Maple Leafs Drop Humiliating Loss to Panthers - Can’t Get Any Worse
“Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200″. We’ve all pulled that card in Monopoly. Now though, the NHL should be seriously thinking about implementing a similar policy to send teams like the Leafs directly to the bottom of the league after they show an effort as pathetic as the one we’ve just witnessed.
The good news for Leafs nation though is that on Tuesday night the Toronto Maple Leafs finally hit rock bottom! That means that although it doesn’t necessarily have to get any better, it can’t get any worse!
Tuesday’s game at the ACC saw the Leafs play what was almost certainly their worst game of the season, losing a whopping 8-0 to the Florida Panthers. That’s ok though because the Panthers are a strong playoff team, right? Nope. The Panthers are 12th in the East, four places out of the playoffs, and 24th out of 30 in the league.
You’ve got to hand it to the Leafs though, it takes a special group of players to lose 8-0 to a team in the bottom 20% of the league. The game took the problems we’re all used to seeing, lack of scoring, awful defense, sieve-like goaltending, and turned the knob up to eleven. The Leafs truly looked like the very worst team in the National Hockey League.
The Florida Panthers are not an offensive powerhouse, they aren’t sitting on a god-like goaltender, they are a bad team. Bad compared to the rest of the league that is. Compared to the Leafs the Panthers like the ‘87 Canada Cup team with Gretzky and Lemieux. How the Panthers were able to not only shutout the Leafs, but also light the lamp 8 times is incomprehensible.
Toskala, the guy who is supposed to be the savior goaltender of this organization, got lit up for four goals on 15 shots, and it could’ve been five when he almost let a dump-in get past him into the mesh. Next up was Raycroft who, not to be outdone, let in four more on only eleven shots.
On the skater side, Hal Gill put up a game that could be used as a case for sending him to Provincial Junior C. Normally stable players like Pavel Kubina, Kaberle and Sundin looked essentially useless. On the upside, Matt Stajan showed some emotion when he dropped the gloves against Ruslan Salei.
The entire team didn’t show up, and it seemed like some players weren’t even in the country. The effort was so bad that it can legitimately be called humiliating. After a game like that, if anyone can make a case as to why the Leafs aren’t the worst team in the NHL, I’d love to hear it. Only two teams sit behind them in the standings, Tampa Bay and Los Angeles, but I think Tuesday’s game showed that the standings should be seeing a change very soon.
“Go directly to 30th, do not draft first, do not collect Stamkos”.
Stumble it!
February 9th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Catchy end phrase there. I don’t really know where else to say it so i’ll just say it here. The authors on this site continue to drone on and on about what is wrong with the leafs. I don’t have a problem with this necessarily; what I do have a problem with is the site’s description:
LeafsAreTrash.com is a website dedicated to all the Leafs fans out there who have finally come to terms with the fact that the Leafs are trash and probably will be forever!
Leaf fans that have come to terms with the fact that the Leafs are and will always be trash? If anyone could honestly make a case of how they belonged to both the leaf lover and hater camps, i’d love to hear it.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Well Real.Leafs.Fan, all I can offer you is this piece of advice:
There is a lot on this site that you should take with a grain of salt. Much of it is said facetiously, that tagline included!
We ARE Leafs fans and we ARE fed up with the team. What we try and do on this site is a bit of a mix.
On one hand, some articles address issues we think are serious negatives of the team. These will be mostly serious. On the other hand, we love to poke fun at this team and all it’s foibles, and many of the articles, and sections within articles, are meant to do just that and not much more.
The real question though isn’t why we keep writing it, it’s why you keep reading it!
Enjoy!
May 31st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
[…] about implementing a similar policy to send teams like the Leafs directly to the bottom of the leaguhttp://www.leafsaretrash.com/maple-leafs-drop-humuliating-loss-to-panthers-cant-get-any-worse/2007 Leaf Collection Program : Environmental Services : Arlington …Details on the leaf collection […]