Auston Matthews<\/a> said. \u201cNobody\u2019s quitting. It\u2019s an honour to play in this league, and it\u2019s something that not many people get to do. It doesn\u2019t matter what the situation is, where we are in the standings, we have to go out and put in our best effort, especially on home ice.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have to play for one another no matter what. Just bad, just fairly embarrassing, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
WHAT THEY SAID<\/p>\n
\u201cA good first five minutes \u2026 and then sh\u2013 the bed after that. Confidence is a funny thing. Certainly not quitting. It\u2019s a privilege to play in this league, I certainly don\u2019t see anybody quitting out there. It\u2019s just tough sledding right now. Lack of confidence can do crazy things to our team, as we\u2019ve seen through stretches this year. Been around long enough that no matter how veteran you are, there are times when you don\u2019t have that confidence. And this is a tough game to play when you don\u2019t have it.\u201d \u2014 defenceman Jake McCabe<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason for it. We know what\u2019s at stake. We talk about being desperate and coming out and playing with some urgency and being connected and executing. And then we don\u2019t do it. That\u2019s one of those non-negotiables as a team. When you come out for a home game, you have to have some pride and put forward an effort that you can look yourself in the mirror afterwards and feel good about. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case tonight. We can\u2019t allow that to happen down the stretch.\u201d \u2014 defenceman Morgan Rielly<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard. It\u2019s the first time in a long time for the main group that has been here for a while, that we\u2019ve been in this position where we\u2019re out looking in. We have to figure it out pretty quick. I don\u2019t think anybody is quitting. I think everybody wants to be in the playoffs. It\u2019s a lot of pressure to want to find that game\u00a0 \u2026 We have to figure it out. It\u2019s still not impossible, but we have to play a lot better hockey if we want to be (in the playoffs).\u201d \u2014 winger William Nylander<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look at the game and show tape, we go over things, there\u2019s a certain way we need to play the game. But I can\u2019t give guys this (points to heart) or this (points to head). They have to bring the heart and the competitiveness that\u2019s needed. They have to want to bring that. We can bring the Xs and Os and I can go in there and yell and scream at them all I want that. That doesn\u2019t do anything.\u201d \u2014 coach Craig Berube<\/p>\n
OUR TAKE<\/p>\n
That the Leafs still can\u2019t play concise hockey, or that there are questions about whether they\u2019ve quit on their coach or on each other, after Game 60 of the regular season tells you all you need to know, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more to it than a lack of effort, especially in the three games after the Olympic break, which the Leafs have lost by a combined score of 14-4.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simple: The Leafs are not good enough to compete at the kind of level that will be required in the final weeks of the regular season.<\/p>\n
As well, if they had the heart that Berube seeks \u2014 and again, this is a discussion point 60 games in \u2014 we would have seen more evidence of it by now. Instead, in losses to Tampa Bay, Florida and Ottawa \u2014 three Atlantic Division rivals \u2014the Leafs, in the past few days, barely have been able to put two good shifts together.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s a systems issue or one of personnel, there\u2019s no discernible way out for this group. The players and coaching staff equally are to blame. Ditto for general manager Brad Treliving.<\/p>\n
There is no massive rally on the way, no chance at a comeback that would give the Leafs a chance to recoup something tangible.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s good that the players looked inward after the game, especially Matthews, who usually doesn\u2019t have much interest in that sort of thing. But the fact we\u2019re talking about pride, confidence and lack of connection at the end of February is bad. Really bad.<\/p>\n
The Leafs didn\u2019t have it within themselves to show up for such a crucial game, even with the knowledge that Boston \u2014 holding down the final wild-card slot in the conference \u2014 lost earlier in the day. There\u2019s no way to paint it any other way.<\/p>\n
Nothing Treliving does before the trade deadline on Friday will change that.<\/p>\n
tkoshan@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\nX: @koshtorontosun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Too little, much too late. The Maple Leafs took full responsibility for their awful performance against the Ottawa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[532,154,825,62,5,1127,57500,20,885,4,72,25,5157,4958,73,55,540,66,1114],"class_list":["post-478565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa-senators","tag-auston-matthews","tag-boston","tag-craig-berube","tag-florida","tag-hockey","tag-jake-mccabe","tag-lack-of-confidence","tag-maple-leafs","tag-morgan-rielly","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-ottawasenators","tag-scotiabank-arena","tag-senators","tag-simon-benoit","tag-tampa-bay","tag-toronto","tag-william-nylander"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116152900485543216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}