Maple Leafs Player Asked If Team Is Losing On Purpose: ‘F–k No’
The Toronto Maple Leafs are struggling, but when it comes to rumors of getting coach Randy Caryle fired, defenseman Cody Franson had two words and six letters for the answer.
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Year 47 of the Toronto Maple Leafs bid for another Stanley Cup isn’t going well these days. Coach Randy Caryle’s team is in the midst of a three-game losing streak, including the 9-2 curve stomp the Nashville Predators handed them on Tuesday night. With high expectations beginning to evaporate, the ruthless Toronto media came looking for blood afterwards.
Whatever dirt they could find were cross-checked into the boards by Leafs defenseman Cody Franson, who simply answered the question of whether the team was hell-bent on trying to get Caryle fired.
Franson was asked if the team is trying to get its coach fired: "Fuck no."
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) November 19, 2014
(For the record, Franson did apologize for the F-bomb).
Still, the reaction to Tuesday’s loss has frayed nerves even further, especially with a fan base that threw sweaters on the ice near the end of the game, which got a strong reaction from forward Phil Kessel, who called the move “classless.”
Wednesday’s front page of the Toronto Sun sports section didn’t help matters, either.
The Leafs are currently 9-8-2, putting them in fifth in the Atlantic Division, which would put them in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. That’s not going to cut it. Tuesday’s loss also put their home record at a not-so-friendly-confines mark of 5-6-0 heading into Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Add the fall in attendance, and it’s pretty obvious things had better change for the good in Toronto, or another year of chasing Lord Stanley’s Cup will go by the wayside.
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