from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- An NHL coach on exhibition hockey: “If COVID taught us anything, it’s that players don’t need pre-season games.” If you remember, there were none last season.

- GM Pierre Dorion in Ottawa has declared that the rebuild is over. That’s a dangerous thing to do. It’s easy to surprise teams the first time around as youngsters. The hard part now, in a division with Tampa Bay, Florida, Toronto, Boston, Montreal, is becoming significant.

- You could build your own sports network and a pretty good one just by hiring all the people who have left Sportsnet or been shown the door: You can have Bob Cole, Jim Hughson and Dave Randorf doing play by play. You can have Rautins, Glenn Healy, Don Cherry, Doug MacLean, Bob McCown, John Shannon, Nick Kypreos, Mike Johnson, George Stroumboulopoulos as commentators. I could do something with that group.

- If there is a concern that non-vaccinated NHL players, Tyler Bertuzzi for example, won’t be able to cross the border and play in Canada, how is it that non-vaccinated Major League Baseball players have been crossing the border and playing in Toronto since the Blue Jays moved home?

a few more notes, mostly on the Leafs...