Craig Button backs a truck over Sheldon Keefe and the Leafs

For the third consecutive game, the Toronto Maple Leafs grabbed the lead but were unable to hold it, falling to the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place by a 4-2 final score after having initially enjoyed a 2-0 lead. 

And for TSN analyst Craig Button, things are hitting critical mass for the Leafs. In a postgame rant last night, he began by referencing a classic Hollywood film: 

"Do you remember A Few Good Men? You remember Colonel Jessup? Yeah. Colonel Button right here. And this is my message to the Toronto Maple Leafs faithful. You can't handle the truth. And it's simple as this," he said. 

"You want people like me to come up here and tell you how good your team is? It's not very good. Defensively, they're not very good."

Button then went into Toronto's recent inability to hold onto a lead, along with their terrible defensive coverage on Zach Hyman's 2nd period goal that would eventually be called back due to being offside.

"They don't know how to hang on to leads and they know how to fold," he said. "And they did it again. This is up to nothing. This goal ends up being disallowed. Morgan Rielly's chasing up the ice, TJ Brodie and then Martin Jones. It's just awful. And you cannot have that type of defensive play to nothing. Not understand wide open in front of the net."

"Look at the five Leafs, the two defensemen (Comparing a recent play against the Oilers). Oh, we're going to protect the corner, in case the puck goes into the corner. Bottomline is, this team has structural positional problems. It's up to the coach to instil a better defensive system and help the players understand. At two, nothing."

Button then concluded by saying outright that it's time for head coach Sheldon Keefe to be removed from his position if things don't improve in a hurry.

"And now, bottomline for me, Sheldon Keefe, either find solutions or they bring in somebody that can find the solution," he said. "Do you think it's gotten to that point? Yes, I do. No question about it. Yeah."

Recommended articles:

• Furious Leafs fans turning on Mitch Marner
• Paul Bissonnette suggests controversial solution to Leafs’ woes
• Ultimate blow to Ryan Reaves in Toronto
• Mitch Marner is pissed off in conflicting postgame interview
• Sheldon Keefe publicly calls out Tyler Bertuzzi