The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a 6-3 lopsided loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday, and coach Craig Berube wasn’t happy about his team’s play.
The Maple Leafs have struggled out of the gates and trailed 6-1 late into the third before two garbage-time goals made it closer than the game was. After a blowout loss, Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube sent a clear message to the team, saying that they forced pucks and were playing too complex.
“For me, we were complicating the game at times tonight. We got burned on it,” Berube said postgame on Wednesday. “We forced pucks when we didn’t need to and turned them over. They came at us, and as we’ve talked about, they’re a talented and good rush team. They capitalized on their opportunities. More than anything, that is what it boils down to. I felt like we were disconnected at times getting through the neutral zone. It cost us.”
It was a disappointing loss for the Maple Leafs, and Berube said there is a lot to clean up from the team’s game.
“We made a mistake, and it was in our net again. We have to clean those up,” Berube added. “There were a lot of good things tonight, too. We had a lot of good opportunities and offensive-zone time. We didn’t capitalize on them well enough, obviously.
“If you don’t take care of the puck and don’t take care of certain teams’ tendencies, you can get burned by it. That is what happened tonight. It is attention to detail, understanding situations, and understanding the positioning of where you should be. We just didn’t have it enough tonight. We got burned.”
Maple Leafs Coach Wants Team to Execute Better
Toronto was slow out of the gates against the Blue Jackets as the Maple Leafs struggled.
It was a disappointing loss for Toronto, and Berube believes the team could have executed better.
“We did a lot of good things with it tonight. Could we execute better? Yeah,” Berube said. “There were some plays that we just missed on it, or they weren’t clean enough. But it’s not from a lack of opportunities or working to get them. We had a number of them, and a lot of attempts and shots on net. At the same time, as I talked about, we forced things at times when we didn’t need to. That is where the disconnect comes from, and they made us pay.”
Berube called a timeout after Columbus made it 1-0 early, as Toronto was getting dominated, and he wanted the team to get back on track. But that wasn’t the case as the Maple Leafs suffered a lopsided loss.
John Tavares Scores 500th Career NHL Goal
In the blowout loss to the Blue Jackets, Maple Leafs star forward John Tavares scored his 500th career goal.
It was a milestone moment for Tavares, who was thrilled to reach 500 career NHL goals.
“You play this game to win as a team, and it’s all about the team,” Tavares said. ”And you know, you’d like to have had it made more of an impact in the game. But for sure, in the days ahead and moments ahead, I’ll appreciate it more. Obviously, a lot’s gone into it and a lot of support along the way from many people, mainly from my teammates and coaches and people close to me, my family. So, thank you.”
Tavares now has 500 goals and 628 assists for 1,128 points.
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