Warning: the volume is all over the place on these videos, be prepared to turn it down fast sometimes.
Morgan Rielly
First up, can we applaud Morgan Rielly for doing this long series of interviews when it obviously hurts to talk.
Rielly begins as the team goes on: Jake Gardiner is not a scapegoat, the whole team lost game seven.
Zach Hyman
Hyman is philosophical about how well they played this season. He does a good and fair job of running down where they’ve improved. He’s not very happy about things being said about Jake Gardiner to say the least. There’s a reason why this is one of the longest videos, he’s very well spoken and fair in his comments.
Patrick Marleau
This one has that weird thing where the media ask players how bad the media in Toronto is. Marleau thinks success is there to be taken for the team. He talks about growth in the young players in positive terms.
As for the future, the team should be driving for home ice advantage in the playoffs.
Ron Hainsey
Hainsey says they are disappointed because they think the team is good enough to still be in it. He’s very positive about the future as well. He ends with, “It’s always fun, playing, you know.” Which sort of tells you what isn’t fun about the NHL.
Nazem Kadri
Kadri likes the idea that the Leafs can build on this experience for the future. He’s got a lot of good observations about Mitch Marner.
Connor Brown
Brown talks more about his own personal growth than most of the other players do. But he sounds determined to improve the offensive side of his game.
He says, in a way that implies he thinks this should be obvious, that the players want to win as much as the fans.
He also gives a very nice summation of Tyler Bozak’s and James van Riemsdyk’s time on the team.
Tyler Bozak
Bozak says what you should expect, that he doesn’t know what his future will hold. He says he doesn’t talk contracts during the season, so he hasn’t thought about what he’ll do yet.
He also isn’t all that happy about things being said about Jake Gardiner.
James van Riemsdyk
You will hear more from van Riemsdyk about how the Leafs never would have got to Game Seven without Jake Gardiner. This is absolutely the theme of the day, and the players on this team who rarely respond to public criticism were all visibly upset by this and wanted to talk about it.
Jake Gardiner
Gardiner says he hasn’t read any media reports. He talks about speaking to the media in difficult moments, and about how close he is to Bozak and van Riemsdyk. He says at the end that he didn’t like how his year ended, but he thinks it was a good one overall.
Zaitsev confirms he’s going to Worlds.
Frederik Andersen is positive about the team’s future. And he is also planning on going to Worlds.
The rookies look happier because for them this year was a huge step. Andreas Johnsson says he hasn’t even met the whole team yet. And Travis Dermott is pumped to go win the Calder Cup with the Marlies.
Leo Komarov confirms he’s not going to Worlds, but he’s not talking about his future either.