{"id":431040,"date":"2026-01-27T18:47:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/431040\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:47:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:47:05","slug":"post-marc-savard-spark-wearing-off-for-skidding-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/431040\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Marc Savard spark wearing off for skidding Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as it appeared the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> had gotten their season back on track in recent weeks, things have taken a turn for the worse over the team\u2019s current homestand.<\/p>\n

After Toronto dismissed assistant coach Marc Savard<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

An overtime win over the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> on Jan. 12 put Toronto in sole possession of the East\u2019s first wild-card spot, but the team has fallen on hard times since with a 1-4-2 record over their past seven games.<\/p>\n

Losses over the weekend to Mitch Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody just has to be better, has to play better,\u201d, said Auston Matthews<\/a> after Sunday\u2019s 4-1 loss to Colorado. \u201cHave to do the little things just a little bit harder, a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about this next game now. Pulling each other up, helping each other out when things aren\u2019t going well,\u201d Toronto\u2019s captain added. \u201cYou can\u2019t get down, can\u2019t start to have a bad attitude, or try to be on your own program. Everybody\u2019s got to stick together even more throughout this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell we\u2019re not playing with a ton of confidence right now,\u201d defenceman Jake McCabe<\/a> said. \u201cIt can be fleeting at times, so you\u2019ve got to generate it when you don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head coach Craig Berube<\/a> called confidence \u201ca choice\u201d in his postgame comments on Sunday, seemingly offering his players a challenge to fight through this difficult stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence comes from work and compete,\u201d said Berube. \u201cIf you work and compete, and understand going into a game that\u2019s the most important part, you\u2019ll get your confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get scored on, a couple goals, we kind of stop playing. We watch instead of coming together as a team. It\u2019s all about coming together as a team and pulling out of this. No individual is going to play [us] out of it. It\u2019s the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to fix the execution part,\u201d said Berube, \u201cAnd then the battle level. When you get down in the game, we\u2019ve got to come together as a team and we\u2019ve got to fight through that, because it\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think losing at home here, it\u2019s worn on our team a little bit. But that\u2019s pro sports and we\u2019ve got to all pull it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto closes out their homestand with an important Atlantic Division clash against the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> on Tuesday, before heading out west for meetings against the Seattle Kraken<\/a>, Vancouver Canucks<\/a>, Calgary Flames<\/a>, and Edmonton Oilers<\/a> before the break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just as it appeared the Toronto Maple Leafs had gotten their season back on track in recent weeks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,5,4,32467],"class_list":{"0":"post-431040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115968556688926965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}