Famous Last Words?

I'm not here to rain on the parade route that some people have planned in Toronto, but tonight's game against the Arizona Coyotes that featured a Maple Leafs team that looked lost, broken, and disinterested for most of the hour should have a few people worried. Perhaps the man who should be most worried is Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas who, back on September 21, was asked about his expiring contract, and he answered, "My view of it is that if we have the year we are capable of, the team plays the way it is capable of and executes at the end — which is what we are building towards — my situation will get taken care of without issue."

If not for a power-play goal by William Nylander followed by a carom to Mitch Marner 24 seconds after resetting at center ice, one could have been fooled that the Leafs were playing in a charity game tonight. A Shayne Gostibehere power-play goal with 93 seconds to play should have been the difference for the Coyotes, but these are the Arizona Coyotes - no lead is safe as the Coyotes have already been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. It looked like there may be a Leafs goal to tie the game, but that goal was disallowed after it was determined that Morgan Reilly made a hand-pass to Marner during the lead-up to the goal.

The Coyotes, though, shook that scare off and regrouped, and that lead was indeed safe as Lawson Crouse iced the game with 11 seconds to play into an empty net in helping the Coyotes defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs - "if we have the year we are capable of" - by a 4-2 score. If you're a Leafs fan trying to figure this out, yikes.

Whether it be the patchwork defence which has shown little regard for defending or the questionable netminding combinations that Kyle Dubas is hedging his bets on, the Maple Leafs look less like world beaters after tonight's cavalier effort. One may have expected big things from the double-digit salary boys, but Marner, Matthews, and Tavares contributed one goal, one assist, seven shots, and not much else when it came to the overall showing tonight against arguably one of the AHL's best rosters.

Dubas proclaimed as training camp opened, "It is in the people that we have here — the players and the staff in all facets. I think it is a special group. That is where I am more than happy to go through the year, be evaluated on the year, and have the decision made. I believe in our group and know what we are capable of."

I'm well aware that a GM has to be confident in the team he's built, but even he had to have seen that a lot of the talent he had on his blue line were well past their "best-by" dates. He had to have looked at his goaltending and hoped for some sort of miracle revival for the likes of Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov. Beyond that, he needed big seasons out of the likes of Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander, and Bunting to hide the obvious flaws this team has.

Dubas also made the bold claim prior to the season starting of "I fully expect to be judged on the full body of my work over the five-year term of my contract."

Let's give you the results of those five years under Dubas:

• 2019: 46-28-8, but lost in the opening round of the playoffs.
• 2020: 36-25-9, but lost in the qualifying round of the playoffs.
• 2021: 35-14-7, but lost in the opening round of the playoffs.
• 2022: 54-21-7, but lost in the opening round of the playoffs.
• 2023: 2-2-0, but lost to Montreal and Arizona.

If I'm putting this very bluntly, this team does well in the regular season, but is still in the same spot it was in back in 2006. It's been 16 years since the Leafs won a round in the playoffs, and 20 years since this team played in the conference final despite the high-priced talent that Dubas has stocked on this roster. No matter how you cut it, the Kyle Dubas five-year experiment has brought them no closer to a Stanley Cup than the likes of John Ferguson Jr. who was basically run out of town.

Sheldon Keefe said after the game tonight, "Our elite players didn't play like elite players tonight," and he's not wrong, but he could be describing the last five seasons. Yes, Auston Matthews had a statistically fantastic season last year and has been a strong scorer throughout his career, but hockey is a team game. It takes more than just elite players to carry a team, and the Arizona Coyotes proved that tonight as they executed as a team. Should we be surprised that this team hasn't won a series if there are four or five guys on whom the Leafs have pinned all their hopes?

If Kyle Dubas is going to put his career on the line before this season with statements about being judged for this season and over the last five years, he should probably look back and assess what successes his team has had in those two timeframes because there doesn't seem to be a lot of trophies in the trophy case since Dubas took over in the big chair. That speaks louder than any regular season successes, personal statistical successes, or a combination of the two. Having no playoff series wins in five seasons is damning for a general manager in Canada's biggest sports market, and losing to teams like the Coyotes and the Canadiens early this season are four points that the Leafs may desperately need come the end of the season.

We joke that teams like the Coyotes, who are expected to miss the playoffs, have players who are playing for jobs, but it seems like the Maple Leafs might determine one man's job before this season ends. And if the Leafs fall short of the playoffs or fall in the opening round again, I wouldn't be surprised if Kyle Dubas' office suddenly has a vacancy to be filled.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!