The Leafs are an absolute joke, and while the fans and the city have been fearing and feeling it for a while, now the entire fucking league, and all NHL fans know it. On a day when Ovi gets 700, he's not even the lead headline. Ayers' (the emerg backup) last professional game was 5 years ago in some 'senior' league where he gave up 11 goals on 46 shots. And the Leafs had him for 1/2 the game, managing I think 8 shots on him. Some credit is deserved to Carolina, who played like it was a one-goal lead in Game 7 of the Cup finals. But the Leafs were beyond pathetic. They were clowned - that is the right term this time. They proved beyond a shadow of any doubt, they are incapable of working hard, or wanting the win more than their opposition. They simply are not right in the head. They have the skill, they showed (in the 4-0 win against Pitt) that they are CAPABLE of putting forth the effort, but with this game, they showed they are INCAPABLE of doing it consistently. Hell, they couldn't even do it 2 games in a row. Winning in the NHL (hell, any sport) is hard. Losing is easy. Leafs clearly prefer to take the easy route.
14 games since the all-star break .... first 2 (v Stars and Preds) they looked really good. Then they fell apart. 4 wins in OT, 2 of them against teams coming off a game the night before (which was also the case against Carolina last night), 2 of which were against 'lesser' teams .... Ottawa, Anaheim. As Keefe said the other day, they seem to want to go thru the process by finding new ways to embarrass themselves. They are running out of time to 'fix' this, and their only saving grace at the moment is that Florida isn't putting up very many Ws.
It's just simply embarrassing the way the Leafs are earning their Ls. And the trade deadline isn't going to offer anything to change that.