The Globe and Mail

It was fun being back on CBC's Satellite Hot Stove Saturday - or the Hot Stove as they call it now, if only for the chance to work with Al Strachan again, after about a three-year absence. In the days when it was usually Strach, JD (John Davidson) and myself as the panelists, Strach always enjoyed wearing the black hat. He was at it again Saturday, suggesting there was gossip at the GMs level that John Ferguson might lose his job with the Toronto Maple Leafs by the end of the year and be replaced by TSN analyst Glenn Healy. That would involve an extraordinary leap of faith by the team's owners, given how they took a chance with an inexperienced GM once already - to mostly negative reviews, especially by impatient, long-suffering Toronto fans. That was the primary item - I did pick up a suggestion prior to the Leaf-Rangers' game that 2009 will be a big year in Montreal, with All-Star Game, draft and maybe even the annual awards headed there as part of the organization's 100th anniversary. And given the fascination with outdoor hockey, one of the issues under discussion is whether to play the 2009 All-Star game out-of-doors. Given that the All-Star Game is usually an exercise in shinny anyway, playing it outdoors would give it a certain charm and appeal that is sometimes lacks these days.