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Staring down a six-game stretch heading into the Olympic break, the Maple Leafs gathered as a group and discussed the importance of yielding as many points as possible out of a pair of match-ups with the Panthers and Lightning as well as games against the Senators and Canucks. cheap jerseys . Already with four wins out of five, a victory on Saturday night against Vancouver would make it mission accomplished. "We want to end this part of the year off on a winning note," said Dion Phaneuf after the team took part in an off-ice workout on Friday. "We talked about it two weeks ago, how we wanted to get as many points as possible to set ourselves up going into the break in a good position." Despite the Leafs rolling to a 10-2-1 record in their last 13 games, a playoff position is still far from secured though. On Jan. 12, the day they beat the Devils 3-2 in a shootout to begin this impressive stretch, the Leafs sat two points out of a Wild Card spot. As of Feb. 7, they sit with a five-point Wild Card cushion and have gained ten points on the Montreal Canadiens to draw even at 68 points. Though still with 23 games remaining, Toronto is nowhere close to a position where they can ease up on their effort. "I dont think any team wants to give away any points," said Carl Gunnarsson. "Were in kind of a tight spot too. We really need the points." So too do the Canucks who have struggled mightily of late, losing six straight games and posting a dismal 4-12-2 record since the turn of the calendar to see their six-point Wild Card cushion evaporate to just one. That doesnt, however, mean the Leafs are taking anything for granted. "When youre playing a team that hasnt had as much success as theyd like, theyre going to want to end their pre-Olympic break on the right note," Phaneuf said. "Were expecting a push out of them." How hard the Canucks can push though is the question, since they are missing Henrik Sedin, Kevin Bieksa, Dan Hamhuis, Chris Tanev, Andrew Alberts, Mike Santorelli and Yannick Weber to various injuries and ailments. "Quite honestly, Ive never been through so many injuries at one time in all the years that Ive coached," said head coach John Tortorella after putting his team through practice at the MasterCard Center on Friday. "I dont want to paint this as Woe is me and were getting all the bad breaks, we have to find a way to get out of it. I think we have in the past three games regained our structure and hopefully itll get things going our way tomorrow." Outscored 23-10 during their six-game skid, an inspired performance from both Daniel Sedin and Roberto Luongo would be most welcomed by the Canucks. Sedin has not scored in 2014 and has just five assists in the 18 games he has played since the turn of the calendar. Luongo meanwhile has lost his last four starts, posting an ugly 3.50 GAA and .881 save percentage. With their playoff cushion all but evaporated, the Canucks no longer have time to slowly work their way out of this slump. They need points, and fast. "I think a win is the top priority," Luongo insisted. "I dont want to sit here and make excuses, injuries are part of every team in the NHL, and everybody goes through it. You still have to find a way to accumulate points. That being said, were missing a lot of guys but sometimes its little things and then all of a sudden it snowballs into bigger things and next thing you know, you dont realize it but youre in a six-game losing streak." cheap jerseys from china . For Kyle Lowry, its become an accepted reality. He will be traded. The question is, when and where? The Raptors point guard is widely believed to be next on general manager Masai Ujiris chopping block after the first domino - Rudy Gay, Lowrys best friend - fell last week. wholesale nfl jerseys . The Maple Leafs are three points behind Columbus for the last playoff spot in the East with only three games left on their schedule. You can listen to the game live on TSN 1050 starting at 7:30pm et/4:30 pm pt.TORONTO - What a difference three days made for the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the Winter Classic they played in front of 105,491 fans, many of whom drove several hours to Michigan Stadium to watch the spectacle amid frigid temperatures. Saturday night against the New York Rangers they were booed off the ice multiple times in an embarrassing 7-1 loss at Air Canada Centre that snapped the Leafs winning streak at three. "Getting booed off the ice in the first period, second period and the end of the game — and we deserved it," winger Joffrey Lupul said. "We were not good in any aspect. We dont feel very good about ourselves right now." There wasnt much to feel good about as the Leafs (21-17-5) experienced the worst kind of let-down from the high of the Winter Classic. Goaltender Jonathan Bernier, who had been stellar lately, was pulled for the first time all season, David Clarkson and Carl Gunnarsson left with injuries and everything fell apart at the seams. "Sometimes you have losses where you take some positives out of: some guys played well, you did certain things well, you didnt do other things well," said Lupul, who had Torontos only goal. "Tonight we did nothing well. Theres not much we can take out of this other than just not wanting to have this feeling in here again." The feeling of the loss led to the home locker-room being closed to the media much longer than usual. Coach Randy Carlyle called his teams lack of a push-back the "most disappointing thing" as goals piled up from Carl Hagelin, Dominic Moore (two), Benoit Pouliot, Chris Kreider, Brad Richards and Brian Byle. He shared the same sentiment with players. "My message was it was unacceptable to play and to feel that we were not embarrassed by what our performance was," Carlyle said. "And I stressed we." There was plenty of soul-searching after the Leafs most lopsided loss of the season, and as Lupul pointed out, plenty of blame to go around. Bernier, who had stopped 181-of-190 shots since relieving James Reimer on Dec. 21 against the Detroit Red Wings, gave up five goals on 32 shots to the Rangers before getting yanked for the first time this season. Moores first goal from a bad angle, which made it 2-0, was the softest he has allowed in a long time. Still, this one couldnt be pinned on Bernier, or even Reimer, who didnt fare much better in allowing two goals on 18 shots. "They had the freedom to roam about the ice and do what they wanted to do, and we didnt engage in the competitive side of it of limiting their space, stepping in front of anybody, skating in front of anybody to impede the progress," Carlyle said. "Obviously we left our goalies hanging high and dry." With the Leafs rarely in control of the puck and players being a step slow at times, the Rangers (21-20-2) pounced. They scored at least six goals for the first time this season and could have had as many as nine if Rick Nash finished on an empty net early and a late goal by Pouliot wasnt called back for Boyle interfering with Reimer. It was a real bounce-back effort for New York after losing 5-2 at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. "I know the guys were ready last night and turned the page on it, analyzed it, we got ready, the guys came out, moved the puck well, got some good opportunitiies and we were able to finish a couple," coach Alain Vigneault said. cheap nfl jerseys. It stuck out that the Leafs couldnt keep pace with the Rangers, who travelled and were playing the second half of back-to-back games. "Its always disappointing when you give up seven goals, and especially they played last night," Bernier said. "They were just quicker and faster than us." All night the Leafs had no answers for what the Rangers were doing in the offensive zone. Defenceman Cody Franson, who was burned a couple of times on plays that led to goals, knew he and his teammates were on their heels from the get-go. "We got outworked, to put it mildly," Franson said. The Leafs certainly didnt do enough work to put pressure on Rangers backup goaltender Cam Talbot, who stopped 25 of the 26 shots thrown on net. It was another steady outing from the rookie, who improved to 9-3-0 with a 1.66 goals-against average and .938 save percentage. "Ive always just kind of started as a backup and then started playing more games, so Ive been in these situations before and you learn from every situation youre in," Talbot said. Theres not much the Leafs can learn from this one. They lost Clarkson to a left foot injury after he got hit with a shot from Rangers defenceman Michael Del Zotto and Gunnarsson to an upper-body injury following a hit from Hagelin. "No offence to those guys, but I dont know if they wouldve been helping tonight," Lupul said. "You never like to see guys go down, and those are two veteran guys and were hoping theyre all right. ... Thats certainly not an excuse for how we played tonight." Getting beaten so handily right after the Winter Classic was a ready-made excuse, even though Lupul and Carlyle noted that the Leafs were relieved to be done with the hype that came with the game and HBOs "24/7." Carlyle ended his post-game news conference blowing off any excuses. "I just look at tonight, you could go forwards, defence, you could go to our whole group, and we didnt have the competitive edge thats required to have success," he said. "Everything that I say is going to be an excuse, so Im not here to make an excuse for anybody." With answers lacking and excuses thrown out, Lupul passed along to reporters what was said in the locker-room afterward. It wasnt pretty. "Were not proud of that game, its embarrassing," he said. "I apologize to people who paid money to see us play like that. Its one game and were going to feel pretty bad about this tonight and then hopefully tomorrow come back and practise and get some life and try to turn the page on it." After so much notable progress in recent games, the Leafs were outshot 50-26. The loss stunted any momentum they had been building. "We felt that we were becoming more competitive," Carlyle said. "And this one kind of sent an A-bomb." NOTES — Newly acquired defenceman Tim Gleason was a healthy scratch as Carlyle stuck with the same lineup from the Winter Classic. Gleason took warm-ups, but Carlyle announced Saturday morning that the former Carolina Hurricanes blue-liner would not play unless there was a late injury or illness. ... Talbot got the start after Henrik Lundqvist played Friday night in Pittsburgh and allowed five goals in a loss to the Penguins. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys from china ' ' '