Within the loss to Carolina, the Maple Leafs gave up four breakaways in the second period.
John Tavares stood in the Toronto Maple Leafs' dressing room following the team's 5-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes and called it immature.
The Maple Leafs led for over half the game before Carolina stormed back with three unanswered goals, with the game-winner coming off yet another defensive blunder. Toronto is an experienced team, but with the mistakes they're making, they resemble a younger group with several flaws.
"At times, we did some really good things, earned opportunities, and were able to give ourselves a lead," said Tavares. "And then our game just, for whatever reason, becomes really immature and we don't manage the game very well."
One part of the game that stood out was Toronto's second period. They gave up 13 shots and four breakaways. The Maple Leafs followed that up with a third period where they saw Carolina fire 22 shots at their net while they had only two.
The Hurricanes are a team that likes to shoot the puck. However, when it's that close of a game, Toronto should've tightened up defensively and not allowed so many shots to get to Dennis Hildeby.
Omar (@TicTacTOmar) on X
Hildeby lets out a sizeable rebound but comes up with the save
"Well, for me, it's just a mindset," said Craig Berube following the game. "If you want to be a good defensive team, you've got to check, you've got to have good sticks, you've got to be hard, you've got to win battles, and you've got to have good structure.
"And right now, it's a mindset for me. We don't have any of that right now."
Tavares added, "I mean, we have a lot of very good hockey players. We have a very veteran team. It's just the decision to do it shift after shift."
With two wins this weekend, the Maple Leafs would've been right behind the Montreal Canadiens for first in the Atlantic Division. However, with a loss to the divisional rival Boston Bruins, and the Hurricanes one night later, Toronto finds itself one point out of a wild-card spot.
It's not a horrible place to be, but it's a hole they've got to dig themselves out of.
"I mean, we gained some traction, and then we shoot ourselves in the foot again and just put ourselves in a tough spot," Tavares added. "There's a ton of hockey left to be played, so we just got to obviously pick ourselves back up and get ready for the next opportunity and build from there."
Below is more from Tavares on the team's performance against the Hurricanes on Sunday.
Q: This was such a good defensive team last year. When you see the amount of breakaways that are given up and stuff like that, I mean, how concerning is that?
A: Yeah, I mean, you're not going to win consistently doing that. So, like Chief says, it's 50-50. It's obviously clearly, an area we have to clean up and just the plays off transition and opportunities like that that really give their team life and momentum and really stress our goaltending and obviously then having to chase the game.
Q: How disappointing is that it's happened at home? I mean, you guys have a fairly good home schedule.
A: Absolutely. You want to take advantage of the benefits of being at home and being a good home team. So, yeah, obviously not the way we would have liked to have gone to this point in the season, but all we can do is move forward and a lot of hockey left to be played. So, obviously, you have to regroup here and stick together and find our way through it.
Q: Dennis faced 46 shots in this game. What was your takeaway from his performance tonight?
A: Yeah, I mean, he's the reason why we had a chance to win the hockey game. So, I thought he was phenomenal. A heck of a job on the PK, especially in the third period too. Tight hockey game. So, he was great.
Q: Second night in a row, really had a chance to be the hero last night with those posts and tonight with the missed wide-open net. Is that tough to just get over, something like that, just speaking from experience?
A: I mean, obviously, his ability and his talent, he puts the puck in the net a lot. The odd time it doesn't go in, I think we have the type of hockey team and certainly at this level to move past it and keep playing and you just play your game for 60 minutes, whether you get good breaks or bad breaks.More often than not, you put yourself in a good position to win games and maybe sometimes they don't fall your way, but we should be mentally strong and our game should be strong to just continue us forward.
Latest stories: