The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered yet another brutal loss and it just so happened to be to one of the worst teams in the entire NHL. It's never good to take a loss, but given where the Nashville Predators are and how much of a disaster they have been, to come into their building and lose 5-3 on Hockey Night in Canada, is not a good look.
The entire team was flat-footed and never truly looked like they were in control of the game for the entire 60 minutes -- they did end up getting outshot 34-22 after all. But after the game, one forward had to admit that they're approaching the game the completely wrong way.
Nicolas Roy, while speaking with the media after that bad loss in Nashville, revealed that the Leafs as a whole need to change their mentality. It was obvious before and was said by several people throughout this season, but Roy put it plainly: The Leafs have not been playing to win hockey games, but rather have been playing not to lose.
Nic Roy on tonight's game.
— David Alter (@dalter) December 21, 2025
"There's definitely a shift we got to do mentally where you never want to play not to lose. You want to play to win, so not sit back. I think play our game, impose our game. I think we're playing a little too much 'we don't want to lose'".
The way the Leafs have been playing, this has been extremely obvious. Head coach Craig Berube would rather play as tight a game as possible with nothing going on and 20 shots for each team, than some high-flying performance that would actually be exciting to watch.
But, of course, this roster can't do high-flying, high-pace hockey. With one of the oldest rosters in the league and even the younger players not being very fleet of foot, this is a team very much on the slow side -- which no matter what style of game is implemented, it's not a good thing.
So instead, the Leafs have been holding back and trying to grind out some opponents, but not even in a overly physical manner. This team has zero true identity right now and the one that they tried to put together, just doesn't fit.
Maybe it's being extremely cautious because this lineup is never the same game-to-game. Or, it's possibly having so many new players not wanting to take too many chances for a more old-school coach, or else they would be demoted down the lineup. Whatever it is, it's probably going to continue to be a problem unless major changes happen.
We're just living in a world where the Leafs play not to lose, right now.