FEMA Camps and Transgender Allowance - by Moses

  So, it's 2019 and as a collective in North America today we see Federal Emergency Management Association Camps being employed to house vagrants.  Of course rights and freedoms are being sacrificed in the name of 8 PM curfews, no smoking, no drinking, no pot, no movies etc...yet if you're transgender you have the right to be there.  Of course our Great Grandparents would approve of our children having the rights to a sex change.  This notion of insanity mounts.  What else is okay?

  We see teenagers wearing their pants low thigh to indicate their desire to become gang members.  We see young adults buying into the idea that all telecommunication devices are okay, when in actual fact some subliminally are teaching them to kill.  How many sick video games are there?  The ones depicting a man firing a gun to kill the enemy, always the enemy (Black Ops / Halo 4).  The video games that allow for a group to hunt together in the name of 'Grand Theft Auto'.  Not a deer but actual humans in the video games.  Kill a man in a video game signifies to me a desensitization to actually committing murder in real life.  How many killing sprees does America need to see before they realize that they should have been listening to Tom Clancy.  

  

The 2018/2019 Toronto Maple Leafs - by Moses

  The past 10 games have been a roller coaster ride for our Maple Leafs.  We beat top teams Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Montreal, yet lost to lesser opponents in Florida, Arizona, Detroit, and the New York Rangers.  What is going on here?  Are we to believe we'll compete for the prized Stanley Cup when our fan base sees our lackluster performance against lesser teams?

  It's the consistency that is needed to maintain Championship teams.  Take the Montreal Canadians of the seventies, the New York Islanders of the eighties, and the Edmonton Oilers of the eighties.  They all became dynasties by employing the working philosophy of winning the games you should be winning and competing strongly against other tough teams.  The only problem the Leafs have had this year are games against lesser opponents in the standings, as we're at .500 in those games.  The Leafs need to win 80% of those games, bottom line.  Could the Leafs win the Cup this year?  With a few minor changes in our approach I would say that we do.  What would help our team comes in the name of defence.  Frederik Andersen is a solid number one Goalie.  Our defence needs to shore up and with the addition of Jake Muzzin we now have six solid defencemen.  The key in this writer's' mind is Jake Gardiner.  Everyone knows Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, and Ron Hainsey are key and clutch to our defence core.  Gardiner is a bit of an enigma, as he has enormous potential still in his corner.  The problem with Gardiner is that for some games it takes him a period to get his head in the game.  A regulation Hockey game is 60 minutes, the problem is that if you're down after one period 2-1 with consistency the game becomes an uphill battle.  Simplify the game.  Shift by shift, period by period, game by game.  Doing so breeds success.

   

The NHL of the 1970's - by Moses

      In 1972 the NHL sent their best players to play the U.S.S.R in an 8 game Summit Series.  Canada won on a late goal scored by Paul Henderson in game 8.  However, did anything really change after the series?  The Russians still weren't allowed to play in the NHL based on their heritage. It was John Ziegler as Commissioner, Alan Eagleson as counsel to the players association, and owner Harold Ballard who denied the NHLPA the clout to organize with foreign nations' players.  This played a large part in players in the NHL in the seventies being screwed out of millions of dollars.  As well, it preserved a protectionist view to only have players from Canada play in the NHL.  While things eventually evolved in the players favour, it was still an anti-union sentiment being spewed across the NHL in the seventies and we saw an influx of fighting in the NHL of the seventies as a result to accommodate American interests.  Had Harold Ballard honoured the Summit Series of 1972 Toronto would have gone out and brought in a couple of Russian Hockey players to play for the Leafs.  The team U.S.S.R of 1972 was as talented as our Canadian players.  While the tournament did open doors for international superstars such as Borje Salming, Kent Nilsson, Anders Hedberg, and Ulf Nilsson (from Sweden) and Peter Stastny, Anton Stastny, and Marian Stastny (from Czechoslovakia) among others, the doors of accepting any view with socialism involved were still nil.  This killed the idea of ensuring skilled players from a worldwide market.  Even though the World Hockey Association was established just after the 1972 Summit Series and accommodated the signing of players' from Europe and beyond, they were still considered the lesser of the two leagues in comparison to the NHL.

  Has anyone noticed how good the level of Hockey has become.  Every team has at least two superstars on them.  The players from the U.S.A, Europe, and Russia has increased infinitely in number in the last 30 years.  This is testament to the league taking a global approach.  Likewise this is true of the talent in the League being on such an upswing.  What I'd like to know is this; If a Portuguese-Canadian is told 'We can't play you because you're Portuguese.'  Is this mantra of never hire outside of Canada (that was employed before the '72 Summit Series) ever going to resurface?  If it does then you can count me out of negotiation for my Nation of Canada. 

Proposed Toronto Maple Leafs Trade - by Moses

Trade

From the Toronto Maple Leafs - William Nylander to the Philadelphia Flyers for Wayne Simmonds.

As a result here is the Toronto Maple Leafs heading into the Post-Season;

Goalies

1.  Frederik Andersen
2.  Garret Sparks
3.  Michael Hutchinson

Defencemen

1.  Morgan Rielly
2.  Jake Muzzin
3.  Jake Gardiner
4.  Ron Hainsey
5.  Nikita Zaitsev
6.  Travis Demott
7.  Igor Ozhiganov
8.  Calle Rosen *

Forward Lines

              LW                                        C                                          RW

1.  Andreas Johnsson            Auston Matthews               Wayne Simmonds

2.  Zach Hyman                        John Tavares                       Mitch Marner

3.  Patrick Marleau                 Nazem Kadri                     Kasperi Kapanen

4.  Trevor Moore                   Frederik Gauthier                 Connor Brown