Mark Masters expects a loud crowd for Marner’s homecoming: Leafs Morning Take

Aside from the team’s inconsistent play, it was also an injury-prone season. Almost everyone – except for a select group – has missed time. Oliver Ekman-Larsson was one of the lone exceptions, playing in every game, but he left Wednesday night’s 2-1 OT loss to Detroit after just a few shifts. His future status is now very much in question. The Leafs are off today, so further clarity is expected on Friday.

Clearly the spirits weren’t great to kick off Thursday’s edition of Leafs Morning Take. Not only have the Leafs come back to reality since the Colorado game, but they are dropping like flies once again. On top of the OEL news, Chris Johnston posted on X Thursday morning suggesting that Brandon Carlo may have also made a tweak to the Detroit game. At this point, given who is missing, you start to wonder if the Leafs will be able to weather the storm.

Either way, the five-game homestand isn’t off to a good start. After two games, the Leafs are 0-1-1, although they were much better than against Minnesota on Wednesday night. That said, every point is so important right now. In retrospect, taking just two of a possible eight points against Detroit this season may not bode well for Toronto’s hopes of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Meanwhile, Joseph Woll put together a great rebounding performance after a few stinkers. He made 39 stops. John Gibson was also great for Detroit. The veteran made 30 saves and improved to 16-2-0 in his past 18 decisions. Scott Laughton potted his seventh of the season. He had a chance at number 8, but his penalty shot attempt failed. It wasn’t pretty. Laughton is the king of self-deprecation, which in this case is probably a good thing. He’ll be fine. Toronto fell to 7-3-3 without William Nylander. They are 9-2-4 since moving on from Marc Savard. The power play also continues to head south. Toronto’s 2-for-14 with the man advantage over the past six games.

Then Mark Masters from TSN came by. We broke up the Detroit OT loss before moving on to the Marner game. Masters was in Vegas last week and he will be there again Friday night. We talked Friday night about how he plans to attack things – media-wise – and what kind of reception he expects for Marner. While Leafs players believe Marner should be applauded for his performance, much of the fanbase may have different feelings toward the All-Star forward. Marner is still playing at centre, so it will be interesting to see if it’s him against Matthews in the opening draw of the match.

Finally, Rosey won’t be back on the show until Tuesday, so he gave his thoughts ahead of the most anticipated match of the season. He expects boos. And a lot of them. We’ll see what happens.

With that in mind, Zack Phillips will replace Rosey on Friday’s edition of Leafs Morning Take as we cover all angles of Mitch Marner’s return to Toronto. Dan Riccio, co-host of OFF THE ROSTER, will also stop by the show to help get things in order.