Has head coach Craig Berube given up on his listless charges? After the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ latest debacle of a performance, a 4-0 shutout at the hands of the Washington Capitals, Berube called out his players for their complete lack of passion.
No passion. No urgency. “Very disappointing.” Why does he think they played like that, he was asked. “Ask those guys, not me.”
“That’s a ‘Wow’,” said insider Elliotte Friedman of the coach’s comments after the game. “‘Go ask them’ — That’s a line in the sand… Toronto is headed for a lot of uncomfortable conversations if they don’t sort this out.
“I was astonished at that one tonight. The shocker for me is how passionless it was. How easily accepting it seemed to be.”
Have a listen to the coach’s full two-minute postgame meeting with the media:
(The Capitals) played with more passion than we did tonight. That’s what it boils down to. It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game… (How do you explain that?) Ask those guys, not me. Very disappointing.
Leafs’ power play (0-for-5) was a disaster once again
The power play was once again one of the main culprits for the Leafs in this moribund affair. Zero for five with the man advantage, with just a lot of standing around, barely any shots generated. And Berube once again called out the players, singling out the top pp unit of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly: “Tonight it was gawd-awful, in my opinion… Our top unit didn’t execute, didn’t win any battles when they needed to, just couldn’t make plays.”
Toronto is now 31st in the NHL with a power play success rate of 14%. Ahead of only the Calgary Flames.
After this latest ugly four-game stretch, the Leafs now find themselves one point out of the Eastern Conference cellar, and any thoughts of the playoffs continue to feel like a pipe dream.
Expect to see some major changes to the lineup for the next game, Saturday night in Nashville against the Predators.
