Leaf Takeaways: The star players fiddle while Craig Berube burns

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Published Dec 18, 2025  •  4 minute read

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Troy Stecher #28 of the Toronto Maple Leafs loses his stick after taking a slash from Dylan Strome #17 of the Washington Capitals in the second period on Thursday. Photo by Jamie Sabau /Getty ImagesArticle content

When examining the whole 60 minutes of Thursday’s 4-0 loss in Washington, much more was amiss with the Maple Leafs than a wonky power play.

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There was certainly no place for feel-good footage posted by the team of coach Craig Berube congratulating their effort or the MVP belt being passed around.

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“I did not talk to them tonight,” Berube told reporters on site, having reamed them out on the bench a couple of times already.

Our takeaways on a timid effort to start the three-game road trip, failing to carry with them the momentum of Tuesday’s dramatic rally win over Chicago:

D.O.A. IN D.C.

No one expected a runaway win by Toronto against a very good Metro Division team, but the Leafs lost puck battles and races to the disc on the Capitals’ first three goals. Already down two, it was dumbfounding how slow the Leafs were on a line change that let high scoring defenceman Jakob Chychrun skate right down Santa Claus lane and beat an unsupported Dennis Hildeby.

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“(Washington) had way more urgency in their game, more passion,” the coach steamed.

When asked how that could be so with the playoff standings so close, Berube replied “ask those guys, not me.”

Slumping centre John Tavares, speaking before Berube, had little to offer in defence.

“They’re a good team, but we didn’t make it hard on them. It was too easy to get into our zone and we weren’t as clean or crisp with the puck as we like. That’s when we have to dig in, be very difficult to play against, wear them down and you earn good things and put yourself in position to win.

“We’re clearly not in the spot we want to be in (15-13-5), but we’re not far off (a wild-card spot). We have to realize how much more consistent we have to be.”

There were no third-period scoring dramatics for captain Auston Matthews to hang his hat on this night.

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“The neutral zone was a highway for them,” he admitted. “They have a lot of talent and speed, but we didn’t put enough stress on them.”

Berube’s lines and power-play combinations should be shuffled for Friday’s practice, not that it will do any good Saturday in Nashville if they show up as tentative as they did Thursday.

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Matthews, William Nylander, Tavares, Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly spent more time than usual on the bench in favour of the second power-play group and Berube even started the understudies on the Leafs’ lone third-period chance.

“The power play had actually been been getting better, tonight it was awful,” the coach concluded. “Our top unit didn’t execute, didn’t win any battles when they needed to, just couldn’t make plays.”

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So, Max Domi, Easton Cowan, Nicholas Roy and Bobby McMann came on and produced the best looks with Oliver Ekman-Larsson as their defenceman. It’s hard not to go with Berube’s instinct of a few days ago to seriously look at balancing two groups, perhaps add an outsider such as Scott Laughton or Dakota Joshua.

‘That’s something we’ll definitely look at,” Berube said, without dropping names.

Matthews is neither shooting nor retrieving pucks with authority, but wasn’t the only weak link on Thursday.

In its last year with winger Mitch Marner as part of the top outfit, Toronto was ninth at 24.8% regular-season efficiency and later 10th in the playoffs at 21.6%. Now, they’ve fumbled and tumbled to 14.1 so far, problems that started from not generating enough calls by moving their feet and competing, to static attempts to re-launch the five-forward strategy to overall hesitancy chasing pucks and going to the net.

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“Execution hasn’t been good enough and puck support, our ability to just be sharper and determination to be better than the penalty kill,” Tavares said.

BRING BACK MACCELLI

Thursday’s morning skate saw Berube have a lengthy conversation with winger Matias Maccelli, now sidelined for nine straight games as a healthy scratch.

Prior to that he had one assist in eight games, which explains his long stint in the stands and even though the Leafs have not looked like world beaters on some nights, Berube has not found the right spot to get Maccelli another chance.

With this loss and the NHL’s holiday roster freeze coming into effect Friday – no trades, waivers or demotion – getting Maccelli in one of the weekend back-to-backs should be a consideration. Berube acknowledged that, but insisted Maccelli, who in October was given first-line minutes, is not frustrated by sitting so long and knows he has more to offer his teammates.

The Leafs did send defenceman Marshall Rifai to the Marlies on a conditioning loan ahead of the freeze as he takes the last steps to recovery from wrist surgery.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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