just a tick below Henrik Lundqvist and Cory Schneider.

Apart from the five games after Reimer returned from knee surgery, in which his save percentage was .893, the Morweena, Manitoba native has posted a .933 save percentage. He has been exactly what the Leafs have been searching for since Father Time chopped down Ed Belfour eight years ago: A true No. 1 goalie.

Our hellacious wait is mercifully over, Leafs fans. The Toronto Maple Leafs are going back to the playoffs.

It still feels surreal, somewhat like a dream. That's what happens when you go almost a decade watching futility. Losing becomes your reality.

When the Leafs clinched a playoff berth Saturday night in Ottawa—which amazingly wasn't even the last day of the season—I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to the playoffs. What a world we live in.

It is no secret that I'm not a big fan of the NHL's southern expansion. Call me old fashioned but putting ice in a desert just sounds stupid. Accordingly, anytime one of these southern teams does something, or is involved in something moronic I use it as fuel for my hate.

Today the Florida Panthers are grinding my gears. Have they seriously not clinched a playoff spot yet? And we're holding the No. 3 seed for them just in case they decide to back their way into the playoffs? Man, that's a flawed system.

Check out today's post at The Good Point to see why the NHL needs to revamp their playoff system.

If you’ve read this blog for a while you should already know that I pretty much hate every Canadian team in the NHL, except for Toronto obviously. The short answer as to why is that pretty much everyone else in Canada hates the Leafs, so why shouldn’t I return the sentiment?

But at the same time I am intensely passionate about bringing struggling southern franchises back where they belong: Canada. We need to stop the charade in Phoenix and move them to Quebec.

I, like most people, was extremely happy when the news broke that Winnipeg was getting a team again. And, oddly enough, I will cheer for the Jets this season, despite the whole ‘I hate everyone but Toronto’ thing I have going on.

The reason for cheering on the Jets is that they’re wounded. They’re back in Winnipeg, but their economic viability is somewhat of an unknown. I want to see them do well until they establish that they’re back and aren’t going anywhere.

At the point where they’re safely entrenched in Winnipeg, I can proceed to hate them.

I wrote a post for the Good Point arguing that the Jets have a shot at the playoffs in their first season in Winnipeg. It will make for a nice feel-good story and I’m sure more than a few people will be rooting for the little guys.

Of course if it comes down to Winnipeg and Toronto for the final playoff spot they can contract the Jets for all I care. I’m beginning to forget what the playoffs are actually like, so a heart-warming Jets story will leave me nothing but cold if it costs Toronto a chance at Lord Stanley’s mug.

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write this post. Instead of writing a (hopefully not) Annual Torontonian Guide to the Playoffs I would rather write a quick tweet: Cheer for Toronto. But the Leafs would actually have to make the playoffs for that to work. So, once again, Leafs Nation will have to temporarily lend their support to another team. Or you can disregard the playoffs entirely and throw your full support into baseball – but that’s not ideal.

If you’re a little confused about who to cheer for, read ahead. You’ll at least know who you shouldn’t cheer for.

Brian Burke kicked off the NHL trade frenzy early this year much like he did last season. After the Francois Beauchemin trade was announced there were two more deals.

First, the Hawks traded Jake Skille, Hugh Jessiman, and David Pacan for Michael Frolik and Alexander Salak. I don’t want to spend too much time on this deal, but at first blush this is a dumb trade for Florida. It’s never a smart idea to give up on a 22-year-old who already has two 20-goal seasons in his first two years in the league.

The second deal brought much more attention – and not just from hockey fans. The Ottawa Senators traded fan favourite Mike Fisher to the Nashville Predators for a first round pick and a conditional pick which could be as high as a second rounder if the Predators win two or more playoff series. The headline in Nashville’s Tennessean newspaper announced that the Preds acquired “Carrie Underwood’s Husband”. Whatever you have to do to bring the fans to the rink I guess.

Senators fans are probably sad to see one of their favourites leave, but they’re getting a first round pick for a 30-year-old player who has only once topped 50 points and is in the midst of his worst statistical season. Be happy because he’s overpaid too. Sure he'll bring a ton of intangibles to the Predators who are suddenly desperate for a centre after a rash of injuries, but first round picks are a valuable thing (don’t tell Burke) and to get one for Fisher is amazing.

Predators general manager David Poile made a lot of statements about Fisher, some of which were pure fiction. Note: Poile did not make all of these statements, but I imagine those who love Fisher have at some point, so I added them.

What a slow and boring July - both hockey wise and blog wise. I went 2 for 31. Ugly. At least July had some beautiful weather which made it terribly easy to get away from the computer. And TV is back to being great now that Big Brother and Jersey Shore are numbing minds. So who cares about hockey, right?

Wrong.

I’ve compiled a list of my thoughts over the summer because despite my prolonged absence from the net and the lack of hockey news tumbling through town, I’m still craving hockey.

Consider this the first instalment of a series I’ll call 41 Shots. I’m taking the idea from Elliotte Friedman who does a great piece for CBC's website called 30 Thoughts.

Here’s a collection of thoughts that don’t care for proper structure and paragraphs. It’s the summer. Give me a break.

So, what just happened in that first round? The top three seeds were eliminated in the East and both Detroit and Chicago had a much harder time with their first round opponents than I thought possible.

I did pretty well with my predictions, being betrayed by only Washington and Buffalo. I’m actually happy that my Buffalo prediction was wrong because I hate Buffalo. That’s a positive.

I will take the blame for Montreal’s upset. I said that Washington will win the series if the Earth doesn’t implode before game 4. I didn’t take my prediction seriously and the Hockey Gods chose to punish me. Yup, that’s why the Canadiens won, not because they blocked 1324324 shots and saved 2314463465 more.

I’m certainly not happy that Montreal upset Washington, but it’s not the worst thing that could have happened.

Now the Leafs can rope the Capitals into a panic trade for Kaberle where Brian Burke has his pick of primo prospects.

In other fantasy news, Washington losing is really good for my fantasy sports life. I chose late in the first round and was excluded from the best Washington players, which was fortunate since I wasn’t necessarily convinced they could beat Pittsburgh anyways. Now it’s really fortunate considering they couldn’t even beat Montreal! The only Capitals player I chose was Mike Knuble. Most of the other poolies banked pretty hard on Washington. As a result, I am one of two people with nine players remaining, while the rest have six or less. I’m feeling confident with my seven Pittsburgh and Chicago players.

But you’re not reading this to hear me gloat about fantasy hockey. Onto the second round breakdown!

The first round is over and there are no doubt plenty of pundits weighing in on the second round, giving expert analysis on who is likely to advance and why (I will be one of these fools later today). But can you really trust these people? How did their predictions fare in the first round?

I think every time someone gives their predictions they should be forced to show their all-time record, or at the very least their record that season. So in honour of full disclosure I’m showing how my predictions fared in the first round. To make myself feel smart I’m comparing them to so-called hockey experts.

It’s hard to be overly excited about the success of my predictions considering there was very little difference between pundit choices. Everyone picked the Capitals, Penguins, Sharks, and Hawks to advance. Even the Montreal newspapers were picking the Capitals to walk away with the series. I checked both the Gazette (Montreal’s English newspaper) and La Presse (one of the city’s French papers) and only one writer had the guts to pick the Canadiens – Ronald King. I don’t know anything about him; maybe he has a history of mental illness.

Well, I guess he’s smarter than all of us because thanks to Boston and Montreal he went 7-1 with his predictions.

The series that had some difference of opinion (Devils-Flyers, Sabres-Bruins, Canucks-Kings, Wings-Coyotes) were still predominantly favouring the higher seed (except in the Wings series, but most people still picked them despite being the lower seed). There were only a few deviations from the norm here and there. For the most part everyone’s predictions looked very similar and the standings below reflect this. No one did terribly and no one was perfect (from what I could find).

That being said, my predictions put me in a tie for second place. PLAYOFFS! And for the record, I didn’t just search out the various predictions that would make me look good! In fact, I actively searched out someone who picked the Canadiens. This list is a pretty wide sampling of hockey writers from various media.

Here’s how everyone fared in the first round, including myself.

This post-season I’m watching more hockey compared to the past few years. I’m watching pretty much every series, at least some of every game. When the Leafs are in the playoffs I really only watch their games and in the post-lockout I’ve only really followed players in my pool. Maybe this year is different because I’ve made predictions, so I actually have something at stake in every series.

I’m glad I’m invested in each series because they’re all fantastic. The most lopsided game was a 4-1 Nashville victory in game 1 over Chicago. This score is misleading because two of the goals were on an empty net. Every game is close and we’ve had the good fortune of watching a few overtimes as well. There hasn’t been any marathon overtime sessions yet, but I’m sure a three overtime game is on its way.

Here are some random observations from the first week of the playoffs.

Everybody is making picks and instead of racking my brain for an interesting and unique post to slap up on the site I’m doing the same. The only difference is that I recognize that everyone has a shot at winning, no matter how small (MONTREAL). That being said, I’ve outlined what needs to happen for each team to win and underneath I’ve declared my bold predictions.

They say the only thing stupider than predictions is the person who makes them! I don’t know if they actually say that, but I made it up right now. Feel free to use that if everything I predict fails to come true.

The Leafs aren’t in the playoffs. Shocking, I know. I thought there was a chance the league could change the rules during the last game and stipulate any team defeating their historic rivals in overtime actually get 30 points instead of 2. Didn’t happen.

This is a situation I am becoming accustomed to as the Leafs have not made the playoffs in five seasons (six years). I obviously can’t shut out hockey, but what am I supposed to do? I’m not one to actively cheer for another team, but I guess it’s acceptable to lend my temporary support to a worthy cause.

It’s not as simple as just picking a team with your eyes closed. Here are some important criteria for choosing your temporary playoff team.

The NHL playoffs are a week away and since the Leafs are once again on the outside looking in my only source of entertainment is fantasy hockey. From a fantasy perspective, it’s almost better if your favourite team is out of the playoffs. That allows you to make cold, clinical decisions about who is the best player to pick, rather than spending the first overall pick on Phil Kessel. Obviously, I’d prefer the Leafs in the playoffs, but playing fantasy hockey with them out has allowed me to hone my strategies as best as possible.

I don’t claim to be an expert on fantasy sports and, in reality, any so-called expert is really just making educated guesses. Absolutely no one predicted the Fernando Pisani fantasy bonanza in 2006 or that the Oilers would even make it past the first round. That’s the nature of the playoffs; role players transform into heroes and certain superstars become invisible.

That being said, I tied for first in my 2006 playoff pool and won outright in 2007 (thanks in large part to Dany Heatley – what an anti-heart pick). I couldn’t make the draft in 2008 (I think?) and finished in fifth (out of 10) last year. So I’ve had some success.

These are some of the strategies that I’ve used over the past few years that have worked for me. Try these unless your pool is using quirky rules. The most common format is 10 players, no set positions, no goalies, and all that is recorded is goals and assists (most points wins). Don’t blame me if you place last. But if you do win feel free to send some of the winnings my way.

The Washington Capitals sit atop the league with 114 points with four games to play and have already clinched the President’s Trophy. The San Jose Sharks could win their remaining three games and still finish with only 113 points.

However, this hasn’t stopped R.J Umberger, member of the 32-win Blue Jackets, from criticising the team after a 3-2 home loss to the Capitals on Saturday.

"I don't think any team in the West would be overmatched by them. They play the wrong way. They want to be moving all the time. They float around in their zone, looking for breakaways and odd-man rushes. A good defensive team is going to beat them (in the playoffs). If you eliminate your turnovers and keep them off the power play, they're going to get frustrated because they're in their zone a lot." via (TSN)

We’ll ignore the fact that Umberger plays for the seventh worst team in the league, is currently a -14, a career -47, and has only played past the first round of the playoffs once. It certainly seems bizarre that someone with such a mediocre pedigree would choose to criticise a team with over 50 wins, but he may have a point. Are the Capitals for real?

Tuesday night the Leafs were mathematically eliminated (I hate math) from the Stanley Cup playoffs after a defeat to the Thrashers, thanks to former Leaf Nik Antropov, combined with a Boston win against New Jersey (in a riveting 1-0 trap-fest).

The Leafs may have been alive technically, but in reality they were eliminated from the playoffs in October after starting the year 0-7-1.

This was a tough season to watch. For most of the season there was little to be excited for and any few wins the Leafs strung together were followed rapidly by many losses.

Watching the Leafs this season has been like going through the five stages of grief, although, instead of grieving for the loss of a loved one, I’m grieving for the death of my hopes and dreams. The season isn’t over, but it’s time to say goodbye. This is the most fitting way I could think of.

Last night I went to my first non-NHL game in years. I once saw a Junior-A game as a kid where there was a few fights and as the opposing player was being thrown out the crowd began to chant ‘hey, hey, hey, goodbye’. I was already hooked on hockey by that point, but that certainly made both hockey and fighting infinitely cooler. After that I’ve caught a few random non-NHL games here and there, but I can’t pretend to be an avid follower.

It’s not that I think poorly of any sort of hockey below the NHL, it’s just that I prefer to pay money to see the best players play. But with a top Leafs prospect poised to make a deep run in the OHL playoffs I thought it was time to dust off the ol’ scouting cap and watch the Leafs’ next 100 point scorer cut his teeth (a guy can dream!).

The whole point of this little adventure was to watch Kadri live. This was actually the second time I’ve seen him play, since I was lucky enough to randomly catch his brief one game emergency call-up to the Leafs (February 8th against the Sharks). He held his own during that game, but I wanted to see him play against his peers. I wanted to see him dominate. Yes, that’s how far this season has fallen for me as a Leafs fan. I’ve resorted to travelling across Southern Ontario to watch the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This year’s trade deadline was especially boring despite having a record 31 trades involving 55 players. The most exciting trade was Wojtek Wolski (the next Polish Prince?) for Peter Mueller – not exactly the most riveting trade. However, the lack of intrigue was not totally surprising. The major players (such as Kovalchuk and Phaneuf) moved prior to the deadline, which left only secondary players available. Put it this way, the most sought after player at the deadline was Ray Whitney. Not exactly a sexy name. What did surprise many people was the lack of movement made by two teams considered serious contenders for the Stanley Cup, Chicago and Philadelphia.

It is clear that the weakest point of each team is their goaltending. How weak is up for debate. Both teams were rumoured to be aggressively pursuing a legitimate number one goalie at the deadline and both were unable to land said prize. Is this a bad thing? Does either team truly need a goalie to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup? Let’s look at each team individually.