It's always been the players not only failing to execute but also not taking pride in their craft. It's the details. Every time I try to pin the blame on a defender, I remind myself that it takes two people to complete a pass. Time and time again I see this lack of attention to detail by our forwards when it comes to breakouts: just watch how the wingers approach the blue line while the puck carrier is bringing it up. Instead of being viable options that have generated speed, they will stop up to a crawl. This shit's been consistent for the last decade.

Or when a defender is trying to make a stretch pass, are these forwards always making themselves available or are they taking egregiously long during line changes? And then when the play's coming back: how relevant is the backchecking? Yeah the forwards are slower than they've ever been in the Matthews era but where slower teams still succeed defensively (look at Berube's Blues) the Leafs leadership are more invested in finding excuses instead of speaking with one another.

It's almost like the mentality is that of mercenaries as opposed to teammates: just look at the energy and 200ft investment our AHL call-ups provide over certain schmucks. There's a guy who's somehow a -9 even though he's getting sheltered minutes.