Popular hockey analysts slam Sheldon Keefe for mis-casting his stars in the playoffs

A lot has been made of the lackluster effort that the Leafs brought with them to Florida for Game 3 of their second round series against the Florida Panthers. Now, at a 3-0 deficit and in jeopardy of being swept by the lowly Panthers, it's put up or shut up time for the Leafs.

Right about now, chances are you're either very critical of the Leafs or you're entirely speechless. For those in the sports talk business, it has been open season on the Leafs over the past couple of days. For Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne, they were already fairly critical of this team. Sunday's events only amplified their concerns - especially those of Kypreos.

During a segment of their Real Kyper and Bourne program on Monday, Kypreos and Bourne had a very intense talk about the Leafs' coaching staff asking the star players to try to be something that they're not. They also touched on the Leafs mis-casting Auston Matthews as a power forward, rather than a pure trigger-man, like he was last season when he scored 60 goals.

Kypreos: "Don't ask them to be something that they're not.. To now, all of a sudden for Sheldon [Keefe] to turn around to Matthews and Marner and Tavares and say 'you need to be grittier'.. If you didn't ask them to be grittier in November, if you didn't ask them to be grittier in February, then why are you asking them to be grittier in May?"


Bourne: "It's not even grit though, for me, Kyp - I see your point. This is a different type of hockey, but look at some of the guys who have had success in the playoffs, undersized - Pat Kane. You find a way to skate, get away from the traffic.. you find ways to deal with it. No one's asking Patrick Kane to punch you in the mouth when he's winning Conn Smythe trophies."

Kypreos: "You had Bolland - you had other guys that did that for you, so Kane could go find those lanes. He didn't physically make it on his own."

Bourne: "Is your point here that Matthews doesn't do that for Marner?"

Kypreos: "No, no.. My point here is that nobody does that for ANYBODY. Nobody. Give me one guy in the lineup that can physically make room for a teammate. Give me one. Has anyone ever taught Auston Matthews how to bodycheck? Anybody? Growing up in Arizona or in the Swiss League? Go watch him forecheck and then go watch 4 or 5 other guys on Florida and you tell me they forecheck the same way. I'm watching two different leagues.. Auston doesn't know how to bodycheck. He goes in there and probably pulls up to probably about 30% and then he sticks his ass in there and tries to clip somebody. Sorry - go watch the physical presence of Barkov and go watch the physical presence of Auston Matthews and you are seeing two different leagues."

Bourne: "I actually had that clipped for me to look into, just stopping skating on the forecheck as a theme with Matthews too.."

Kypreos"No, no - how about the whole team. Give me one guy. Give me one power forward right now on the Toronto Maple Leafs... they don't have one."

Now, obviously, the team does have a couple of bulldogs on the team in Noel Acciari and Matthew Knies, but with Knies being injured and Acciari playing in the bottom six, Kypreos does have a point that there really is nobody playing in the top six who can create legitimate time and space for his teammates. Knies was great in that aspect. You need only look at the team's record with him, versus their record without him in the lineup to find evidence of that. The Leafs are 4-1 when Matthew Knies has played and 0-4 when he hasn't played in these playoffs.

Having said that, if this Leafs team really is relying on one single player in their top six in order to tilt the ice every night, perhaps they're more fundamentally flawed than we had originally thought.

Regardless of the situation, the Leafs have to find a way to take care of business on Wednesday and pick up the win in Florida in Game 4. If they can do that and send the series back to Toronto for Game 5 and win there too, all of a sudden it will be a 3-2 series heading back to Florida. Then the pressure will be on the Panthers to close it out. If they choke during Game 6 in Florida, then the Leafs have home ice for Game 7. As unlikely as all of that seems, there is a possibility that the Leafs can come back and win this series. However, if these guys roll over again in any of Games 4-7 and give the Panthers any life whatsoever, it will be another long summer for the Leafs and some major changes could be on the horizon.