Don Cherry buries Maple Leafs' defenseman Nikita Zaitsev.

It seems like one member of the Toronto Maple Leafs has rubbed the grumpiest man in the National Hockey League the wrong way. 

The Maple Leafs have been struggling on their blue line as of late and in fact their defensive corps has been the target of much criticism from their fan base, especially since the acquisition of veteran defenseman Jake Muzzin from the Los Angeles Kings. The reality is that the Maple Leafs defense has simply not looked like the kind of blue line group that you expect to see out of a legitimate Stanley Cup contender but there is some debate about who on that blue line should be shouldering most of the blame. 

Muzzin is of course the easy target. Not only is the former Los Angeles King the new guy in town after having been traded by the Kings to the Maple Leafs, but he has also clearly struggled to adapt to the speedier system of the Maple Leafs coming from what was arguably the slowest team in the entire league. Although blaming Muzzin is both easy and convenient it seems that not everyone is on board the Muzzin blame train and in fact one very loud voice is pointing the finger squarely in another direction. 

On Saturday night National Hockey League legend Don Cherry shared his thoughts on the recent struggles of the Maple Leafs defense, even going so far as to highlight a goal that was scored by the Sabres on the very same night. The goal itself did not really matter and was instead merely a prop, or an example, for Cherry to use in his efforts to bash Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev.

"Now watch the Sheary goal here. I'm telling you everyone is on Muzzin here... but watch Zaitsev," said Cherry. "He doesn't know how to play, you know what Zaitsev is? He was minus last year, he was minus the year before, he was minus in the playoffs, you know what he is? He's a forward playing defenseman."

"And somehow or another Muzzin is the guy they are blaming. Remember Muzzin was the best player in L.A... he comes here and he's having a tough time. He's having a tough time cause he's playing with that guy. Zaitsev is not a defenseman."