As pressure rises on Leafs core, Berube keeps focus on the team

The Maple Leafs held a team meeting and media availability at Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday before flying to Ottawa.

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 Leafs coach Craig Berube is doing his best to take the pressure off his star players. 

“I get it, that’s all I hear around here is ‘Core, core, core,'" Berube said. "'The Core Four.' But it’s on everybody in the team. We’re a team and it’s on the whole team, not just four guys.”

The Leas have dropped consecutive games to allow the upstart Ottawa Senators back into their first-round playoff series. A shot away from advancing in overtime on Saturday, Toronto is now heading back to the Canadian Tire Centre for Game 6 on Thursday. 

And the spotlight will be shining brighter than ever on Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares. The quartet of forwards, who take up more than half of Toronto's salary cap space, are the top four scorers on the team in the playoffs, but all failed to breakthrough during Tuesday's 4-0 loss in Game 5. 

“We’re not looking in the rearview mirror,” said Matthews, who has one goal and six points in the series. “It’s about the next day, next game.”

“It’s not supposed to be easy,” said Marner, who leads the team with seven points in the series. “This is never supposed to be easy.”

And it never has been for this Leafs core. 

Toronto is now 1-13 in games when they have a chance to eliminate an opponent since 2018. There is a lot of scar tissue associated with those losses. Most notably, the Leafs blew a 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, which is the last time they entered the playoffs as division winners. 

With every day this series against Ottawa extends, there is more and more chatter about Toronto's playoff demons. During this run of losses in potential close-out games, Marner has five assists in the 14 games while Matthews has four goals and five assists.

“It gets to a point in the playoffs where there’s more noise,’” said Berube. “A lot of ‘past’ stuff that I hear around here and that’s all fine. That’s part of it. The only pressure they have is to their own teammates, in my opinion.”

Matthews is in his first season as captain of the team while Marner and Tavares, who relinquished the 'C' in the summer, serve as alternates. They are relied upon to lead the way and set the tone for the group. 

“I’ve been really impressed with the leadership here,” said Leafs centre Scott Laughton, who was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers at the trade deadline. “How bad guys want to win and how bad guys want each other to do well, that’s stuck out to me.”

But is it possible to want it too bad?

“I don’t know,” Laughton said. “I don’t know. That’s a good question.”

Laughton stressed it’s important to embrace pressure. 

It sure seemed like the increasing pressure impacted Toronto's top players negatively in Game 5.

On Tuesday night, Matthews and Marner were on the ice for a 5-on-5 goal against for the first time in the series. Matthews lost a faceoff and couldn't block a point shot by Senators defenceman Thomas Chabot. Marner couldn't make it to the point in time to deny the look as Claude Giroux got in the way.

Matthews hit the post late in the game and also missed on a 2-on-1 chance. Marner was denied by Linus Ullmark on a point blank chance in the slot. 

"We had our looks, didn’t capitalize on them," Marner said, echoing a familiar refrain from previous playoff losses. "That’s how it goes sometimes."

Matthews and Marner were on the ice for all four Senators goals, including a pair of empty netters.

Berube felt the line, which includes left winger Matthew Knies, didn’t create enough speed through the neutral zone or sustain enough offensive-zone time. 

The coach's message to Matthews and Marner ahead of Game 6?

“Stay with it,” Berube said. “There’s things we can do better offensively that we need to look at and go and do’em. They defended well and they did a lot of good things in the game, but there’s more there, and that’s my job to try to get them out of it."

How do the Leafs, who finished first in the Atlantic Division, keep frustration from creeping in?

"Have confidence in ourselves," Marner said. "We’ve been a great road team all year. We’ve been a great team all year. The stats show it. We aren’t losing confidence in here."

The Leafs have not dropped four straight games all season. 

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Toronto is 0/7 on the power play in the last two games while surrendering a shorthanded goal in each one.

On Tuesday night, Matthews saw his pass intended for Marner picked off by Adam Gaudette, who raced off on a 2-on-1, which was finished by Dylan Cozens.

“I just tried to find Mitchy up top,” said Matthews, who was more than a minute into his shift. “I thought we kind of drew them in. I didn’t see the guy there and he obviously picked it off. That’s on me. I got to make the better play.”

On Saturday, Shane Pinto chipped the puck past Marner, who plays the quarterback role as part of Toronto's five-forward alignment, and scored on a breakaway. 

Despite the shorthanded goals, Berube indicated he plans to stick with the five-forward look, which operated at a high level down the stretch in the regular season. 

“Those are really the only chances we’ve given up,” Berube noted. “We just have to do a better job in those situations.”

The Leafs converted on five of nine power-play chances to start the series, which is a big reason why they won the first three games.

“We got to be more direct there with our power play,” Berube said. “I didn't think our power play was direct enough and [we need] shot volume and getting stuff to the net.”

The Leafs are 1/31 on the power play in the potential close-out games in this era. 

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Several different left wingers have rotated in beside Tavares and Nylander on the second line in this series.

Max Domi started in the spot before quickly being replaced by Pontus Holmberg. A 20-goal scorer in the regular season, Bobby McMann has also gotten some shifts there when the Leafs have been pressing for offence. But McMann is mired in a 16-game goal drought. He hasn't scored since March 25.

“I think they’ve been OK,” Berube said of the second line. “I think they’ve been pretty good at times.”

Tavares scored a goal in Game 4 while Nylander had two assists on Saturday.

Nylander, who finished second overall in the NHL with a career high 45 goals in the regular season, has scored just one goal in the series. It came on a 5-on-3 power play in the opening game.

Asked about the second line, Berube revealed he isn't planning a big shake up despite a pair of losses.

“I don’t want to change too much,” the coach said. “I think there’s a lot of good, but at the same time we have to find ways to put the puck in the net a little bit more.”

What specifically can the team do to generate more?

“I’d rather not discuss that in the media if that’s OK,” he said with a grin.

Nylander has two goals and nine assists in the 14 potential close-out games in this era. Tavares, who missed most of the Canadiens series in 2021 due to injury, has five goals and two assists in his 10 potential close-out games with the Leafs. 

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One of the bright spots for the Leafs in Game 5 was the play of the Laughton line, which features Calle Jarnkrok and Steven Lorentz on the wings. 

“They work and they hound as a unit and that’s why they have success,” Berube said. “That’s the bottom line with that line. It’s constant pressure."

Berube is hoping the play of the Laughton line play will rub off on some of his other forward units.

“We can have that mentality more as a team, for sure,” he said. “You have to have that work mentality and that checking mentality. Checking’s not just playing defence. Checking is offence. You check for your chances, you get to the inside, you work and hound, it creates turnovers from the other team. It creates chaos for the other team. We can do a better job of that as a team.”  

Lorentz had a golden opportunity to score on Tuesday, but a David Perron back check denied his breakaway opportunity.

Laughton assisted on Toronto's opening goal in the series, but hasn't hit the scoresheet since.

“Hopefully we can continue it and even be better,” said Laughton of his line's play. “We can be better and create a little bit more offence.”

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The only time the Leafs won a series in this era, they squandered a chance to clinch it at home in Game 5 before winning in Tampa in Game 6 back in 2023.

“We’ve been in this spot before,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly. “I think there’s comfort in that. You just gotta stick together. It’s just a matter of staying focused, staying in the moment, understanding we have the lead in the series and there’s been periods of time where we’ve been playing some really good hockey. There’s no reason to panic. It’s just about sticking together.”

Rielly, who is the longest-serving Leaf, was pressed to expand on the lessons learned from the past playoff disappointments.

"They’re all different and this team is different,” the 31-year-old said. “I think that there’s a belief within our group that we’ve learned over the years and we’ve become comfortable in these close games. So, moving forward for our group, it’s about being prepared to play because we believe in the people in this room and our coaching staff, our structure. It’s just about going out there and executing.”

Rielly has three goals and one assist in the 14 potential close-out games in this era. 

What’s it take to tune out the noise in Toronto?

“Ah, it’s not hard,” Rielly said. “It is what it is. You guys [reporters] got a job to do and we all respect that. For us it’s just about us doing our job ... It’s not really something we discuss very much, trying to keep anything out or anything in or whatever, it’s just about coming to work, sticking together and doing our job.”

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The Senators seem to be growing in confidence with each passing shift. 

“They got nothing to lose, right,” said Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz. “Lose and they go home so they’re just laying it all on the line, and we haven’t got to that point yet."

As part of his post-game message to the team on Tuesday night, Berube hammered home that the Leafs still lead this series 3-2.

“It’s a little adversity for us,” said Stolarz. “It’s not even like we’re doing too many things wrong, it’s just a little snakebitten right now. I like our game. I like the way we’re playing. They’re making my job easy. It’s just fighting for that extra one save and just trying to get traffic to their net as well.”

The overtime winner in Game 4 by Jake Sanderson came from a shot high in the offensive zone. So did the Chabot goal on Tuesday. What did Stolarz see on the play?

“Not much,” he said. “There’s a number of bodies and I think I got a little piece of it. But he makes a good shot. It’s just one you got to try to keep fighting, fighting for a sight line and make the save.”

The 31-year-old goalie isn’t worried about being beat by a couple long-range shots.

“It’s playoff hockey,” he said. “I’ve been watching a lot of it. You look at that Florida game [against Tampa Bay on Monday], what, two or three goals from the blue line? That’s playoff hockey right there. It just comes down to commitment, blocking shots, fighting through screens and just that will to block it and get to the net. That’s playoff hockey right there in a nutshell and right now they’re doing those little things to get there. It’s going to be up to us to try to battle through that and try to do the same thing to their goalie as well.”

Ullmark looked as sharp as he’s been all series on Tuesday, but the Senators also made life easy on him as well.

“They had it jammed up with five guys right in front of the crease the whole night in the slot area,” Berube noted. “I thought we forced too many things in there. We could have went low to high and got a little bit of movement and our D gotta shoot pucks from the top when they can."

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Leafs lines to start Game 5:

Knies - Matthews - Marner

Holmberg - Tavares - Nylander

Lorentz - Laughton - Jarnkrok

McMann - Domi - Pacioretty

McCabe - Tanev

Rielly - Carlo

Ekman-Larsson - Benoit

Stolarz starts

Woll