Berube’s comments signal it’s time for Maple Leafs coaching change

Thursday night’s shutout loss to the Washington Capitals was certainly a low point for the Toronto Maple Leafs. After an emotionally-charged comeback win on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Leafs came out worse than flat in Washington.

During the second intermission, the Sportsnet crew joked about how the Maple Leafs had the Capitals right where they wanted them. The stage was set for another epic third-period comeback.

Well, that didn’t happen.

The Maple Leafs didn’t show any pushback in the third period. In fact, to my mind, John Carlson’s goal told the entire story of the night.

Here’s a look at the goal, as shown on the Capitals’ official X account:

The replay shows how the Leafs, instead of playing the puck, decided to go on a line change. That left the entire Capitals squad free to play the puck and set up Carlson for the wicked shot.

That was the missing passion Craig Berube referred to in his postgame comments. Berube stated:

“We had power play opportunities, power play was not good. It’s got to be a lot better. And to me, they played with more passion than we did tonight. That’s what it boils down to. It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game. That’s the difference.”

Now, I touched on the power play situation. But this game went beyond the power play. It was about the team just coming out flat. When Berube was asked about why the team wasn’t playing up to scratch, he said:

“Ask those guys, not me.” The comments were made while gesturing towards the Maple Leafs locker room.

That’s unacceptable from a head coach. It’s like asking a parent why their kids are acting up. Sure, mum and dad can’t read their kids’ minds. But responsible parents know if something’s going on in their kids’ lives.

Berube has turned into a deadbeat dad who’s just making the child support payments because he’s afraid the court will throw him in jail if he doesn’t.

Unfortunately, we are not privy to what goes on inside the Leafs' dressing room when the cameras stop rolling. We don’t know what players talk about amongst themselves. We can only speculate about what’s going on behind the scenes.

But based on my experience, Thursday night’s performance signals one thing: Berube has lost this team. Something happened along the way. Maybe he just rubbed a bunch of guys the wrong way. But if the Leafs want to do anything to salvage this season, they had better flip the page and move on to a new coach. The “Chief” experiment in Toronto simply hasn’t worked. The time has come for the Maple Leafs to get a new voice behind the bench.