We’re not trying to emulate the Grinch before Christmas, but Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube certainly seems like a man out of answers, following an embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals. The holiday roster freeze, which is enacted as of Saturday morning, does not apply to Berube, and it’s possible that he could be out of a job by Christmas.
Auston Matthews and William Nylander were invisible. Neither player recorded a shot on goal at 5-on-5, and the five power play opportunities the team gained were defined by slow, predictable entries that were routinely swatted at the blue line. Berube tried several mid-game adjustments, but none of them worked. Berube was tasked with turning a high-octane offence into a group that is capable of winning games in the playoffs. Instead, the Maple Leafs look disconnected, both on and off the ice, playing without any discernible structure, while the team’s franchise players are getting routinely outplayed on a game-by-game basis.
“We had power play opportunities, the power play was not good, it’s gotta be a lot better,” Berube said post-game. “To me, they played with more passion than we did tonight. That’s what it boils down to. It looked to be like they had way more urgency in their game, way more passion in their game, that’s the difference.”
So what accounts for the dysfunction?
“Ask those guys, not me,” Berube retorted to the travelling press.
This speaks to the idea that only Matthews and Nylander can address the numerous, increasingly glaring issues with the team. Matthews and John Tavares both declined to speak to reporters following Saturday’s loss against the Edmonton Oilers, and the travelling press did their job of asking the difficult questions to Berube, Matthews and the rest of the players made available Sunday. There has been a prevailing criticism that the Leafs media corps are often too gentle towards players, and perhaps I’m guilty as charged here, but when asked for basic measures of accountability, Berube appears to eschew responsibility.
Matthews, for what it’s worth, didn’t fare much better.
“We just made it really easy on easy for them. The neutral zone was a highway for them to get through. I don’t know. We just made it so easy for them,” Matthews said.
“That’s got to be the main point of focus each and every night. Like, we don’t have to be the best team in the world every single night. But we need everybody to compete. We need everybody to just play good.”
Matthews appears intent on settling for ‘pretty good’ when the Maple Leafs are nowhere close to that standard, while he’s been outplayed by Macklin Celebrini, Connor McDavid, Jason Dickinson and Aliaksei Protas in rapid succession. The blame is primarily on the star players, but it’s also Berube’s job to get the most out of the team, and the Leafs performing well below the sum of their parts.
There was a prevailing idea that Berube would install toughness and accountability, and while his cheery demeanour is often appreciated, he hasn’t resembled anything close to the taskmaster that would spur change. Berube is often too reticent to make changes: Max Domi will remain in the lineup forever, while Matias Maccelli hasn’t played since December, as an example. Some will point to the idea that the Maple Leafs advanced further than they ever have during the Matthews era with Berube behind the bench, but the disconnect is clearly evident.
Brad Treliving provided Berube with a vote of confidence on November 18, but an organization as influential as the Maple Leafs can often react like a political mechanism. Votes of confidence come with expiry dates. When will the Maple Leafs consider making a change? The holiday roster freeze applies to players, but it doesn’t apply to coaches, and it’s nothing personal, but Berube simply hasn’t done enough to get the most out of a talented yet complacent Maple Leafs team. Whether Keith Pelley views it this way, with apathy quickly replacing anger across the board, appears to be the only question left for this year’s group.
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