It's locker clean out day for the Toronto Maple Leafs, or more accurately "end-of-season media availability day" as most pro-sports teams now call it since the players don't really keep any significant items in personal lockers anymore.
Today is really about an appearance in front of the cameras and reporters by each player on the roster. Most will offer their well-rehearsed canned responses, some will disclose injuries they were playing through this whole time (hello, Matt Murray), and a few will have some raw emotional comments that will make up the bulk of the reporting for the sports segment of local TV news shows.
There may be some disclosures about imminent plans, like William Nylander going to play for Team Sweden in the World Championships, which we know he really enjoys, plus his brother is on the team already. Perhaps we might also hear from Joe Woll that he will go to the rescue of the Marlies who are facing elimination in Rochester on Wednesday.
But the real meat will be when each of Sheldon Keefe, Kyle Dubas, and Brendan Shanahan stand in front of the cameras and have to explain why, yet again, this team couldn't come even close to getting it done, and that comes with a spicy side dish of Dubas' contract being up and the whispers of expressions of interest for his services from other teams already floating around. He will of course be asked about it, and his answer will of course be some variation of "no comment."
Or we get the dramatic shocker of an announcement that he has signed a new contract with the Leafs right at this event. That would be really spicy.
But it will probably be a bland and unrevealing day, with most saying exactly what you expect them to say. The whole thing starts at 9:00 a.m. and will probably go through noon, so expect quotes and video clips to come out all morning. If we're lucky there will be a live feed that will allow us to listen to the banter of the assembled press in between the player interviews. I can't wait for the moment where we hear them whispering "people on Twitter are saying they can hear us talking," followed quickly by "no, they turn the audio off between interviews."
Other News
The Oilers are done out west, losing 5-2 to the Golden Knights. For the record, there's now only three seasons left on Connor McDavid's contract, and only two for Leon Draisaitl.
This leaves the only unsettled round being the Stars vs. Kraken which will be decided in a game #7 tonight. The schedule for the conference finals should be out shortly after that.
If you want to brighten your Monday morning, here's how the Oilers lost, and all three of these goals are ridiculous.
