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I gave up after the 1st, which featured some of the softest defensive play and fundamentally poor defensive coverage we’ve seen from the Leafs since Ron Wilson got fired.

Apparently it didn’t get much better in the 2nd:

 

The Carlyle checklist of nonsense tonight:

Playing Fraser over Gardiner, or at all. Nonsense.
Playing Franson over Gardiner. Nonsense.
Leaving Gleason on the top pair instead of reinserting Gunnarsson. Nonsense.
Playing Ashton 40 seconds in the first period after the call up. Nonsense.

As for the rest of the team, there wasn’t a whole lot to like. Kadri and Lupul did show some jump. This team is showing the telltale sign of an irreversible tailspin – abandoning basic execution and entering full-blown panic-hockey mode. Doubling down on stupid with the roster decisions is just throwing gasoline on an open flame.

 

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Alec Brownscombe is the founder and editor of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He's published five magazines on the team entitled "The Maple Leafs Annual" with distribution in Chapters and newsstands across the country. He also co-hosted "The Battle of the Atlantic," a weekly show on TSN1200 that covered the Leafs and the NHL in-depth. Alec is a graduate of Trent University and Algonquin College with his diploma in Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Canada's Best Hockey Blogger honours by Molson Canadian. You can contact him at alec.brownscombe@mapleleafshotstove.com.