The Leafs just got BRUTAL news...

The Leafs are in serious trouble as Jim Hiller has just called out the team following what's been a very disastrous stretch of games. I'm going to write down these wild comments from Hiller, discuss some wild comments from us, and Matthews's also calling some individuals out and some brutal news we just got surrounding prospect Ben Danforth. He just underwent a serious injury. Lots to go over today. Not much of it is positive, but before we get into it. A very quick reminder to hit that subscribe button if you want to stay up to date with all the latest news. Dears, let's start with Ben Danforth here. We have a lot to talk about. Obviously, the Leafs are in some trouble right now, and it didn't get any better as we got kind of breaking news here about an hour ago. Per Josh Cloak, Ben Danforth has suffered a broken wrist. He is considered week. Two weeks now, he obviously has been dealing with injuries all season and the Leafs have had to call up tons of different names, not named Ben Danforth on the blue line. And this would have been in an ideal world in a healthy season, a perfect year for him to get an opportunity, get some runs, see how things went. The unfortunate reality is Ben Danford is now going to be out for weeks, which means his at least NHL debut will have to wait a little bit longer. But there's especially with the amount of injuries this team has faced. This is this is pretty bad news. Yeah, and it's bad news for the player. Never mind the Leafs. Maybe they could use him as a call-up, right? Because we were talking about, you know, McWard coming up and, you know, why isn't it Danforth? For the player himself, dealing with this injury at this point in the season for his development, first full season in the AHL, that kind of stinks too, right? Like, is this going to affect him? Hopefully not long term, obviously, like people have broken their wrist before and been fine. But, you know, in the immediate future, you know, does it affect his game? Does it affect his development? Does he have to miss more time than he needs, right? Like, that's a huge update too. So not much good news going on with the Leafs right now, whether it's the Leafs, whether it's the Marlies. Nick, like you said, take it back to the team and a little bit more on some other injuries and Morgan Rielly too, we'll get into that. Um, this team is in trouble, right? Like from what the coach is saying from the coach's deployment to what the captain is saying. I want to get into that too, because I agreed with Matthews a couple of years ago. A lot of people did not agree with me. I remember that video very fondly and, and, and some of the comments, but, um, you know, they're not in a good spot right now from the fact that they can barely make a trade or a meaningful trade because of the tagging issue to there's so much right now to the coach, to the players. Um, they're in a bad way. They're in a bad way. They need Kirill Marchenko back. And, um, this can slip away very quickly. I mean, this entire season, and I hate to think like that, because that's where everyone's brain goes, and I think there was a lot of, you know, exaggerating done last night online, like, I get it, a lot of people are pissed off, and the energy level in that game just wasn't there, you could tell right away, as soon as the game started, it was going to be a stinker, but they are, truly, like, you can't avoid it, I'm the optimist here, and like, they're in a bad way right now. Yeah. And- Some positives, some optimism. Morgan Rielly cornered Darren Dreger. He's not going to be out long, so he's going to be out day-to-day. Maybe misses one game. Every game matters here. The kind of common sentiment right now is everyone's... Kind of ragging on the team. I still think the team is in a fine spot. Like, yeah, they're playing really bad hockey. They're still a very talented team. And I think they're going to have a chance here to show what they're actually made of. If you can win more games than you lose in this insane stretch, you're going to put yourself in an okay position. But let's dive into some of the comments that have been made. Because we can start with Auston Matthews. And he kind of called out the team a little bit. We're banged up. Guys got to look in the mirror and ask a little bit more of themselves. And take on a little bit more. And obviously, Austin Matthews kind of being the captain this year. He called out, whether it's William Nylander, whether it's whoever you want to say, but it wasn't just him. Him and Jim Hiller kind of called out different people, I guess. And obviously, Austin Matthews now struggled a little bit back-to-back games. But it's rare that you see Austin Matthews calling out. Who? Jim Hiller? No? Maybe? William Nylander? A lot of people are kind of calling out Jim Hiller, but you have Austin Matthews here just calling out... I mean, I don't know where my brain necessarily goes. I guess William Nylander seems like the most obvious scapegoat of this, but what are your thoughts on this? And it's rare that Matthews actually makes comments like this. I don't know if it's anyone in particular, but it's like, it's an attitude issue, right? Like with the rest of the team. And a couple of years ago when they got eliminated in the playoffs against the Florida Panthers, he had this quote after the game that everybody ripped them apart, apart for. And I said that I agreed with him. He said there was too many passengers on the team. And I agreed with him. And people took that quote and said, well, you're, you're a passenger to Austin Matthews, but no, he's demanding a little bit more out of everyone. He's trying to get a little bit more out of everyone. And that's what they need right now. Right. And, and that goes for the coach too, because The lines last night were, I don't know, closer to what you want to see, I guess. And they're still dealing with injuries. Obviously, Ross didn't even play yesterday. He's dealing with something too. But I don't even know what you want to call it. A little bit closer to what you would want to see. But the lines for a while here. I have still been in the blender the whole game, like throughout a game. So I don't know how anyone's supposed to build chemistry with each other. But back to Matthew's point, he is right. I feel like Matthews has really stepped into being a captain this year and being a leader. He has changed a little bit. I think it was slowly coming together the last couple of years and he was trying to find his way as a leader and what that looks like in this dressing room. But with so much turnover this year, I feel like he's really stepped into that role really nicely. And I agree with him here. You have to look in the mirror. Like, isn't this what we've been asking for the last 10 years for a captain or one One of the Leafs to say. Why are you making excuses about injuries? Look in the mirror. What do you want to do about it? Who are you going to be as a team? It's the next man up. So many other teams do that. It's next man up. And that's what they're dealing with right now. And I think that dealing with this earlier in the season right now will be good for them. They'll be better for it. I hope, obviously, like anything can happen. They can be injured the whole year, right? But. Chris Tanev not being in the lineup, that's a huge thing too. But then you have the head coach calling out players too, and I imagine this could be William Nylander. He hasn't looked right for a little while. Is he injured? Is he playing injured? Is he playing sick? I don't know because he just hasn't looked super interested the last little while. His ice time took a hit too. Yesterday, obviously, they were going to get shut out. You could just tell, start the third period, wouldn't matter. They were getting shut out. But again, they're in a bad way right now, and they have to figure it out, and there's no help coming. Is there help coming on the goaltending position? No. They have to figure it out, those two, right? Is there help coming on the blue line? It's going to be very difficult. It seems like the only team they can trade with right now is Chicago Blackhawks, right? That's the rumor, and we'll do videos on that as well. And it's like there's no help coming. This team has to figure it out. And then there's the whole thing with the general manager too, right? Like you went out and you got a general manager who hasn't been involved in the league for a while. I did like some of the moves that he put together here, but they're in a tough spot right now. They are really, really in tough. And again. They've had a lot of travel. They have to work on some stuff, but I just feel like with the personnel that they have, the play style is not working. They continue to put every single line in the blender every couple of minutes. I can't be on board with what they're doing right now. Yeah, and fans are starting to, I mean, there's as well a question, Jim Hiller, you can see here, bottom line, is the Leafs' next head coach needed to be someone who could get more out of the roster than you'd expect on paper, and that's simply not happening nearly 20 games in. I don't necessarily agree with this take, but I know a lot of people do. I think at the end of the day, it's a little bit. I don't know if it's fair to fully put the blame on William Nylander being lazy on because Jim Hiller isn't like, obviously there's certain instances with Gavin McKenna. I think a big part of it is Jim Hiller. And a lot of people, I'm not saying Jim Hiller is like the answer that he's a fantastic coach, but I think a lot of it, I mean, realistically, a lot of the players are actually performing pretty darn well overall. Like Austin Matthews is having a borderline career year, or at least at the level of some of his career years, you have William Nylander still putting up points, though there are There are a lot of other questions that. The problem now, one of them here, you can see McEwen had more time on ice than Matthews or with, sorry, McEwen had more time on ice with Matthews than William Nylander did. Those I agree with. There's a lot of questionable decisions, but there's just frustration all around the board and it all kind of comes down to a lot of pressure on John Chayka. Yeah, it does come down to a lot of pressure on John Chayka, and he's a guy that, you know, in our very short time knowing each other, the general manager and the fan base, he hasn't really sat on his hands. He's been aggressive. So I think that he's trying to do something and he needs to do something on the back end. This defense score is not good enough. It just isn't. And now Chris Tanev is doing the Kawhi Leonard schedule, right, which is fine as long as it keeps him healthy, I guess. Right. And obviously there's life beyond hockey and all that type of stuff. But at the same time. That that's a big game yesterday that you need to win. And this look at the next three opponents, by the way, right? Like this homestand can slip away so quickly. And then you're going into December in a really tough way. And if you look around the league at some of the best teams in the league, the records look very different than the Leafs right now. Right. And again, the Leafs have done some tough road trips. They've traveled a lot. They haven't had much time to practice. But then last week you did have time to practice. And you come out with those two performances this weekend. Now, the Montreal one, I thought they actually played quite well. But then there's little things. It's so many self-inflicted wounds that this team has so far this season, right? Like the Montreal game on Saturday. And then last night, obviously, too, that it's so frustrating. I think that's what it is for Leaf fans right now. I saw some crazy stuff online. Oh, start the rebuild, right? Like, it's not going to happen. They're not going to do that. I don't think they need to do that. It's a long season for a reason. There could be teams ahead of them in the standings right now that completely fall apart by the end of the year. And they're dealing with injuries. They're going on their long-term road trips, right? And stuff like that. And they're dealing with adversity. It hasn't hit them yet. So maybe that could play in the Leafs' favor. Of course, you're just hoping for things at this point. They need another defenseman. I've been saying it. You have to go out and make a trade. I don't know what the assets look like. I don't know what level defenseman they're looking at. And then in terms of the tagging rule, that's a huge factor, too. They're in a tough way. They have to go out and get another defenseman because this is not good enough. They are not moving the puck. Or maybe change the play style. I don't know. They spent a lot of time in preseason training camp, you know, trying to instill something here. It's not working. You can see it, right? And then they dump the puck in. Sometimes they don't go and retrieve it. The forecheck is very hot and cold, right? There were times on Saturday and even last night that they were okay, right? But then it's very hot and cold too. I just don't think the puck goes from the defense to the forwards efficiently or fast enough. It just doesn't. So you can't generate anything and the other teams are turning it over. And it's just, it's a mess right now. We can get into the specifics, but they're in a bad way. And like Matthew said, they have to look in the mirror and figure it out. Because, like, is somebody coming? Nobody's coming to help you. That's not happening. Yeah, you can see here, they're now seventh. You saw kind of the grafters, Darius, as you were speaking, Darius. And Darius, as you were speaking, look at there. They were pretty high up there for a little bit. And it feels like a year ago now, that infamous picture of them celebrating on the bench together after the Troy Setzer game-winning goal. That feels like a year ago. Let us know down below who you are blaming and where you think. The blame should fall on what you think is next for this team. And guys, we'll keep you up to date regardless. See you guys later.