NEW YORK — On a day where the Toronto Maple Leafs will be busy working the phones trying to unload some of their players to shore up their future, they must be wondering if they need to make a change behind the bench.
The Maple Leafs fell to the New York Rangers 6-2 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, falling to 0-4-2 since returning from the Olympic break. It’s not that Toronto played as bad as some of their other games, but this recent loss came to the worst team in the NHL, with the Rangers winning their first game in regulation on home ice since November 24.
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It’s not a good scene right now. There are excuses, like the trade deadline, which will pass at 3 p.m. ET. And sure, that could effect a lot of the core players who aren’t used to seeing pieces being shipped away to sell rather than buy and compete for the playoffs.
But whatever the case is, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube appears to be out of patience and admitted he’s been frustrated with the performance he’s seen in front of him this season.
“Definitely frustrated. Pissed off,” Berube said. “The games are right there and we don’t push as a team hard enough to win them.”
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It’s the hardest he’s called out his team this season. After guiding the Leafs to first place in the Atlantic Division in his first year with Toronto last season, the players appears to be sinking further. And while the prospect of getting into the bottom five so they can keep their first-round pick this season (a condition in a trade with the Boston Bruins this season), the current malaise has the risk of doing some long-term damage if it isn’t rectified.
“It sucks losing. It sucks being in this position. I haven’t been in this position since I’ve been here, and it’s not a fun feeling, yeah, I mean, like selling or whatever that might be,” a very despondant Joseph Woll said after the game “It sucks. I hate it. It’s way more fun when you’re winning. We have to get out of this slump regardless of what the rest of the season looks like.”
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Berube isn’t the only one to blame. The Leafs have not been getting goals from their star players. Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews hasn’t scored a goal in 10 games, marking his longest stretch since his rookie season.
When the team struggled earlier in the season, they fired assistant coach Marc Savard and tied the team’s struggles to an inefficient power play. The hope from Toronto was that it would spur better play. And for a brief time it did, as the Leafs briefly moved back into a playoff position in Janaury before going on another losing streak to fall further back.
During this losing stretch, the most recent five games have all come against teams that are not in the playoffs at the time of puck drop. It’s a bad scene and there’s nothing to suggest it’s going to be better without a big change.
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