That’ll just about do it for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just about every observer around town is certain that Toronto’s latest loss, a 7-4 defeat Tuesday night at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres, is the final straw in this lost Leafs ‘ season.
With just one win in their last eight games, and only one point of a possible 10 on their just-completed five-game homestand, they’re toast. Now eight points out of a playoff spot.
Here’s just a sampling of the many who are throwing dirt on the Maple Leafs’ grave on this Wednesday:
It’s over. They’re not good enough. And they have to face reality straight up… That stretch (a month ago) where they played so well? It was a mirage. — Craig Button, TSN
The sad ending to the most pathetic Maple Leafs season in more than a decade became unofficial but apparent late on a Tuesday evening in Toronto. It is over for the Leafs. This season. The hope. The belief that something good might happen to a club that has tripped over itself all season long. —Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun
Did they really just drop five in a row on a homestand? They just gave their season away… Just flabbergasting. That’s them trying their hardest? How bad are they? — Jay Rosehill, Leafs Morning Take
It’s over… This Leafs team is done… If your mind wasn’t made up prior to this homestand, this should have been the deciding factor… You have your answer. —The Athletic Hockey Show
Should the Leafs be buyers or sellers? The answer is obvious
For insider Frank Seravalli, he didn’t need to see the latest Leafs loss to have made up his mind. He’s been making the call for a week. On Oilers Now, he called the question of whether Toronto should still consider buying at the deadline, “lunacy.”
I think any talk about this team potentially being a buyer to try and prop up this roster is lunacy. This team is not good enough. They are not close to good enough.
And yes, does William Nylander giving the camera the bird give you some insight into the frustrations with all those players jammed into the press box with how banged up they’ve been at times this year? Yes.
But nonetheless, foundational, existential questions need to be asked… It’s hard to envision a path of really rebooting this thing in short order.
Were any of those “existential questions” asked in the so-called ‘Leadership Group’ Players Meeting with head coach Craig Berbue earlier this week? Doubtful.
All the pie-in-the-sky rumors about potential trades in the coming few weeks for Dougie Hamilton, Jason Robertson, Nazem Kadri, even Luke Schenn… They’re all pretty much absurd at this point. Or in Seravalli’s words, “lunacy.”
Next up—a four-game road trip out west to take the Leafs to the Olympic Break. To be sure, three of those games are winnable, against Seattle, Vancouver and Calgary. But at this point—as everyone seems to agree—it’s too little, too late.
