Treliving opened his first quarter of the season availability, taking full responsibility for the team's start.
As Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving spoke on Tuesday morning, his team sat tied for last in the Eastern Conference, 26th on the power play (16 percent), and 18th on the penalty kill (79 percent).
All while in the midst of an exhausting five-game losing skid.
It hasn't been the most gracious of starts to the season for the Maple Leafs. Among the areas Toronto can improve in is its defensive zone play. Really, though, everything can be cleaned up. Despite scoring the fifth-most goals (67) in the NHL this season, they've also given up the third-most (72) in the league.
The Maple Leafs, too, have dealt with numerous injuries to key players, like Scott Laughton, Chris Tanev, and, more recently, Auston Matthews, Anthony Stolarz, and Nicolas Roy.
"Yeah, we're going through injuries," Treliving said. "But, you know what, everybody goes through injuries. So you look around the league, there's good teams that have injuries. So to me, that's a losing mentality."
In a difficult stretch like this one, there are a few routes the Maple Leafs could go down.
They can leave the team as is, hoping they will battle their way out of treacherous waters. They could even opt to move a player to shock the system, which reports suggest Treliving is attempting to do right now.
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Friedman adds that Toronto isn't interested in trading futures for a roster player.
A last resort option could be to dismiss Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube and move in a different direction. That scenario has worked in the past, with Berube witnessing it first-hand as the interim head coach of the St. Louis Blues when they won the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Toronto isn't nearing that situation quite yet, though.
"Yeah, I've got all the faith in our coach right now," Treliving noted on Monday morning.
"Listen, when you go through things like this, understandably, everything gets talked about and looked about. My job right now is to support our coach, support his message and support our group, and push the group."
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Quillan was on the ice with the Marlies on Monday morning before coming off the ice to join the Maple Leafs, who were set to practice after.
The Toronto GM doesn't see the coach as the problem with this current edition of the Maple Leafs. It begs the question, though: For how long can players receive messaging and continue to lose games before a change is made?
"I believe fully in Craig and his messaging. When I talk to the players, too, they believe in it," added Treliving, "but there is that disconnect that we're not doing it. It comes back to the inconsistency. So, it's always the big question in sport, right? Why don't you just go do it?
"That's what we have to work through. I'd love to be able to say it's this, you have to keep hammering home the message, you have to keep working with these guys on a daily basis for them to grasp it. And that's the challenge in front of us."
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'I Take Full Responsibility': GM Brad Treliving Speaks About Maple Leafs' Difficult Start To Season