Mitch may be right that they know what they did wrong, but it's the same thing they've been doing wrong for years, and neither the players and the coach seem to think it needs fixing.
What is wrong? Let me give it a shot.
Down 7-1 and Liljegen carries the puck through the neutral zone, last man back. Knowing that both Toronto goalies have had a rough night and the game is lost the easy, smart thing to do is just dump it in. No need to be Superman, just keep it simple and avoid any more turnovers that'll make the night even worse for poor Hutch.
But no, he decides to try and deke out two Pens forwards, loses the puck and it's a 2-on-1 against almost making it 8-1.
Less than 2 minutes later Engvall does the same thing in the Leafs zone.
And the response is ... nothing. Unless I'm mistaken, Keefe doesn't bench either player for the rest of the game just to send a message, it's just "oh well." And to me is symptomatic of how broken this team is. They continually make selfish, completely idiotic plays with no accountability. So the bad habits more than just accepted, they are now ingrained in this team.
I'm convinced that Liljegren (or any other Leaf, besides perhaps Spezza and one or two others), would do the exact same thing if they were up 7-1, tied 2-2 or in overtime in a playoff game.
My answer to the problem is simple: Any time, any player makes such a brutal, bonehead play, he's stapled to the bench for at least the rest of the period if not the game. Force the bad habits out until they learn.
If Sheldon has lost the room, it's more than just because of all the f-bombs, it's likely because the players see a total lack of accountability. It's probably too late for Keefe to change that, but when he's fired Dubas needs to find a coach willing to give some tough love or he's gone too.
