Just as it appeared the Toronto Maple Leafs had gotten their season back on track in recent weeks, things have taken a turn for the worse over the team’s current homestand.
After Toronto dismissed assistant coach Marc Savard on Dec. 22, the Maple Leafs would go on to take points in each of their next 10 games, vaulting themselves up the standings and back into the playoff picture in what has shaped up to be a highly-competitive Eastern Conference.
An overtime win over the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 12 put Toronto in sole possession of the East’s first wild-card spot, but the team has fallen on hard times since with a 1-4-2 record over their past seven games.
Losses over the weekend to Mitch Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights and in a rematch with the Avalanche have now dropped the Leafs five points back of the final playoff spot in the conference with the 30 games remaining on the regular season calendar.
“Everybody just has to be better, has to play better,”, said Auston Matthews after Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Colorado. “Have to do the little things just a little bit harder, a little bit better.”
“It’s about this next game now. Pulling each other up, helping each other out when things aren’t going well,” Toronto’s captain added. “You can’t get down, can’t start to have a bad attitude, or try to be on your own program. Everybody’s got to stick together even more throughout this.”
In both losses over the weekend, the Maple Leafs fell behind by multiple goals in the first period and were left chasing for the vast majority of each contest.
“You can tell we’re not playing with a ton of confidence right now,” defenceman Jake McCabe said. “It can be fleeting at times, so you’ve got to generate it when you don’t have it.”
Head coach Craig Berube called confidence “a choice” in his postgame comments on Sunday, seemingly offering his players a challenge to fight through this difficult stretch.
“Confidence comes from work and compete,” said Berube. “If you work and compete, and understand going into a game that’s the most important part, you’ll get your confidence.
“We get scored on, a couple goals, we kind of stop playing. We watch instead of coming together as a team. It’s all about coming together as a team and pulling out of this. No individual is going to play [us] out of it. It’s the team.”
Toronto has five games remaining before the league goes on pause for The Winter Olympics in Italy next month, a stretch that could very well make-or-break their season.
“We’ve got to fix the execution part,” said Berube, “And then the battle level. When you get down in the game, we’ve got to come together as a team and we’ve got to fight through that, because it’s going to happen.
“I think losing at home here, it’s worn on our team a little bit. But that’s pro sports and we’ve got to all pull it together.”
Toronto closes out their homestand with an important Atlantic Division clash against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, before heading out west for meetings against the Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, and Edmonton Oilers before the break.
