Grim times in Leafs Nation.
Thanks to Buffalo’s victory over Carolina on Sunday, the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves in dead last in the Eastern Conference.
Yeah, it’s ugly.
Obviously, that’s where the conversation started on the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Right off the bat, Jay Rosehill delivered another of his infamous rants where he questioned the team’s compete level, pride, and competitiveness. Simply put, that wasn’t good enough in Montreal. Lose with dignity —at least. They had NOTHING.
Funny enough, Toronto played looked really good for the first seven or eight minutes to start the game, but after that, it was all Habs. It’s like the Leafs just quit on the game. They had no pushback or resolve, and quite frankly, they got bullied by their rivals. Not good. Frankly, Joseph Woll wasn’t the reason they lost. That was a mercy pull. The team in front of him was not playing. Again, these are issues that have been plaguing this organization for the better part of the past decade. Toronto’s now dropped seven of their last eight outings (1-5-2). On top of that, they fell to 1-6-0 away from Scotiabank Arena. Lucky for them, the next five games will take place on the road. Good luck with that.
After that, TSN’s Mike Johnson dropped by the show to offer up some perspective. He doesn’t feel this is rock bottom. In fact, he brought up a good point: Wasn’t the Carolina game supposed to be rock bottom? At any rate, Johnny gave his thoughts on Saturday night’s debacle, the lack of response, and ultimately, where he thinks the Leafs go from here. Additionally, he talked about all the injuries and whether it’s simple to use those as excuses. Over and above all that, the conversation concluded with some Berube talk. At this point, if this persists, it really feels like the Leafs are trending towards getting another coach canned.
Lastly, we talked about news from practice. It sounds like Matthews, Knies, and Roy are getting closer to returning, so that’s good. The Leafs will be in Columbus on Wednesday night before their back-to-back in Washington and Pittsburgh, respectively, on Friday and Saturday. This is IN ONE, folks.
You won’t want to miss the Tuesday edition of Leafs Morning Take. In addition to starting to look ahead to Wednesday night’s tilt in Columbus, we’re expected to be joined by projected lottery pick Keaton Verhoeff.
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