The Toronto Maple Leafs officially ruin strong start to season in St. Louis
Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube returned to his old stomping ground - it did not go well.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have been almost 60 years without a championship, and so it isn't hard to understand why fans were so ready to believe in this version of the team.
Are Chris Tanev and OEL too old? Should the Toronto Maple Leafs have tried harder to get 3 NHL centres on its roster? A top goalie? How can a team with such an average blue-line ignore a guy with 200 career games of being an above average NHL defenseman? How could they stick with Ryan Reaves, David Kampf, Simon Benoit etc.?
So desperate to love a team that can't get out of it's own way, everything tried to convince themselves that these questions were not important.
Eight games into the season, we now know what we are dealing with, and well, have you ever heard this song by the Hives?
The Toronto Maple Leafs officially ruin strong start to season in St. Louis
The Leafs were horrendous against Columbus on Tuesday, and not only were they supposed to get up for their new coach's big game against his former team, they were supposed to redeem themselves for their bad game Tuesday.
They did neither.
For the second straight game, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner must have been wearing Spanx, because they were completely invisible!!! It has been obvious for years that the Leafs are best when they are split up, and it's annoying watching a new coach learn what is obvious to everyone else.
For the one millionth time: play Domi on the wing with Matthews!!!!!!!!!
After the first month of the season, I think it's obvious that the Leafs have enough star power that they can sometimes play totally complete and dominant games, but that they lack enough quality throughout their lineup to do it on a regular basis.
Craig Berube seems like a downgrade from Keefe. The Leafs look like a perimeter team that will shoot the puck from anywhere, but they do not look like a dangerous offensive team with three or four of the best offensive players in the world on it.
This team misses Tyler Bertuzzi.
This team needs an elite defenseman.
Last night, Joe Woll looked like a guy who hadn't played in 175 days, and it was.....let's just say "quite Leafy" when he appeared to injure himself again before even making a save and then let the first shot of the game in.
Luckiy, he somehow powered through, but it was to no effect. He actually played OK at times I thought, but the Leafs never looked dangerous and never looked as if they'd win the game.
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Back to the drawing board we go!