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Report: Anonymous Leafs player says ‘It’s pretty screwed up in here’

Phil Kessel, Peter Horachek

Phil Kessel, Peter Horachek

AP

Mercifully, the Toronto Maple Leafs season is almost over.

The latest in this 82-game soap opera was dropped Friday, when Leafs coach Peter Horachek and winger Phil Kessel had conflicting opinions on the work ethic being put forward as this team continues to limp toward the end of a tumultuous 2014-15 campaign.

Now this, from an anonymous player in a report from The National Post:

“It’s pretty screwed up in here,” said the player, who requested that his name not be used.

When asked what he meant by his comment, the player laughed and then referenced Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. It was a game in which goaltender Jonathan Bernier compared the Leafs to a “junior team” and head coach Peter Horachek criticized the top players for going through the motions.

But the “screwed up” part was not that Kessel, Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk and Joffrey Lupul had seemingly taken the night off. It was that the fringe players who actually did show up — Sam Carrick, Richard Panik, Brandon Kozun and Zach Sill — were not rewarded with more ice time for their efforts.

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