For all intents and purposes, Tuesday night in Sunrise felt like Groundhog Day.

For some reason, the Florida Panthers just own the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s tough to admit it but maybe they’re just a better team than Toronto —plain and simple.

At any rate, we kicked off the Wednesday edition of Leafs Morning Take by venting our frustrating over Toronto’s 3-1 loss in Sunrise. It wasn’t pretty. Incredibly, first through fifth in the Atlantic Division is separated by only 11 points. With five games left, there’s still a plethora of scenarios that can play out for the Maple Leafs in terms of potential first round opponents.

Additionally, we unveiled our 2024-25 playoff merch. This season’s slogan is NOW WE GO. BUY HERE!

Brought to you by Sobeys, we recapped the loss in Sunrise. The polarizing stat of the game: The Matthews, Marner, Nylander trio combined for one shot on goal and a minus-4 rating. Yucky stuff. The Leafs were doubled in shots (36-18) and grossly outhit (43-29), too, despite the fact that Florida had the puck most of the night. We did give some love to John Tavares, who earlier today was named Toronto’s Masterton Trophy nominee. The former captain potted No. 37 on the campaign. He now has 10 goals in his past nine outings and needs just seven goals to hit the 500-goal plateau. Meantime, the game’s opening goal may have been ugly, but all in all, Joseph Woll put forth a very strong performance in between the pipes making 34 stops. Unfortunately, it was more of the same against the Panthers. They couldn’t score, the power play stunk, and they shot themselves in the foot on a few different occasions.

Courtesy Charm Diamond Centres, U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame netminder John Vanbiesbrouck dropped by for a chat. Naturally, we talked a lot about goaltending. Firstly, Beezer weighed in on Sergei Bobrovsky and what the Leafs need to do to maybe have more success against someone like that. Then, we got into Toronto’s crease. Almost against the grain, Beezer disclosed that if it were up to him, Joseph Woll would get the nod in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Lastly, Beezer touched on Matthew Knies’ incredible development, and what it was like to be teammates in the NHL with Craig Berube.

The Leafs have a big one tonight in Tampa. Anthony Stolarz will get the call. Toronto’s 3-0-0 against the rival Bolts and have outscored them 15-8 this season. All in all, this one could go a long way in deciding the division title.

After that, we got to the CRISPI HOT TAKE OF THE DAY, presented by the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer. Producer Vick fired up this hot take: The loss to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night means absolutely nothing.

Alrighty then, Vicky boy.

As per normal, lots planned for the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take, so make sure you join us at 11 AM ET. We’ll recap Leafs/Lightning. Plus, former Leaf and current co-host of ‘First Up’ on TSN 1050 Carlo Colaiacovo will drop by the show.

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