TORONTO — The sun came up on Wednesday morning and Randy Carlyle was back at work.
The veteran coach led the Maple Leafs through practice hours after the team’s worst loss in the 15-year history of the Air Canada Centre — a 9-2 defeat to Nashville that brought Carlyle’s job security into question.
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While Toronto is still 9-8-2, and just one week removed from an uplifting win over Boston, it has already dropped four games on home ice by three or more goals this season.
The Leafs are also in the midst of a home heavy portion of their schedule with seven of the next eight games in Toronto. The Tampa Bay Lightning are in town on Thursday.
Following the blowout loss to the Predators, Carlyle acknowledged that it would likely bring on speculation about his future.
“You guys are going to discuss a lot — I understand that,” he said. “As I’ve stated before, when you get in this business you better understand that when things don’t go well that there’s going to be a huge amount of scrutiny and attention paid to your position.”
Cody Franson said that it felt like the walls are caving in on the team. The Leafs have allowed an average of 33.6 shots against per game while demonstrating only modest defensive improvement from a year ago.
What’s most damning about the consecutive losses to Buffalo and Nashville — by a combined score of 15-4 — is that they came against two of the league’s lowest scoring teams.
“Obviously it’s pretty embarrassing,” Leafs winger Phil Kessel said after Tuesday’s game. “Again, we got crushed. We obviously didn’t play well. We turned over the puck all night. It’s embarrassing.”
