FanHouse Toronto

The emotional swings of the Toronto hockey media make the tabloid journalists in New York seem like meticulous scholars by comparison. Mats Sundin scores the game-winner in a 3-2 victory over the Capitals, and all of a sudden those weeks of speculation regarding the proper way to blow up and reassemble the Leafs are a distant memory: He's made his case for staying in Toronto.

(That article, by the way, contains this priceless line coming from a Canadian journalist: "When Fletcher peered down from his perch in the Leafs' management suite at the Air Canada Centre, he could only dream that the blue-and-white one day will be as talent-rich as the visiting Capitals." Raise your hand if you ever thought you'd read that?)

Of course, one goal shouldn't change a damn thing: As our own Jes Golbez explained recently, Sundin has the go. And then, of course, come right back.

Hockey Nerd Tuesday is a weekly feature on NHL FanHouse that chronicles the stat-heads, gear geeks and fanboys (and girls) who spend an uncomfortable amount of time putting the "fan" in fanatic. Have a hockey nerd you'd like to see featured? E-mail Greg Wyshynski with the details.

Scrolling through the Toronto Maple Leafs section of FanHouse, one can plainly see that it hasn't been the kindest of years for the boys in the blue pajamas. They're practically in the basement of their division. They have a general manager who isn't allowed to fire his coach, and an owner who regrets hiring his general manager. They have a rookie who likes to photograph himself naked, and a defenseman who keeps getting undressed.

No, it hasn't been a banner year for a franchise that hasn't raised one worth a damn since 1967 ... but that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to take joy in raking the Leafs. Hockey Nerd Tuesday focuses on two puckheads whose hatred of Toronto knows no bounds -- not the fact that the Leafs aren't even playing in the game they're attending in Ottawa, not even the sanctity of the Canadian National Anthem. Check out the 53-second mark and beyond of this YouTube video, as the television cameras attempt (and fail) to censor the vulgar truth about the 2007-08 Maple Leafs.


Previously on Hockey Nerd Tuesday:
Miracle on NES
The Rules of Engagement for Autograph Hounds
An Unhealthy Joe Sakic Obsession

Have the Blue Jays given up on would-be ace A.J. Burnett?

After a season that saw Burnett sidelined for a couple months with injury and called out by his GM for racing with a guy in a chili pepper costume, it seemed that the Jays might want to cut their losses by cutting ties with the guy they'd hoped would form a tough one-two punch with Roy Halladay.

Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi has gone on record saying that the Jays aren't actively shopping Burnett. But they wouldn't shy away from the idea, either.

"We like having A.J. here," Ricciardi told ESPN.com. "He gives us a good opportunity to win in 2008, and that's our main objective right now. But we're open-minded. If someone blew us away, we'd be foolish not to listen. If someone came to us tomorrow and said, 'We'll give you this, this and this for him,' we'd be foolish not to look at it."

So the Jays' options are banking on winning it all with the Halladay-Burnett combo next season or risk losing Burnett, who can opt out of his contract after 2008, to free agency? Here's betting A.J.'s starting for some other team come next April.

The debate is growing over an incident that happened on Tuesday night in a shootout between Atlanta and Toronto. Mats Sundin was livid after the Thrashers' win, claiming that Atlanta goalie Johan Hedberg slid out and tripped him. Check out the 15-second mark of the video below for the play in question:



If the referee determined that Hedberg tripped Sundin, what would the penalty have been? I imagine the rules for the shootout are the same as they are for a legitimately earned penalty shot. The NHL Rule Book states that on any foul committed by a goalie in the penalty shot, "the Referee shall allow the shot to be taken and if the shot fails, he shall permit the penalty shot to be taken over again." So, in theory, Sundin gets a do-over here.

But the referee didn't see a trip and didn't call a penalty, and you know what? I agree with him, even if he ignored a blatant foul. Goalies have been treated like garbage by this goal-happy league under its post-lockout rules changes, from that stupid trapezoid to having the winner of a game be determined with a glorified skills competition. So I say give the goalie some leeway and let him play under Thunderdome rules in the shootout -- tripping, mugging, maiming, all of it. It'll make for some great SportsCenter highlights, which is why we have a shootout in the first place, isn't it? Or maybe we just give him back his defenseman and end the game with two teams, you know, playing hockey. Novel concept, I know...

Count me among those who figured the Blue Jays to improve upon last year's second-place finish in 2007. Then they lost B.J. Ryan for the season. And Frank Thomas and Vernon Wells forgot how to hit. And pretty much every starter hit the DL. And the team slowly dissolved in the standings.

But the Jays appear to be making their biggest statement in the season's final weeks, albeit in the role of spoiler -- a role they're playing pretty damn well. Last night, powered by an eighth-inning Russ Adams grand slam, the Jays completed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox, cutting Boston's division lead from 4.5 to 1.5 games in the blink of an eye.

And tomorrow, they open a four game series in Yankee Stadium where they can continue to impact the race.

"It's always fun to get a sweep," Adams said. "But to be playing in games that matter in the grand scheme of things of what's going on in the American League, it's fun to be a part of it. It was back-to-back exciting nights here at the Rogers Centre."

Making baseball in Toronto fun again? Hey, we'll drink to that.

He may look like your high-school gym teacher, but journeyman Matt Stairs can still swing a freakin' bat. Since August 1, he's been on a 30-74 tear, the best of any American League player.

In fact, the Blue Jays have been so impressed with the 39 year old slugger's performance -- one of the few bright spots in their forgettable 2007 campaign -- they're trying to secure him for 2008.

"We want to get the ball rolling on talking about bringing him back," J.P. Ricciardi said. "Hopefully, we'll talk [again] later in the week. I think we've got the parameters to work within. Just like we did with Johnny Mac, I think there's a deal to be made there. Hopefully, we'll keep him here."

Although no offers have been made yet, there's always the chance that Stairs, a native of Canada, would take short money to stay in the Great White North. Unless, of course, the beer league comes calling.

Sure, we here at FanHouse love to laugh at the foibles of overpaid athletes as much as the next guy. But we also have a serious side -- one that was moved by a recent story concerning one of our favorite ballplayers, the Blue Jays' Sal "The Stache" Fasano.

Sal's wife, Kerri, is carrying their third son who was recently diagnosed with a rare heart ailment that restricts circulation. Doctors plan to induce Kerri later this month and then perform open heart surgery on the newborn, as Sal explained to the National Post.

"They have to retool the highway system of the heart to recycle through the heart and then back out to the lungs. That's the part that's scary, because at four days old, our baby's going to have open-heart surgery. And that's the part that's a little bit sad. How does a baby have to have open-heart surgery? But it happened, what are you going to do?"

"It isn't just a little thing, it's major," he said. "I don't know how else to explain it. It touches you in your heart. It makes you sad. It makes you just happy and thankful that the kids you do have are healthy."

Yeah, it's a lot for any expectant dad to carry, let alone a guy who has to be on the road with his team and continue to perform whenever called upon. Not to mention the fact that for Fasano, a journeyman who's respected throughout baseball as a stand-up guy but never made the big bucks, the ability to keep a career rolling and bringing in a paycheck is essential. But, obviously, family comes first.

"If I have to be away for an extended period of time while my son is going through these things, I don't know if want to do that," Fasano said. "I don't think making money or collecting service time is that important in relation to the life of a child. You can't put any type of number on what the time is worth or how much money you can make in this game."

Our best vibes and good wishes to Sal and his family.

This was supposed to be a killer year for Brandon League, who was assigned the plum role of set-up guy for B.J. Ryan in the Blue Jays' bullpen. But a shoulder injury kept him on the shelf for the better part of 2007, turning a promising season into a collosal disappointment.

Though he's not quite sure how he hurt his shoulder, he's certain of how he didn't hurt it: surfing. League, a native of Hawaii, spends his offseasons riding the waves, which helped fuel rumors connecting his hobby to his shoulder woes.

League dismissed such speculation on the Jays' official website.

"I've been surfing since I was 7 years old and it never was a problem," said League, when asked if there was any validity to the reports. "It was something to put the blame on, I guess.

"If you just say that you have an extremely tight shoulder and that you're not throwing like you did the year before, it's not as believable as maybe saying it's because of the surfing. But that's in the past. I've gotten over that."

Regardless, League says he won't be hanging ten this winter. Rather than head home to Hawaii, he's going to stay in Florida near the Jays' spring training facility to work closely with the team's trainers and build himself back up for 2008.

The mysterious foot pain that's been dogging Troy Glaus since the first week of the 2007 season -- a pain that has been described as a tight hammy, a bone spur and a torn Achilles tendon -- has finally been identified. Turns out, it's plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the heel.

"It's been hurting pretty good, and we wanted to get some tests to rule out everything," said Glaus, who added that he was wearing an orthotics device to help support his foot while playing. "It's kind of just playing to tolerance at this point. It feels better today, so we'll try to give it a shot."

Glaus was back in the line-up tonight after missing two games, and he recently endured an 0-for-27 slump. But Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi feels that Glaus will be back in top form and at the top of his game come next year.

"Once he rests over the offseason, he should be fine," Ricciardi said. "It's not like an injury that's going to have an effect on him next year. Everything we hear is, with rest, it should totally heal and he'll come back."

Seeing as how Glaus will make a cool $12.75 mill next year, we'd certainly like to think so.

Here at FanHouse, we're never ones to find humor in an athelete's injury, unless it's someone we truly dislike. So believe me when I say that the only thing I find even slightly amusing about Lyle Overbay's recent fainting spell in a Manhattan hotel room is the way he himself talked about it afterward.

Responding to a 9:20am wake-up call last Friday, Overbay jumped up, got dizzy, and, as he told the Toronto Sun, faceplanted right into the carpet, hitting his face against a chair on the way down.

A doctor examined Overbay at Yankee Stadium, ruling out anything serious.

"He said I was okay, but then he started using a lot of doctorish terms on me, I don't remember everything he said," Overbay recalled.

As for the cuts on his face from the chair, Overbay didn't even see 'em until he saw himself in a mirror.

"I didn't even know I did this until I got into the bathroom. I was like, 'Whoa.'"

So what exactly happened? No one's really sure.

"I remember looking at the clock and it was 9:21, so I guess I was only unconscious for a minute or so," he said. "I had the same thing once about 10 years ago. The humidity was about 1,000% on Wednesday, maybe I was dehydrated."

Yup, no drinking-related injury here, folks. Move along.