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TORONTO - No single loss, no matter how embarrassing, tipped the scales. Some of the worst hockey actually came in victories, and the ugly trend was impossible to ignore.Midway through a season of inconsistent play, the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Randy Carlyle, the old-school coach whose attempts to change his own style, and his teams, came to an abrupt end. Losers of seven of nine, the Leafs still found themselves in a playoff spot, something that underscores just how uneven theyve been through 40 games.Its been too much of a roller coaster, general manager Dave Nonis said Tuesday. Its not about one game or one stretch. We felt that we had to make that change today because of the direction this team is trending, that we need to move forward and try to get our team back to where it was when we were winning those games and do it on a consistent basis.Ultimately, inconsistency doomed Carlyle, a Stanley Cup-winning coach for the Anaheim Ducks in 2007 who led the Leafs to the playoffs in the lockout-shortened 2013 season, their only trip to the post-season in the past 10 years.This year, Toronto endured back-to-back blowout losses to the Buffalo Sabres and Nashville Predators and flipped the switch to go 9-1-1 in its next 11 games.Even in some of the wins, Carlyle knew the way his team was performing wouldnt hold up. The Leafs are 21-16-3 with 45 points but havent looked like anything more than borderline playoff contenders.Because of that, Nonis said management, which includes president Brendan Shanahan and assistant GM Kyle Dubas, had been discussing the possibility of firing Carlyle for a while. A 2-5-0 road trip was the final straw.I think wed all agree weve had some good periods, good stretches, but I dont think I can stand here front of you and say that weve been consistent, Nonis said. We just felt at this point this was the right time to make the change and move ahead and try to get this team back playing like we have played for periods this season.That responsibility now falls to Peter Horachek and Steve Spott, Torontos first-year assistant coaches who will be behind the bench for Wednesday nights game against the Washington Capitals. Horachek ran the first practice of the post-Carlyle era, but the team has not given him or Spott an official title.Theres also no clarity on how long Horachek and Spott will be in charge or if the Leafs intend to hire a full-time coach at some point this season. Several experienced ones are available, including Pete DeBoer, who was recently fired by the New Jersey Devils and has connections to Spott and winger David Clarkson.Nonis said his focus was telling Carlyle of the decision Monday night, not on his long-term replacement.Theres a right way and a wrong way of doing it, Nonis said. We havent gotten that far yet. Well spend the next couple of days looking at our options.The Leafs returned home from their road trip over the weekend and practised outdoors Monday. Players came to the rink Tuesday morning and found out Carlyle was gone.Understandably, players were surprised by at least the timing of the move. Winger Phil Kessel said he did not see this coming.Ive been here a while now and we go through these ups and downs, Kessel said. We havent been playing well; its not his fault. Hes a great coach, hes won a Cup and we didnt get it done for him.Captain Dion Phaneuf said players are always surprised at a big shake-up like this. But he also gets why it happened.In our business when you have the swings that weve had — we havent been able to find consistency as a team — and when you have a stretch of games that we just went through, when you have lost seven of nine, theres lots of questions being asked, Phaneuf said. As a team not being able to play well enough ... Randy has lost his job because of that.It seemed that little had changed over the past 18 months. Cracks formed in the Leafs even during their run to the playoffs in 2013, and they contributed to a disastrous run last spring.When the Leafs lost eight in a row in regulation and then 12 of the final 14 games to fall out of playoff contention, Carlyles job was in jeopardy. But Shanahan and Nonis opted to fire assistants Scott Gordon, Dave Farrish and Greg Cronin and even give Carlyle a contract extension.Even with the benefit of hindsight, Nonis said keeping Carlyle was the correct decision.Randy deserved to come back, Nonis said. He had done enough to come back. Weve seen him do good things. We saw him do some good things this season. Its not that hes not capable.The question now becomes what this group is capable of. The Leafs are in the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and its late enough in the season to say theyre squarely in the playoff race even with their inconsistencies and flaws.We all have respect for Randy, but at the same time its time for us to turn things around, goaltender Jonathan Bernier said. Its all about us right now.Bernier has proven capable covering up a lot of those flaws. And the ones he cant are masked by the offensive firepower led by Kessel, Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk, Joffrey Lupul, Nazem Kadri and Cody Franson.Because of that talent, Nonis believes the Leafs are still in a decent position.This isnt throwing in the towel, Nonis said. We feel that this team has a chance to do some good things, and today was the first step in trying to push our team back in that direction.Carlyle, a native of Sudbury, Ont., went 91-78-19 in 188 games as Leafs coach over parts of four seasons. Hes the fourth coach to be fired this season, following Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators, Dallas Eakins of the Edmonton Oilers and DeBoer.Even in announcing Carlyles firing, Nonis called him an excellent coach whos capable of winning.Good coaches get let go, Nonis said. Hes a good man, a good coach and hell be back in this game quickly.Notes — The Leafs on Tuesday put forward Carter Ashton on waivers. Ashton was suspended earlier in the season for violating the league and NHLPAs performance-enhancing drug policy that he said came about after he used someone elses inhaler. Ashton has zero points in seven games this season ... Toronto Marlies forward Connor Brown was named to the AHL all-star roster. Brown has nine goals and nine assists in 35 games in his first professional season.---Follow @SWhyno on Twitter Clearance NCAA Jerseys . Martin Reway and David Griger both recorded four points with a goal and three assists each. Mario Lunter, Daniel Gachulinec and Stanislav Horansky also scored for Slovakia (1-0). Dominik Kahun had both goals for Germany (0-2), who lost its opening match to Canada 7-2 on Thursday. NCAA Jerseys China . Which is to say, the top of this years draft class is not as dynamic or exciting as the 2013 class of Nate MacKinnon, Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Drouin and Seth Jones and its not as strikingly promising as the highly-anticipated 2015 slate of Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/ . -- Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew practiced in a limited capacity Friday, a positive sign he might be able to play against the Tennessee Titans. Cheap Football NCAA Jerseys . - Young and old. Replica NCAA Jerseys . Now he can be had by any team willing to pay his salary. According to a report from ESPN, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are shopping the veteran CB and plan on releasing him Wednesday if they cant find a trade partner.A couple of teams coming off disappointing efforts in their respective season openers get together tonight as the Montreal Alouettes entertain the B.C. Lions. Catch the game as the first half of a doubleheader on TSN and TSN GO at 7pm et/4pm pt, with radio coverage available on TSN 690 in Montreal and TEAM 1040 in Vancouver, followed by the Edmonton Eskimos hosting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at 10pm et/7pm pt. The Als figured to have some struggles early on with the change in quarterback, but no one could have foreseen their awful effort against Calgary in the opener. Troy Smith did little with his opportunity to make Montreal fans forget all about Anthony Calvillo. In fact, it would not be surprising if Calvillo was besieged by requests to reconsider his retirement after the lackluster performance by the new starting quarterback for the Als in their 29-8 setback at Calgary last weekend. Smith was largely ineffective as he completed just 18-of-41 passes for 154 yards, was sacked four times and tossed an interception. Many of his throws sailed over the heads of receivers, and at no time did Smith make an effort to show off his running ability, perhaps the latter was in an effort to keep him from getting injured in the very first game of the season. Running back Brandon Whitaker was credited with 59 yards on 12 carries, while Steven Lumbala scored a one-yard touchdown on his only carry of the contest, one that came at the end of the meeting following a defensive penalty. The debut of former NFL superstar receiver Chad Johnson was uneventful as he caught just two passes for 20 yards, but he wasnt the only Montreal player guilty of having little influence on the outcome. As a group, the Alouettes generated a mere 175 yards of offense and while they were far from an offensive juggernaut a season ago, they did manage to put up 322.5 ypg. Charged with 12 penalties, for a loss of 120 yards, didnt help matters for the Als, but that was just one aspect of the game that needs to be cleaned up moving forward. Defensively, Montreal surrendered 425 yards and did little to capitalize on the fact that Calgary was hit with a dozen penalties for 129 yards. While the Alouettes were completely blown out of the water, British Columbias meeting against visiting Edmonton immediately afterward on Saturday evening started off well enough, before spiraling out of control, en route to a 27-20 defeat. Kevin Glenn tossed a couple of first-quarter touchdowns for the Lions in that clash, but after that he was barely heard from as the club registered just two field goals by Paul McCallum the rest of the way. BC ran only 65 plays partly because Glenn was picked off four times and suffered four sacks as he completed 18-of-28 passes. The pressure on the signal-caller was never ending, as his four picks were more than half of his entire 2013 total of just seven. Andrew Harris, who ran for 37 yards on 11 attempts, also caught six balls for 102 yards in an effort to keep the Lions in the mix against Edmonton. Then again, Harris did fumble on the final offensive play of the game. On a more positive note, the Lions did manage to limit the Eskimos to less than 300 yards of offense, but even that went by the wayside in the loss. The squads split their two regular-season matchups from last year as the home team came up big. First, the Als slipped by BC during Week 9 action by a score of 39-38, as Sean Whyte knocked through the game-winning field goal in the waning moments in order to offset five field goals by his counterpart, McCallum. Three weeks later, British Columbia returned the favor with a resounding 36-14 decision, as Travis Lulay threw one TD and ran for another in order to offset a trio of interceptions. As far as the series record is concerned, BC is ahead by a count of 35-32-1 when taking into consideration only regular-season meetings dating back to 1961. The Lions have won two of the last three encounters, including a 36-14 decision at home back in September of 2013. These teams will meet once more during thhe regular season a little over two weeks from now in Vancouver.dddddddddddd Watch the Eskimos take on the Tiger-Cats in the second half of a doubleheader on TSN at 10pm et/7pm et. Edmonton, AB - After winning a total of just four times all of last season, the Edmonton Eskimos shoot for half that number in just the second week of the 2014 campaign as they host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Commonwealth Stadium on Friday night. Edmonton, which won just once through the first 10 games of 2013, got off on the right foot this time around thanks to a convincing 27-20 victory versus British Columbia at BC Place last weekend. Mike Reilly threw for 229 yards and three touchdowns for the Eskimos and new head coach Chris Jones. The quarterback converted 22-of-35 pass attempts and was intercepted once. Receiver Adarius Bowman finished with nine catches for 105 yards, one of his best performances in years. Calvin McCarty and Fred Stamps also registered majors in the outing. Edmonton scored points in every quarter, yet the squad generated a mere 295 yards of total offense on 84 snaps, partly due to the fact that the Eskimos had to deal with 13 penalties for a loss of 93 yards on the evening. Defensively, Edmonton held the Lions to just 283 yards on 65 plays, all without the services of J.C. Sherritt who remained on the injured list. The linebacker, who missed several games last season, set the CFL single-season record for tackles two years ago with 130. Sherritt should be back on the active roster this week, but that does not guarantee that he will see game action. While the Esks were setting in motion the start of what will hopefully be a successful season, Hamilton was being beaten up by Saskatchewan in a rematch of last years Grey Cup. In November of last year, the Roughriders dominated the Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium by a score of 45-23, and Sunday night saw a similar performance from both sides as Hamilton took it on the chin once more in a 31-10 rain-soaked final. In 2013, the Cats had the luxury of riding the arm of Henry Burris, the leagues top passer with close to 5,000 yards, but he has since been moved a couple of times and now plays for the newest team to the league, the Ottawa RedBlacks. Now they are relying on free agent Zach Collaros to provide some stability at the position, something that was not found in the opener. Granted, the poor weather conditions may have had something to do with the lackluster play of Collaros, as he completed 19-of-33 passes for 159 yards and a score, but considering the protection he was given along the offensive line, you really cant put all the blame on him. Although, being sacked a mystifying 10 times does indicate that perhaps Collaros was holding onto the ball a bit too long. Unfortunately, it appears the sack issue may be a continuing trend from last season when Hamilton was last in the league with 65 allowed, second-most on that list was Edmonton with 60. Producing only 201 yards of total offense in the opener, there were times when the Tiger-Cats could not get out of their own way. The squad fumbled the ball four times, losing possession twice, and was flagged for an incredible 17 penalties for a loss of 148 yards. Sam Giguere stepped up and posted a game-high six receptions (a career high) for 46 yards, while Luke Tasker reeled in a four-yard scoring pass for the program midway through the final period. One bright spot for the Hamilton defense was rookie tackle Bryan Hall who made three tackles, registered one sack and forced a fumble during the setback. Dating back to 1961 and taking into consideration only regular-season meetings between these two clubs, Edmonton is ahead by a count of 54-30-1, winning two of the last three and four of the last six matchups overall. However, Hamilton is the one that came out on top in the most recent encounter last August, when kicker Grant Shaw delivered a 45-yard single as time expired in a 30-29 road triumph. The teams are also set to meet in Hamilton during Week 13 play this season. ' ' '