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John Tavares calls out Maple Leafs after loss.
The Toronto Maple Leafs blew a 4-2 lead to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, and the team is frustrated with the performance.
Toronto suffered a 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday at home and then lost 5-4 to the Hurricanes on Sunday. Following the loss, Maple Leafs veteran John Tavares called the team ‘immature.’
Tavares believes the Maple Leafs aren’t playing well and are ‘immature’ in the fact that they keep shooting themselves in the foot.
“We have a lot of very good hockey players. We have a very veteran team. So it’s just a decision to do it shift after shift,” Tavares said. “We gain some traction, and then we shoot ourselves in the foot again.”
The Maple Leafs are now 8-7-1 and are outside of a playoff spot. It’s been a slow start, and captain Auston Matthews is also frustrated with how the team is playing.
“Same stuff. Just details and execution. We were fortunate to have a lead after two,” Matthews said. “Repetitive stuff that we just can’t seem to get right.”
Toronto will look to snap its three-game losing streak on Tuesday when the Maple Leafs go on the road to play the Bruins.
Maple Leafs Coach Responds to Tavares’ Comment
After Tavares called the Maple Leafs immature in the loss, head coach Craig Berube was asked about it.
Berube felt like the team was showing some immaturity in the past two losses. He also believes the team is losing puck battles, which can’t happen.
“It could be immaturity,” Berube said postgame. “Not a willingness to make the easy play. Turnover after turnover cost us the game tonight. We didn’t check anybody tonight. We didn’t win any battles tonight. Two games in a row.”
The Maple Leafs are playing poorly defensively, and Berube believes it’s the team’s mindset. He wants the team to change how they are playing and can’t cheat for offense.
“For me, it is just a mindset,” Berube said. “If you want to be a good defensive team, you have to check. You have to have good sticks. You have to be hard and win battles. You’ve got to have good structure. Right now, it is a mindset for me. We don’t have any of that right now.”
Toronto is still just one point back of a playoff spot despite the slow start.
Berube Sends Message to Team
With the Maple Leafs on a two-game losing streak, Berube knows the team can be better.
Berube believes the team needs to be harder on pucks and also improve defensively, which is a major issue.
“You just keep working on it,” Berube said. “My job as a coach is to get them back on track. That is what I am going to try to do. That’s what I’ve done, and I am going to keep banging away at it. It’s all you can do.
“You look at the video. We are going to have discussions with players and the team. We are scoring enough goals every game to win games, but we are letting in too many. Pretty much the season so far is that we don’t value the defensive side of the puck enough. There are a number of things that go into that — I am not going to get into it all — but right now, we don’t value that.”
The Maple Leafs are 5-5-0 in their last 10 games.
Cole Shelton Cole Shelton covers the NHL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has covered pro and college sports since 2016, including bylines at BJ Penn, USA Today, SB Nation, Rotowire, Canadian Baseball Network and more. More about Cole Shelton
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