{"id":274849,"date":"2025-11-10T06:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T06:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/274849\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T06:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T06:24:11","slug":"berube-blasts-leafs-defensive-commitment-after-latest-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/274849\/","title":{"rendered":"Berube blasts Leafs’ defensive commitment after latest loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Craig Berube<\/a> has a front-row seat to what is quickly becoming a horror show.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs head coach thought his team was coming out of a defensive fog that plagued the group in the early part of the NHL schedule as it pivoted to the weekend.<\/p>\n

After consecutive home losses accented by more breakdowns and egregious turnovers, Berube and his staff are going back to the drawing board \u2014 again.<\/p>\n

Toronto blew a 4-2 lead in Sunday\u2019s second period as part of a 5-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, some 24 hours after a 5-3 defeat to the Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a mindset,\u201d Berube said after his team surrendered 46 shots and fell to 8-7-1. \u201cIf you want to be a good defensive team, you gotta check, you gotta have good sticks, you gotta be hard, you gotta win battles, and you\u2019ve gotta have good structure. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any of that right now.\u201d <\/p>\n

The veteran bench boss saw encouraging signs in the Leafs\u2019 approach without the puck ahead of the Boston contest thanks to three straight wins, but there remain clear deficiencies that must be rectified. <\/p>\n

Toronto has allowed an average of 3.75 goals against per game \u2014 good for an ugly 31st in the 32-team league \u2014 after giving up a solid 2.79 per outing in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just keep working at it,\u201d said Berube, who hoisted the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues<\/a> in 2019. \u201cYou look at video, we gotta have discussions with players, with the team \u2026 we\u2019re scoring enough goals every game to win games, but we\u2019re letting in too many goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much the season is, we don\u2019t value the defensive side of the puck enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depth defenceman Philippe Myers<\/a>, who\u2019s in the lineup with shutdown option Chris Tanev<\/a> out with an upper-body injury, had a second straight rough night, with his worst moment coming on a giveaway that paved the way for Carolina\u2019s fourth goal. The usually steady Jake McCabe<\/a> then made a similar blue-line gaffe in the lead-up to Sunday\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n

That came after the Leafs hung third-string goaltender Dennis Hildeby<\/a> out to dry in the second with chance after chance, including a string of breakaways.<\/p>\n

\u201cStuff that we just can\u2019t seem to get right or we can\u2019t seem to have a consistency over a full 60 minutes,\u201d said Toronto captain Auston Matthews<\/a>, who finished with a goal and an assist. \u201cThere\u2019s gonna be times where there\u2019s momentum shifts and stuff like that, but to break that momentum as quickly as possible and get back on the right side of things, we\u2019re not doing that quick enough.\u201d <\/p>\n

Leafs centre John Tavares<\/a> said the club is making errors that simply can\u2019t happen in the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times we did some really good things, earned opportunities and were able to give ourselves the lead,\u201d said Tavares, who had a goal and an assist. \u201cAnd then our game, just for whatever reason, becomes really immature and we don\u2019t manage the game very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of very good hockey players,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have a very veteran team, so it\u2019s just the decision to do it shift after shift.\u201d <\/p>\n

Toronto winger William Nylander<\/a> had two goals to round out the offence, but was guilty of giving the puck away for one of the second-period breakaways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to focus on that aspect and really bear down,\u201d he said of finding consistency. \u201cJust comes down to simplifying and not trying to make another play.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tavares said the Leafs aren\u2019t panicking, but after their league-high 12th home game, the road is only going to get more difficult if the standard of work, commitment and attention to detail isn\u2019t met.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gain some traction and then we shoot ourselves in the foot again and just put ourselves in a tough spot,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a ton of hockey left to be played. We\u2019ve just gotta pick ourselves back up and get ready for the next opportunity, and build from there.\u201d <\/p>\n

A disappointed Berube said Toronto, which is finally getting production from its power play, has to show a lot more when the opposition is on the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really trending in the right direction without the puck,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re scoring goals, but now we just went right off the rails the last two games defensively \u2026 it\u2019s caused by puck play, costly turnovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the urgency that\u2019s needed to defend.\u201d <\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Craig Berube has a front-row seat to what is quickly becoming a horror show. The Maple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-274849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}