Panic in Toronto following Leafs’ 4-2 loss to the Coyotes?

Is it time to sound the alarms in Leaf Land?

Following a 4-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on home ice, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said that the team’s star players didn’t do enough for the team to win.

Mike McKenna and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed the troubles in Toronto on Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live…

Yaremchuk: “The Toronto Maple Leafs were massive favorites against the Arizona Coyotes last night but they didn’t win. Maybe we should have seen it coming because the Leafs never really play the Coyotes all that well in Toronto. It’s been 20 years since the Leafs have beaten Arizona on home ice in regulation.

Sheldon Keefe was having none of it after that game either, saying ‘The difference between us and Arizona is that we have elite players. Our elite players didn’t play like elite players today and couldn’t make a difference.’

Mike, what do you make of the Leafs’ bench boss calling out his big guns after a disappointing loss?”

McKenna: “The big dogs didn’t score, but if you’re calling them out, is it just Auston Matthews and John Tavares? Because Mitch Marner scored. William Nylander scored. Who’s in your mix here? I feel that a bit, but if you’re just going to lay it on your big players to have to score four goals every game, that’s tough.

The bottom line for me is that it was a brutal game for Justin Holl defensively, he was on the ice for all three goals against, they got sub-pay goaltending from Erik Kallgren, especially on the first two goals, and that leads to your result.

The Toronto Maple Leafs should be able to outscore the Arizona Coyotes. In the first period, I actually think the Leafs weren’t terrible. They had chances and they weren’t able to convert and that’s where the frustration set in. The second period was just terrible for Toronto and that sunk them.

You get to the third and you’re trying to press and they thought they had the tying goal, but if you’re fighting for that goal that late in the game against the Coyotes, something’s gone wrong. I just think a lot of things added up to it, more than just the big guys.

Right now, the Leafs haven’t won a game without Ilya Samsonov in net. He’s won their two games, Matt Murray lost one and Erik Kallgren lost the other. I played one game for the Coyotes, it was in Colorado, but I wish it was in Toronto because maybe I’d have an eighth win on my NHL resume.”

You can watch the full episode here…