Leafs fail to stand up for Nylander after dirty hit, despite adding snot and sandpaper this summer

Unfortunately, all of the edginess and sandpaper went away last night against Florida when, with just under seven minutes gone in the second period, William Nylander turned towards the corner with the puck in Florida's zone trying to escape the checking of Dmitri Kulikov. As he spun off of Kulikov, the Russian delivered a cross-check to Nylander's back, sending him crashing awkwardly into the boards before he laid on the ice for a few moments, stunned, trying to collect himself.

There was no penalty on the play, but there was also zero response from the Leafs regarding the dangerous play. No one stepped up to challenge Kulikov for the hit. Nobody shoved him, face-washed him, grabbed him by the collar... nothing. For all of the talk about the Leafs adding toughness and grit in the off-season, it was the same old response from the Leafs when one of their stars has liberties taken on them - shades of the lack of response from when Sam Bennett basically choke-slammed Matthew Knies during the playoffs.

Thankfully Nylander was okay and was able to finish the game, but we saw a similar instance last season when Jamie Benn delivered multiple cross-checks to Matthews early in the season as well. Time and time again, teams have been able to take liberties with the Leafs' stars without fearing and consequences. The hope was that with the likes of Reaves, Bertuzzi and Domi added to the mix, those liberties would at least come with some retribution this season.

Someone should have held Kulikov accountable, just like someone should have held Sam Bennett accountable in the playoffs. This team has a long way to go if they want to show the fans that they've learned anything at all.