{"id":431982,"date":"2026-01-28T06:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/431982\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T06:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:11:17","slug":"craig-berube-shows-frustration-as-toronto-maple-leafs-losing-streak-hits-five-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/431982\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Berube shows frustration as Toronto Maple Leafs\u2019 losing streak hits five games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> ended their five-game home stand without a win after a 7-4 shellacking at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

That loss dropped the team to eight points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference as the team continues to spiral and now heads out west for a four-game road trip before the Olympic break in February.<\/p>\n

Head coach Craig Berube<\/a> was open with his frustration when addressing reporters after the game against the Sabres, when he was asked what he learned about the team during the winless home stand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gotta keep the puck out of our net, is what I learned, and we didn\u2019t do that here at home,\u201d Berube said. \u201cUntil we decide to do things right and keep the puck out of our net – and that\u2019s the goalies included – this is what you\u2019re going to get. We scored enough goals on this home stand to win games, but we didn\u2019t keep the puck out of our net.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs allowed a total of 25 goals over their five-game home stand – including six each against the Minnesota Wild<\/a> and Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>, and seven against Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Berube noted there are many things the team can be doing better to try to reduce the goals allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] a couple things – managing the game, puck play, don\u2019t give odd-man rushes up, defend, harder than we are, more desperation defending and goalies stop the puck,\u201d Berube said. \u201cThat\u2019s it. We can score goals, we\u2019ve scored goals, but until we want to keep the puck out of our net, this is what we\u2019re going to get.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no more than that, I don\u2019t want to talk about it anymore, that\u2019s all it is. I don\u2019t need to learn anything more about our team, I know about our team, and they\u2019re capable of doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs have given up the most goals (183) of any team in the Eastern Conference, and are tied for third-worst in the NHL in that category.<\/p>\n

Joseph Woll<\/a> and Anthony Stolarz<\/a>, the two top goaltenders on the depth chart entering the season, have each missed significant time with injuries. Woll allowed six goals on 30 shots in Tuesday\u2019s loss, while Stolarz surrendered five in the 6-3 loss to the Golden Knights on January 23.<\/p>\n

Berube was asked whether he wished Denis Hildeby was available during the home stand – Hildeby has made 13 starts this season while filling in for Woll and Stolarz at different times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are our guys,\u201d said Berube. \u201cStolarz is back, ready to go, so this is decisions that you gotta make. They\u2019re our goalies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs held a closed-door meeting on Monday<\/a> to address the current tailspin, where Berube and team leaders discussed the focus around the team and the importance of the upcoming road trip. The early returns were not encouraging for Berube.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our identity is we look at scoring as everything, and it\u2019s not everything,\u201d Berube said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to consistently win in this league by focusing on just scoring goals. You gotta play the full rink, and right now, we\u2019re not doing a good enough job without the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as potential fixes for the current losing streak, Berube kept the focus broad.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta go and work and compete, your confidence will be fine. I get it, but we\u2019re in the NHL, and you\u2019re getting paid to play hockey, so you gotta go and do your job. That\u2019s your job. Do your job.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not getting any breaks right now, so we gotta earn them. All we can do is push forward and focus on the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs ended their five-game home stand without a win after a 7-4 shellacking at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5106],"tags":[4759,5,20,5172,4,66,31,32467,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-431982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-maple-leafs","11":"tag-mapleleafs","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-toronto","14":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","15":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10","16":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115971246250743476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431982","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=431982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}