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Don Cherry won’t pick on ‘nightmare’ Leafs

Cherry

Don Cherry is known for speaking his mind, but he doesn’t want to bash the Maple Leafs right now. Sure he criticized them earlier this season when they didn’t salute their fans and he recently advised Phil Kessel to “forget about back-checking,” but at this point Toronto has gone 3-14-0. They’ve suffered enough.

“Even on Coach’s Corner, I never really kick guys when they’re down and, boy, they’re down now,” Cherry said, per the Canadian Press. “There’s no way I’m kicking them when they’re down because they’re actually in a nightmare right now.”

However, Cherry wasn’t shy about voicing his opinion on the latest round of jersey tossing in Toronto.

“You’ve got four or five guys, they come in with the sweaters to throw on the ice, they’re hoping they lose,” Cherry said. “They’re jerks. I cannot believe that people sit beside them and watch them throw. ... They’re creeps, that’s as far as I’m concerned, that would do that.”

His views seem to fall in line with Leafs forward Nazem Kadri, who said in October that they “don’t need fans like that” and expressed his frustrations again when three more jerseys ended up on the ice during Monday’s game.

Follow @RyanDadoun