With a 4-1 win over Ottawa, Toronto clinched its first playoff berth in nine seasons. (Jana Chytilova/Getty Images)

You think they’re worked up in Toronto about their Maple Leafs making the playoffs?

Just take a look at Stub Hub. The cheap seats for Home Game 1 at the Air Canada Centre, whenever that might be played, start at $299 each, or about 50 percent more than you would have paid for season tickets to watch the Tampa Bay Lightning this year. Have an aversion to the nosebleeds? If you’re looking for something closer to sea level, the site advertises a pair in the first row of section 107 (around the face-off dot) for just $1,099 each.

And that’s just for the first game of the first round.

Those prices may sound crazy, but Toronto long-suffering fans have been waiting since 2004 for the opportunity to bend over and pay them. Now they’ll finally get their chance. The Buds punched their ticket to the playoffs tonight with a 4-1 thumping of the Senators.

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Ryan Miller was pulled Friday night after some misadventures with the puck and four goals allowed. (Jerome Davis/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? A proud goaltender, waving in mock appreciation as a home crowd serenades him with a Bronx cheer? Yeah, Ryan Miller seemed as tired of the First Niagara Center crowd as they were of him after a couple of brutal goals led to an 8-4 Rangers’ win that ended Buffalo’s playoff hopes. Very easy to see him demanding a trade after that display.

• “Yes sir, just like clockwork, you can count on Brad Richards to record a hat trick once every 896 games.” That’s the great lead from Larry Brooks, writing about the veteran’s first career three-goal game in the rout of the Sabres.

• Like everyone else in Boston, the Penguins experienced an unusual day on Friday.

• It became apparent early on that as long as the manhunt for the bomber continued, the show could not go on in Boston. The postponement and rescheduling of Friday’s game means the Bruins play their final six games in a span of just nine days.

• A struggling Milan Lucic could be benched for today’s rescheduled matinee against the Penguins. That should please Bruins fans who are tired of watching him float through games.

• Mike Heika, who offers as entertaining a read as anybody out there these days, says the Stars were taught a valuable lesson in how to impose your will by the St. Louis Blues on Friday night. They probably would have preferred two points, but that lesson might pay greater dividends down the road.

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Yankee Stadium will feature a bit more ice next season when it plays host to two NHL matchups. (John Iacono/SI)

By Allan Muir

If one outdoor hockey game each year is special, the NHL is banking that six is even better.

Multiple sources are reporting that the New York Rangers will skate in a pair of outdoor games next year at at Yankee Stadium. The Blueshirts will play the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 26 and the New York Islanders on Jan. 29.

The timing might seem odd, but it plays out as a genius act of coat-tailing. With the Super Bowl slated for the following weekend, the largest media contingent of the year will be descending on New York City that week. What better way to fill their downtime–and help promote the sport–than with a pair of hockey spectacles.

The games will complement a burgeoning outdoor schedule that already features the Red Wings and Maple Leafs facing off in the Winter Classic on Jan. 1. Other matches in the works include Pittsburgh vs. Chicago on March 1 at Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, along with the expected return of the Heritage Classic on March 2, when Vancouver will host Ottawa at BC Place. There also are reports that the Los Angeles Kings will to host the Anaheim Ducks at Chavez Ravine on Jan. 25.

You can expect cries of overkill from some corners, but the league is gambling that the public’s appetite for these outdoor spectacles is nowhere close to being sated. Odds are they’re right. You can bet the games will sell out and draw huge numbers on TV.

And that’s why it’s not just the paying public that’s excited by this news. These games will provide the league a chance to soothe any ill will that lingers with sponsors in the wake of the lockout. NBC Sports, the network that invested heavily in the league almost two years ago to the day, will gain five new appointment dates on its schedule. There will be five new title sponsor deals, like the one that’s worked out well for Bridgestone, and five new opportunities for the rest of the league’s affiliates to line their coffers.

We’ll have more as the story develops.

Just as originally planned for this year before the lockout led to its cancellation, Ann Arbor’s Michigan Stadium will host the 2014 Winter Classic on New Year’s Day. (Dave Reginek/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Alright, no real surprise here. The league finally got around to confirming this morning that the 2014 NHL Winter Classic will be exactly where the 2013 NHL Winter Classic was supposed to be, except this time it will, you know, actually take place.

So we’ll have the Red Wings taking on the Maple Leafs at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich. on New Year’s Day for what looks to be the biggest game in NHL history. Certainly the biggest in terms of attendance, and probably in terms of hype as well. Read More…

Taylor Hall (right) is now one of the few hockey players that can say they’ve done something better than the Great One. (Dan Riedlhuber/Reuters)

By Allan Muir

A notated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Was last night’s 4-0 lambasting of the Canucks a preview of things to come for Taylor Hall and the Edmonton Oilers? Hall’s hat trick broke a Gretzky franchise record for fastest from the start of a game, but this was a total team effort. It was the sort of night that makes you wonder if Edmonton should be buyers before Wednesday.

• It was also the sort of night that makes Canucks fans imagine a future without the Sedins. With their contracts expiring at the end of next season, the team’s status as a contender could impact the decision to move forward with or without them.

• Jarome Iginla said his Pittsburgh debut made him feel like a kid again. Meanwhile, the Pens are hoping a date with the oral surgeon is the worst thing to come out of Sidney Crosby’s facial injury yesterday.

• With Iggy off the board, Ryane Clowe is hockey’s most wanted man ahead of the deadline. Wait … zero goals, lingering shoulder injury … what? David Pollak says the Sharks played Clowe’s career highlights on the video board to impress the scouts. Had to do something to obscure his play on the ice, I guess.

• The slumping Boston Bruins looked a little too comfortable as they lost for the fifth time in seven games on Saturday.

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By Allan Muir

Joffrey Lupul has played brilliantly in his first two games back with the Maple Leafs since missing most of the season with a broken arm.

We’ll have to wait a while to see if that hot streak continues into game three.

Lupul was handed a two-game suspension today by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for a wildly blatant head shot on Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman in last night’s 4-2 Toronto win.

“As the video shows, after Hedman passes the puck, Lupul approaches from the side and recklessly targets Hedman’s head by elevating and making it the principal point of contact,” Rob Blake said in the DPS’ explanatory video.

By “elevating,” Blake means Lupul left the ice prior to making contact, which he pretty much had to do to avoid slamming into the 6-foot-6 Hedman’s elbow. But once a player “leaves his feet,” he’s asking for trouble from DPS.

Fortunately, Hedman wasn’t hurt on the play and that, combined with Lupul’s absence from the league’s Big Book O’ Mug Shots, added up to the two-gamer and the forfeiture of more than $45,000 in salary.

Was it a fair call? As the season goes on, it’s getting tougher and tougher to compare one suspension to another, but taken on it’s own merits, this one passes the smell test.

By Allan Muir

Good thing the Maple Leafs know how to play without Joffrey Lupul. They could be doing a bit more of it very soon.

Lupul, who just returned to action Saturday after missing the last two months of the season with a broken arm, is all but certain to be suspended after a flagrant elbow to the noggin of Tampa defender Victor Hedman Wednesday night.

This head shot was so blatant it’s sure to end up on the league’s how-not-to video compilation.

Was the hit late? Check.

Was the head the principal point of contact? Check.

Did his skates leave the ice prior to the hit? Oh yeah, they do.

The only mitigating factor in Lupul’s defense is that Hedman, though clearly dazed in the aftermath, was able to return to action later in the period. Hopefully he won’t have any late-onset symptoms in the next 24 hours.

As for Lupul, well, the timing couldn’t have been worse. He was brilliant in his return on Saturday, netting a pair of goals against the Jets, and scored the opening tally in Toronto’s 4-2 win over the Bolts tonight. He was clearly feeling it after that lengthy layoff. Now he’s likely to be out for 2-3 games, which would include a critical home-and-home duet with the Boston Bruins.

And speaking of bad timing: It’s probably best not to knock the block off an opponent when Gary Bettman, Colin Campbell and half of the NHL’s heirarchy are in the building.

At one time, defenseman Mike Komisarek seemed like he’d be the ideal Maple Leaf. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Whatever else Mike Komisarek may be, he is this first and foremost: the ultimate cautionary tale for NHL free agents.

The veteran defender — the vanguard of Brian Burke’s bearded hordes of Truculent Leafs — was waived today at his own behest, freeing him from press box purgatory and the crushing frustration of four wasted seasons in Toronto.

What happens next remains to be seen. But he knows this much: when he signed away his own no-movement clause, he bought himself the chance to play, something that clearly wasn’t going to happen in Toronto.

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By Allan Muir

The feisty Maple Leafs had gone a season-high three games without a fight. Frazer McLaren wasn’t going to let the streak stretch to four.

Just 26 seconds into Wednesday’s game against the Senators, McLaren squared off with Ottawa’s David Dziurzynski …and absolutely scrambled his eggs.

The Ottawa rookie got in a couple good shots early before the 6-foot-5 McLaren made use of his superior reach to connect with a vicious right. The blow sent Dziurzynski crashing to the ice where he laid unmoving for several seconds before trying to pull himself up. He eventually made his way to the Ottawa dressing room, but his legs were dragging as he was carted off by two teammates.

It was another impressive win for McLaren, but a tough loss for the kid. Here’s hoping he’s alright.

Though his Leafs took a while to prove it, Brian Burke is still a master judge of talent. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

It’s clearly not about the money for Brian Burke.

Burke, removed as general manager of the Maple Leafs last month, could have stayed in Toronto, puttered around and collected on the final two years of contract that paid a reported $3 million per. Instead, he’ll rejoin one of his former teams, the Anaheim Ducks, as a part-time pro scout.

The Ducks made the announcement early Thursday afternoon.

The position might seem like a step down, but it’s more of a career retrenchment for the voluble, irascible Burke.

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