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GLENDALE, ARIZ. — The Toronto Maple Leafs added another embarrassing chapter to what has become a humiliating season for the storied NHL franchise.
And after the Leafs were dumped 5-1 by the youthful Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday evening to drop their sixth game in their past seven matches, the players held a players-only meeting in the dressing room.
"Yeah, we did," said a player clearly frustrated. "But it was something that hasn't been said before."
The Leafs clearly are a team spinning its wheels right now. They were beaten in all areas of the game by the Coyotes, and now have fallen all the way to 14th in the Eastern Conference standings and 27th in the 30-team league.
Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala, front, takes the ice as he replaces teammate Andrew Raycroft in goal after Raycroft allowed two goals on seven shots against the Phoenix Coyotes. (Paul Connors/The Associated Press)
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- Phoenix Coyotes
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Nik Antropov
- Bates Battaglia
- Mark Bell
- Jason Blake
- Daniel Carcillo
- Tomas Kaberle
- Staffan Kronwall
- Bryan McCabe
- Derek Morris
- Peter Mueller
- Alexei Ponikarovsky
- Andrew Raycroft
- Steve Reinprecht
- Mats Sundin
- Jiri Tlusty
- Vesa Toskala
- Darcy Tucker
- Radim Vrbata
- Craig Weller
- Kyle Wellwood
- Daniel Winnik
- Andy Wozniewski
The situation can't become much more dire before the ownership group stands up and makes a statement that it can't take the lack of progress any longer and finally shakes up the beleaguered front office.
Unless the board of directors of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment haven't been reading the sports section they certainly have noticed that moves in Atlanta, Dallas and Washington have made a swift difference this season.
Thrashers general manager Don Waddell fired his coach and took over behind the bench and Atlanta has pushed itself back into the playoff picture. The Stars have gone 4-0-2 since GM Doug Armstrong was replaced by Brett Hull and Les Jackson. The Capitals are 2-0 since head coach Glen Hanlon was released.
The talk around the league has been that Leafs general manager John Ferguson Jr. feverishly has been trying to make a trade. But there haven't been many partners willing to deal with Ferguson because the desirable players he has on his roster have no-trade clauses in their contract.
Remarkably, after an hour-long meeting with the some of his management team and the coaching staff, Ferguson emerged upbeat and said that he didn't fear the end was near for him.
"We have to get more out of the group we have," said Ferguson, who would not admit he's frustrated.
"It's too early to use that word. It's an 82-game schedule."
Is a trade near?
"Those discussions are ongoing at a number of levels," Ferguson said.
The Leafs, now 8-11-5, have found ways to lose tight games (see the outing in Dallas on Friday) with defensive miscues and then they have been flat out embarrassed by teams like this game against the Coyotes, who have now won four in a row.
This blowout comes on the heels of poor outings that saw the Leafs get hammered by the Carolina Hurricanes 7-1 on Oct. 9, 7-1 by the Washington Capitals on Oct. 29 and 5-1 by the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 6.
The Leafs were outshot by Phoenix 37-26.
The Coyotes, before an announced crowd of 17,190 at the Jobing.com Arena, were the club with more determination and jump early in their game. They easily out-skated and were more physical than the Leafs in the first period and as a result enjoyed a 4-1 lead before the intermission.
Andrew Raycroft started in goal for Toronto, but his evening ended swiftly after he gave up two rebounds that resulted in goals from Daniel Winnik, a Toronto native who attended the University of New Hampshire, and Peter Mueller. Raycroft was lifted after only seven shots.
"I didn't like that first goal," Leafs coach Paul Maurice said. "We can't give up a goal like that."
But Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala didn't fare much better. Eighteen seconds after the Mueller goal, the first shot Toskala faced whizzed by him for a third Coyotes goal from Steven Reinprecht.
Toronto's top defence pairing of Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle were on the ice for each of the first three Phoenix goals. Maurice not only called a timeout after the third goal, but wasted little time in splitting them up. Kaberle played with Staffan Kronwall, while McCabe was partnered with Andy Wozniewski.
Maurice already had shuffled his lines prior to the game. He scratched rookie Jiri Tlusty, who has an undisclosed injury, in favour of Bates Battaglia and removed Jason Blake from the top line, placing Nik Antropov on the right side of Mats Sundin and Alexei Ponikarovsky.
Blake, who now has not scored in 16 games, was on the second line with centre Kyle Wellwood and Darcy Tucker. That unit connected for the Leafs only goal in the first period on a setup from Blake to Wellwood in the slot.
But the good vibes didn't last long for Toronto because defenceman Derek Morris got the Coyotes a fourth goal.
Just in case the Leafs had visions of a comeback in the second period, the Coyotes quickly squashed that notion with an early goal from Radim Vrbata.
Toronto's Mark Bell attempted to inspire his teammates with a fight against Craig Weller as did Darcy Tucker with Daniel Carcillo in the first period.
The Leafs had a one minute and 24-second 5-on-3 advantage, but they failed to score and went 0 for 6 on the power play.
