There's Sports Way Up in Section Eight

I’d like to welcome to readers of the New York Times Hockey Blog, “Slap Shots” - thanks for stopping by. Please make yourself at home and by all means feel free to post a comment using your own hockey allusions involving the Leafs as a mentally unstable or aging institutionalized family member. Given the work of the recently departed JFJ and a long history of organizational dysfunction, it’s surprisingly easy.

As for my regular readers (both of you) if you don’t already routinely check out the NYT, you might be interested to know the Old Grey Lady (and no, that's not a euphemism for Yolanda Ballard) is running a series featuring 30 bloggers, one from each NHL team, responding to a set of five questions. Somehow, I was asked to be the Leafs representative (I guess JFJ lost his blog when he got canned) and my responses have been posted here.

It may be my first day at the Times, but Frank Rich still isn't returning my calls. I'm sure by the third set of questions when I explore Leafs Nation as a metaphor for the culture wars Mr. Rich will have changed his mind.

The plan over at Slap Shots is for the 30 of us to respond to a set of five questions on average about every two weeks (or in more Leaf-like terms: about as often as Jason Blake scores). Several divisions have had their responses posted, I suggest you go check it out and maybe leave a comment or two.

No word if the questions coming my way will be all about golf once the post-season begins.

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For those of you looking for trade deadline updates, best bet is to check in with TSN.

The Leafs have been pretty quiet today, so far the only deal is Belak going to Florida for a 5th. The Leafs were soft to begin with but now - wow...Hope Belak gets a better shot in FLA - maybe I'll work up the courage to chat with him next time I see him down at Riverdale Farm with the kids.