Mitch Marner on the Leafs’ effort level tonight: “I liked it. I thought we played well, I really did. The last couple of games, we’ve been giving up plays to teams that aren’t missing on them.”

Are you kidding? There was absolutely nothing in this game that proved that the Leafs played well. They lacked any energy and were just completely lazy through the entire 60 minutes of the game. Vancouver was short on rest not only from being on the second half of a back-to-back, but they didn’t arrive in Toronto until about 1pm: 6 hours from puck drop.

Craig Berube on tonight’s result: “I didn’t think we had enough pace in the game or played with enough energy. Maybe it’s travel or whatever, we need more life and energy, you know? I didn’t think we had that tonight.”

Berube’s quote speaks on this game a lot better. Using travel as an excuse while the opponent didn’t arrive at your arena until SIX hours before puck drop is not good enough, unfortunately.

Dennis Hildeby stopped 15 of 18 shots tonight, with the first goal coming off a deflected point shot inside the first 30 seconds of the game. Hildeby made his fifth career start with Joseph Woll getting the night off. His last appearance was a 30-save performance in a 3-2 overtime victory against the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 5. As it seems, it was a bad start to an even worse hockey game. Quinn Hughes scored late in the second, on a point shot that bounced up and past Hildeby. The final goal came in the third where Quinn Hughes was able to perfectly set up Kiefer Sherwood for a snap shot from just inside the right circle.

At the end of the day, this is an unacceptable showing from a team that leads their division. Having put up two poor performances in a row, the Leafs need to figure it out soon as their schedule doesn’t get any easier. They line up against the Stars and Devils on Tuesday and Thursday, and face off against the red-hot Canadiens on Saturday.