Craig Berube on the Leafs' ugly loss to Carolina: "We went right off the rails defensively the last two games... We don't value the defensive side of the puck enough"

"For me, it is just a mindset. If you want to be a good defensive team, you have to check. You have to have good sticks. You have to be hard and win battles. You've got to have good structure. Right now, it is a mindset for me. We don't have any of that right now. You just keep working on it. My job as a coach is to get them back on track. That is what I am going to try to do. That's what I've done, and I am going to keep banging away at it. It's all you can do."

"Well, he made a lot of saves. We gave him three or four breakaways in the second period? I lost count. It has nothing to do with the goalie. I don't think he has bad luck. He scored two goals tonight. He has been scoring regularly this year. Those things happen. Those are just bad breaks at times, but that doesn't necessarily cost you hockey games."

Toronto lost 5-4 to Carolina, dropping to 8-7-1. Frequent turnovers, lack of checking and failure to win battles produced defensive breakdowns across consecutive games. Defensive improvement is framed as a mindset requiring checking, strong sticks, physical play, battle wins and structural discipline. The response will include continued work, video review and team discussions to restore structure. Offense has produced enough goals, but too many are conceded because the defensive side of the puck is undervalued. Goaltending was not identified as the primary issue; individual scoring misses can be isolated bad breaks.

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