Noooooooooooooo.

Florida won tonight.  The Leafs need to start winning.  They play Tampa on Tuesday.  Florida could gain even more ground.

Pittsburgh did us a favour by beating Florida tonight.

Columbus lost as well. So did the Isles and Carolina is currently losing to Vegas. Going to go down to the wire.

Ugh the Hurricanes won in a shootout.  From what I gather James Reimer could potentially become their #1 goalie.

It's a really tough fight for the Leafs to make the playoffs this season.  They're going to need good goaltending.  If I were Dubas I'd be seriously tempted to acquire some type of stud defenseman right now and just see what happens.  I just wonder what the Leafs would have to give up in exchange.  It would be a high price and they don't have many picks left.  They'd lose a decent young roster player at the very least.

Campbell stood on his head in the third period last night.  That game could have very easily ended in a loss for the Leafs.  They clearly looked exhausted.

Florida has two games in two nights coming up this week.  I hope the Leafs can win their next few games to get them more firmly into a playoff spot.  It looks like it's going to be a real dogfight this year.  5 teams or so all competing for spots, really tight in the standings.

It's interesting with the whole salary cap situation.  Dubas is in a good position to load up with a superstar or two due to the LTIR injury situation.  I'm kind of intrigued by the possibility of the Leafs going for it this season.

What is the conditional third round pick conditional on?

This looks like a very good trade to me.  Anything can happen in the playoffs.  I just hope the Leafs can make it in.

I just checked out the standings. The Leafs are in serious trouble trying to make back ground on teams like Carolina and Florida with an already poor defence pretty much decimated...  Reilly was having a bad year, but despite that he was probably still their best overall defenceman. Muzzin isn't going to be at full speed for weeks.

If I was a leafs fan, I'd hope that by the trade deadline, if they aren't in a playoff position, at the very least they trade Barrie to recoup a first round pick. For them to miss and have given up all of those picks is a disaster; I wonder if pride won't get in the way of cutting bait.

The team is in an interesting position this season and I don't envy Dubas in terms of the decisions he's going to have to make.  What he does at the deadline is going to have lasting consequences.  With more cap space opening up next season, the Leafs are in a good position to sell off some assets at this year's deadline, and then go for it next season.  The injury to Reilly is especially brutal.  I'm quite wary about pulling off some type of blockbuster trades and going for it this year.  It's too risky IMO.  The team has been too inconsistent and their defence is especially weak with their two top defenders out injured right now.

Realistically the Leafs need at least some type of backup goalie and at least a couple of good to great defensemen to have a chance.  I just don't see Dubas being able to pull that off.

I guess the third option is to do nothing and just roll with what they've got.

Like I said, tough choices and I'm glad I'm not in the position of having to do it.  What happens at this year's deadline could cost Dubas his job.

I have to say that I'm personally blown away by Nylander this season.  Some of the characters on here have been right about him all along, I will give you that.  His contract looks like a bargain at $7M/per with his current level of play.  He's absolutely flying out there and playing at an elite level.  It's great that he's locked in for a good while to come.

Liljegren has been called up.  8)

I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the Ryu signing.  The Jays will be a more interesting team to watch now.  They could still use more pitching, but at the same time they have plenty of guys who could use development at the MLB level.

I'm kind of intrigued by the David Price talk.  My guess is that ship has sailed now that they have Ryu.  But who knows.  The Jays could certainly use at least one more solid pitcher for the rotation if they have any aspirations of competing this season.

Dubas is pissing me off at this point.  Why we have Hutchinson starting another game on Saturday is beyond me.  It is crystal clear at this point that the guy sucks and is not an NHL goalie.  We're just giving up more and more wins putting him in the net.  I'm ok with Dubas making mistakes.  It's just stuff like this where he's not making things right when he was clearly wrong, it really bothers me.  There has got to be some type of solution out there and Dubas has had a lot of time to deal with this problem at this point.

If we don't make the playoffs I'll bet our backup goalie losses could easily be the difference.

What colour is the hat?

It's amazing to see the team playing this well this quickly under Keefe.  I'm super happy for Barrie with 2 goals in 2 games under the new coach.

Mirtle is reporting that 90% of the players were happy to see Babcock go.  Seeing Babcock only thank Morgan Reilly is pretty telling.

The team is a hot mess.  They desperately need pitching and they let a guy like Tepera walk.  If that was their plan they should have traded him long ago.

Yeah, again, a "Guy like Tepera" meaning what? A relief pitcher with a career ERA of 3.64? As we saw with Hudson last year, guys like Tepera can be signed off the scrap heap literally whenever the Jays want. It's genuinely meaningless.

I keep telling you that Tepera is the straw that broke the camel's back for me.  I guess you don't remember what happened with Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion, just to name a few players. 

No, I remember all of that and didn't want to rehash old arguments. It's just genuinely shocking to me that since the Stroman trade we've seen real meaningful evidence of this management team's ability to draft and develop good young players and the Jays look set for at least the next 5 years in the infield and behind the plate and none of that bought enough goodwill to outweigh...not getting anything for Ryan Tepera.

But, once more, ok. Don't cheer for the Jays then. Their loss, I suppose.

Drafting well relies on your scouts.  Developing players well is a team effort.  If those are your reasons for liking Shapiro and Atkins, all I can say is "wow".

The real role of the GM is to acquire good players, either via free agency or trade.  On that level, current management has been an abysmal failure.

I kind of blame Rogers as much as I do Shapiro.  I personally see Shapiro as Rogers' corporate puppet/shill.

I said Tepera was the last straw.  The Jays had a star studded roster under AA.  Shapiro and Atkins parlayed those players into sweet nothing, pretty much.

Why would you have expected the Jays to get much of anything for a relief pitcher who was hurt this year and not particularly effective when he wasn't hurt? Why would that mean more to you and what the team is doing with their rebuild than the actual players on the team they're developing?

At Tepera's absolute best he probably fetches a middling prospect the way someone like Hudson did this year. If that's going to make or break your fandom...

Again, alright. You are free to stop following this team full of exciting young players for whatever reason you want.

The team is a hot mess.  They desperately need pitching and they let a guy like Tepera walk.  If that was their plan they should have traded him long ago.

Again, this is reading comprehension fail on your behalf.  I keep telling you that Tepera is the straw that broke the camel's back for me.  I guess you don't remember what happened with Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion, just to name a few players.  The list goes on and on.  Management completely messed up the rebuild process of this team.  In the process they pissed off a bunch of players and probably made Toronto that much less desirable to free agent players.

In Cleveland they were celebrating when these two clowns left.  Shapiro in particular has no clue.  Atkins is his little puppet.  They remind me of Smithers and Mr. Burns.