Craig Berube on the Maple Leafs' current rut: "I truly believe we'll get out of it... We have the good group, we have leadership, we have everything we need to get out of it"

"Pretty much the same as last night. We came out in the first period, and I think we were ready to go. Things were fine. We got a power play. We killed some penalties. We had a few looks on the PP, but it just seemed like it unraveled after that for us. They scored a couple of goals in the first period that were defendable."

"Well, our neutral-zone forecheck was not very good last night. They walked through it pretty easily and entered our zone. That was one area we wanted to focus on. And then we kept hammering away at that defensive-zone coverage and creating some situations in practice that we will see in a game. We keep working at it. The whole approach from me today with our group: We can't go out and play with the fear of mistakes. We're too tentative. We have to be"

The team began the game ready, generating power-play opportunities and killing penalties, but the game unraveled after the first period. The opponent scored a couple of easily defendable first-period goals. Forty minutes remained, but the team failed to provide sufficient collective pushback. Practice focused on improving the neutral-zone forecheck and defensive-zone coverage by recreating game situations. The emphasis was on skating with urgency, maintaining pressure rather than sagging back, and playing without fear of mistakes. Players were urged to be on their toes, play with jump and confidence, and make aggressive plays while sustaining power-play intensity.

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