We at Tripified.ca are fired up about the NHL playoffs -- and it shows.

So far, Ken Hegan and I have diligently delivered hockey-watching guides to both Toronto and Boston, the latter catering to Leafs fans heading to Beantown to celebrate the end of their team's playoff drought. Ken's Ottawa guide is handy for road-tripping Habs fans, and now, to complete that series, here's a puckhead's guide to Montreal (where the Sens play tonight):

Montreal Canadiens fans are among the rowdiest -- and most predisposed to face paint -- in the NHL. Photo credit: Peter McCabe/CP

Every time Toronto is called the “Centre of the Hockey Universe,” Montrealers roll their eyes. And for good reason: Quebec’s largest city is also the winningest NHL outpost of all time, with the Canadiens having hoisted 24 Stanley Cups and five defunct teams accounting for 17 more. The 17-year-old Bell Centre is the league’s largest arena, it’s among the rowdiest, and it’s home to the world’s best and most extensive museum devoted to a single squad (the Habs, of course). Best of all for visiting fans, “the Booth” is located right in the centre of this Hockey Universe, meaning it’s surrounding by choice hotels, sports bars, restaurants and clubs.

Game time: Not surprisingly, tonight's contest is sold out on canadiens.nhl.com. But there are singles available for May 9 and 12 (if those games happen). Another option is the official website’s “ticket vault,” where season-ticket holders offer up their seats for a premium (currently starting at $185 for the May 9 game). Of course, other online resellers do a brisk business when it comes to les Habitants, as do the hordes of scalpers that skulk around the Bell Centre.

Despite being devastated by injuries to their #1 center, top goal-scoring winger, starting goaltender, and star defenseman (Jason Spezza's back, Milan Michalek's knee, goalie Craig Anderson's ankle, and Erik Karlsson's acute case of Matt Cooke-itis), the Ottawa Senators somehow battled and hustled their way into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So May is the perfect month to visit our nation's capital city. The Senators' first game is Thursday May 2nd, the sun's peeking out, the Rideau Canal is sparkling, and the filthy snow mounds have all melted away (I'm referring to the 14 teams that didn't make the playoffs).

Granted, the Sens may not last long in the playoffs. Their first opponent is the speedy Montreal Canadiens who magically rose from a 28th-place finish last season to win the Northeast Division this year with the league's 4th-best record. This highway #417/#40 series will be tough for Ottawa to survive.

But none of that matters right now. Our nation's capital is bubbling with the excitement of spring and deciding where to watch the Senators destroy the Habs.

For two big reasons, Toronto is the best place to be in Canada this spring.

#1) THE MIRACLE OF SPRING

I'm from Vancouver where spring is ridiculously subtle. Spring here just means the moss gets a little greener. Oh, and the streets get louder at night because Canucks fans keep jumping on and off the bandwagon. By contrast, Toronto's spring shift has all the subtlety of a Colton Orr punch to the jaw.

Colton Orr vehemently disagrees with another player    AP Photo/J Pat Carter

The term 'Miracle of Spring' didn't make any sense until I witnessed Toronto transform overnight during a May 2-4 weekend. The May 2-4 (Victoria Day weekend for us westerners) is the Official Start of Cottage/Patio Season in Ontario. And it's an extra special weekend for Torontonians who stay at home because the town springs to life in a riot of colour.

Backyards that've been bleak and pathetic for 6+ months are suddenly overgrown with fauna, flora, squirrels, raccoons, and neighbours climbing over the fence to grill some steaks and share a six-pack with you.

"If you give back, you'll get back."

That, in a nutshell, is the message Céline Cousteau aims to convey through her marine conservation partnership with Contiki Tours.

The international tour operator, which caters to 18- to 35-year-olds, is one of the founders of TreadRight, a not-for-profit group that oversees various sustainable tourism projects and fosters the preservation of popular tourist sites such as the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and the Grand Canyon. You may recognize Cousteau's last name -- she's the granddaughter of legendary French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau -- but she's also an accomplished environmental activist in her own right, having founded, among other projects, CauseCentric Productions, a non-profit that aims to help other organizations communicate their messages through film.

"With the experiences I have," Cousteau, 39, explains -- visiting remote tribes in the Amazon rainforest (pictured above), diving with manatees and humpback whales, the list goes on -- "I play a role in helping Contiki tell the story they want to tell. They have the means" -- thousands of young, energetic, eco-minded customers, as well as access to funding -- "and I have the content."

I had a chance to chat with Cousteau about sustainable tourism leading up to her speaking engagement at last weekend's Green Living Show in Toronto:

Americans clearly have no idea about the damage a hockey stick can cause. (Chris Simon? Marty McSorley? Hellooooo?)

How else to explain the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's recent decision to allow hockey sticks -- along with golf clubs, ski poles, lacrosse sticks, billiard cues, novelty and toy baseball bats, and small knives with non-locking blades (pictured below) -- into airline cabins?

Of course, most Canadians (and even McSorley himself) wouldn't dream of swinging their sticks on a plane. But they remain banned by Transport Canada, which rightly considers them "blunt objects that could be used to cause serious injury when used to hit" (see links above). According to news reports, the agency isn't planning to rethink the ban, or that of the other items the TSA will allow on commercial flights as of April 25.

Apparently, the TSA feels the armed pilots, armed air marshals and unarmed (but self-defense-trained) crew members aboard U.S. flights are sufficient to protect passengers from anyone who decides to go on a spearing spree over American air space.

When you're mad as hell, do you:

(a) stamp a foot

(b) bounce with rage

(c) throw things at strangers?

Why not do all three at the same time by playing 3-D Trampoline Dodgeball.

This is a vertical variation on the sport that my sadistic Grade 6 gym teacher described as 'Murder Ball'.

A trampy new Toronto funhouse called Sky Zone offers you a "seemingly endless sea of trampolines" built right into their floor and walls.

Established in the U.S. in 2004 and billed as the "creator of the world's first all-trampoline, walled playing court," Sky Zone's empire now stretches across 23 states and 29 locations.

Two years ago, Sky Zone opened their first Canadian trampoline park in Mississauga. Now Sky Zone is giving Canadians three new franchises: one in Winnipeg and another in Ottawa, plus a third one that just opened in midtown Toronto next to Amsterdam Brewery in posh Leaside. The Leaside location at 45 Esander Drive offers one dodgeball court, foam zone, slam dunk centre, and three open jump spaces.

Granted, you don't have to be angry (or hopped up on craft beer) to play 3-D trampoline dodgeball. But when people start whipping balls at your face, it helps to have a vengeful attitude.

I've been skiing at Ontario's Blue Mountain for nearly two decades, not to mention partaking in the endless diversions of its resort village, but I have never done anything like what I did last weekend.

I skied down one of the trails all by myself -- as in alone, solo, with no one on the run except yours truly.

On a typical winter weekend Ontario's largest ski resort is packed. This was certainly the case during my visit Feb. 23 and 24, when most of the lift lines spilled out of their roped-off lanes and every restaurant and bar was hopping.

But one section of the hill (pictured below) was dreamily serene. How did I get away from the madding crowd? By heading off-piste, Ontario-style, to "The Orchard," a 64-acre section of cleared and graded Niagara Escarpment that has been labelled as "shoeshoe trails" for years. But that will change next season, when Blue completes a $10 million expansion consisting of a high-speed, six-person chairlift and new night skiing on three of the Orchard's six new runs, one of which, at 1.6 kilometres, will be the longest beginner trail in the province. (Eat your heart out, Happy Valley.)

If the weekend crowds are any indication, additional terrain and lift capacity are sorely needed and, quite frankly, have been a long time coming.

If this is Blue Mountain on a Saturday in February, then where is the roiling sea of humanity?

Smell that sweet scent wafting up from Colorado? That's the smell of the burning 'pot tourism' debate in Denver.

On November 4th, the same day President Obama was re-elected, both Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize marijuana... a move that will surely increase tourism [I highly doubt you'll cancel your Seattle weekend because the U district smells 10% funkier].

Colorado is already a popular destination for snowboarders who enjoy their diggity dank. Now that Colorado Amendment 64 has made marijuana legal, Colorado's lawmakers are debating how to manage the upcoming green gold rush. The state's Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force has been pondering over pot for weeks. And finally, after many all-nighter, Doritos-fuelled brainstorms, the task force released their recommendations Tuesday.

The result:

The task force wants to allow out-of-state, bud-loving tourists (e.g., boarders, Rihanna, this guy) to buy weed at Colorado's soon-to-be-open retail pot shops.

Lighting up at a marijuana social club in Denver, Colorado on Dec 31, 2012. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Photo credit: Alessandra Tarantino/AP

 Just so you know, this is not an attempt to lure readers simply by mentioning the lead characters in three of the most-read news stories of the past 12 months. (But it worked, right?)

Last week, I received an email from Hotels.com spokeswoman Lauren Wasley, who informed me that following the Pope’s resignation on Feb. 11, the accommodations-booking website found that searches by Canadians looking to stay in Rome increased 87 per cent when compared with Feb. 11, 2012.

"Makes sense," I thought. "After all, millions of his followers may want to:

a) Personally bid farewell to Benedict XVI (pictured above) before he enters his retirement years, which will probably differ somewhat from those of Gregory XII, the last pope to retire, in that there was a lot less shuffleboard being played in 1415, and Tim Hortons wasn't yet open for business.

b) Steal Raphael's The Transfiguration once that pesky Benedict is out of the way.

c) Visit Rome because...er...it's in the news."

In short, it seemed odd that the historic papal announcement would generate such travel interest. (Hotels.com wouldn't disclose sales figures, but it stands to reason that a big bump in searches should yield at least a small bump in bookings.)

It made me wonder if the setting of any big news story would boost searches for hotels in that place, even if the story isn't related to vacations, or even travel, in any way.

Turns out I was onto something.

One of the best ways to get through February is to look for silver linings. That massive snowbank blocking your driveway? Think of it as a snow fort for the kids. Your ice-encrusted windshield? Consider the calories you'll burn scraping it off. And if the car won't even start, well, maybe you should just take a cab to the airport and be done with it. Likewise, this week's podium takes a glass-half-full approach:  

GOLD: The older you are, the more you save. That's the gist of Starwood Hotels & Resorts' new birth-year promotion, available at dozens of hotels and resorts across North America, the Caribbean and French Polynesia. The amount you pay for the second night of a two-night stay -- and in some cases, on the second and third nights of a three-night stay -- corresponds with your year of birth (guests born in 1973, for example, pay $73). This can yield massive discounts: At Aruba's Westin Resort & Casino (pictured below), for example, a three-night visit that would normally cost $1,437 will go for $625 (to a 38-year-old guest).