from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

So, unless you believe Leaf history should just keep repeating itself, let’s just end this conversation that Carlyle should go, OK? Ditto for the chatter about these players quitting on this coach. If that’s the case, it says a lot more about the quitters than the coach.

Whether Carlyle is or isn’t liked is simply irrelevant. It’s about whether he can get the most out of this team and is given a reasonable opportunity to do so.

Let’s start with a realistic look at what he has to work with at this time.

He’s got some good scoring forwards, but that gets thin outside of the top six. One of those players is Nazem Kadri, a 23-year-old centre who has yet to play more than 48 games in a single NHL season. In general, the club lacks size and toughness on the wings.

On the back end, Carlyle doesn’t have a single reliable pair, and he’s working with 23-year-old Jake Gardiner and 19-year-old Morgan Rielly, two blueliners who are very much in the apprentice stage of their NHL careers.

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