TORONTO \u2014 For 50 minutes, it seemed like nothing could get the Toronto Maple Leafs to play with any kind of urgency. Not head coach Craig Berube yelling at them, not the fans at Scotiabank Arena booing them.<\/p>\n
Defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored with 9:59 left to play \u2014 shortly after another round of booing \u2014 and then Auston Matthews and Dakota Joshua had goals eight seconds apart as the Maple Leafs rallied to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday as Toronto essentially won the game in its final 10 minutes. <\/p>\n
Joshua and Matthews said they didn\u2019t blame the crowd for getting down on the Maple Leafs after they came out flat, especially in the first period.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was a fan, I wouldn\u2019t have been too happy with the performance either,\u201d said Joshua, who batted in a juicy rebound given up by Chicago goalie Spencer Knight for the game-winning goal. \u201cSo, you know, no surprise there, but at the end of the day, nice to pull that one out for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua said that the booing had gotten through to the Toronto players after a lackadaisical effort had them trailing 2-0 by the first intermission.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one wants to get booed in their own building, but at the same time, (the fans) have every right to feel that way with what we were putting out there,\u201d said Joshua. \u201cGlad we could fix it for tonight, and we got to keep it moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthews cupped his ear after he scored a power-play goal at 16:51 of the third period. His goal \u2014 and celebration \u2014 brought the arena to life after Ekman-Larsson\u2019s goal had silenced the boos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boo birds were coming down, rightfully so,\u201d said Matthews. \u201cI think after that first goal, the crowd really got into it, which is great. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then after the second one, the place was rocking and then after the third going even more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having 18,568 spectators slowly turn on them wasn\u2019t the only vocal criticism the Maple Leafs endured.<\/p>\n
Berube was seen tearing into his bench during a video review that led to a goal by Blackhawks centre Teuvo Teravainen being disallowed for goaltender interference. After the game, Berube needed help from reporters to narrow down which time he had yelled at his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould have been any number,\u201d said Berube dryly. \u201cExactly which one?\u201d<\/p>\n
After it was explained that it was during the replay, Berube nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving up a short-handed goal (to Jason Dickinson), and then, you know, giving up a faceoff goal (to Wyatt Kaiser), they shouldn\u2019t happen,\u201d said Berube. \u201cAnd then we get outmuscled around our net. It\u2019s just simple things. That\u2019s why I was pissed off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph Woll made 23 saves as Toronto (15-12-5) narrowly escaped having its losing skid stretch to three games. It was only the second time the Maple Leafs have won this season after trailing after two periods.<\/p>\n
Joshua said that the two-goal deficit had been dug by Toronto\u2019s poor effort and that it\u2019s a trend that has to stop as the Maple Leafs sit sixth in the Atlantic Division and five spots out of a wild-card berth.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust self-inflicted wounds,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were doing it to ourselves. Too many turnovers, and that can\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Maple Leafs won\u2019t have to worry about their own fans booing them for the next three games, as they embark on a road trip with stops in Washington, Nashville and Dallas.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2025.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 For 50 minutes, it seemed like nothing could get the Toronto Maple Leafs to play with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-351074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}