Maple Leafs Coach Calls Out His Team After Another Collapse

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe is getting sick and tired of seeing the same storyline play out for his hockey club. The team continues to get out to two or three goal leads and crumble when it matters. The latest collapse came on Wednesday night in New York against the Rangers as the Leafs were up 3-1 and ended up losing 6-3.

Keefe spoke to the media after the game and the very honest head coach didn't hold back about his feelings towards his team:

We got exposed today for being a team that was just soft. Soft and purposeless and just kind of playing the game hoping it was gonna work out. This one should bother us greatly.

The Maple Leafs are a team that gets much too comfortable in the middle of the game and after storming out to a 3-1 lead in the Big Apple, the Rangers turned up their forecheck and basically sent the Leafs back on their heels for the rest of the game. Add in that starting netminder Jack Campbell wasn't his best, and it's a recipe for disaster.

Toronto needs help on defense and soon. The likes of Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl are both sidelined at the moment and the team had to roll out a third pair of Travis Dermott and Alex Biega on Wednesday night. The team has now surrendered multi-goal leads in four of their past five games.

The Maple Leafs sit third in the Atlantic and look to get back on track on Saturday night as they'll be led by captain John Tavares as they head to Long Island to take on the Islanders. Leafs Nation is hoping they don't score the first goal.

Photo credit:  Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports