Joe Bowen reflects on Holy Mackinaw Night amid a troubling time for Toronto: Leafs Morning Take
Indisputably, the Toronto Maple Leafs are well on their way to getting yet another coach fired.
Thursday night’s display in Washington was downright despicable. When your coach has no words to defend your effort, you know you had yourself a night. But sadly, the lack of effort and care has been a theme for most of the season thus far. This team is absolutely cooked.
Obviously, we kicked off the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take by giving our initial comments on whatever that game was. We were harsh, we were critical. At the end of the day, it’s getting to a point where the players may be forcing Brad Treliving’s hand. This isn’t on the coach, but ultimately, it’s easiest scapegoat to pull. It’s really unfortunate. Furthermore, it’s incredible to be questioning the compete level of professional athletes, yet here we are.
Then, fresh off being on honoured as part of Holy Mackinaw Night earlier this week, the great Joe Bowen made another appearance on the podcast. Firstly, he dished on the lifeless loss in Washington and where the Leafs go from here. He thinks the writing could be on the wall for this franchise if they don’t figure things out quickly here. After that, we got into Bowen’s legendary career. The pre-game ceremony prior to the Chicago game was awesome. We wish Joe all the best!
Essentially, this episode was your prototypical therapy session. We went long, very long. All in all, we gave a very honest assessment. Berube’s out of answers, this should firmly be on the players. It was sickening and utterly embarrassing what they brought to the table in Washington. How? Why? Those are two big questions Leafs Nation is asking on this Friday. No one has answer.
After that, we previewed the weekend ahead. With the way this team’s currently playing, it might not be pretty. Toronto’s in Nashville Saturday night before visiting Dallas, one of the best teams in the NHL, on Sunday night. Naturally, we talked about goalie deployment. To be honest, it doesn’t matter who tends the twine with the way this team’s playing. Get the Zamboni driver!
We have two more shows next week – Monday and Tuesday – before we take a mini three-day holiday break (Dec. 24 – 26). Zack Phillips will be in as co-host for Jay Rosehill on the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Be sure to join us for a full recap of this weekend’s festivities. There will be some takes —that’s for sure.