Ugly weekend for the Leafs, but the problem isn’t behind the bench: Leafs Morning Take

Cancel the parade. The Maple Leafs have hit the skids once again.

But seriously, things looked relatively promising to start the month of November. Well, that was three days ago. After rifling off three straight wins, Craig Berube’s bunch dropped both home ice outings this weekend to Boston and Carolina, respectively. Most importantly, they surrendered 10 goals in those two games, and right now, they’re playing defence like a beer league team. It was UGLY.

We kicked off the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take by giving our quick thoughts on that before talking some Hockey Hall of Fame as well. The class of 2025 will be officially enshrined tonight in Toronto.

After that, we got into the disappointing weekend. Firstly, we dissected the alarming defensive play and structure. Craig Berube had every reason to be frustrated. This is not a coaching thing; this is firmly on the players. They need to be better. On top of that, the goaltending was been worse through 16 games than it was last year. Anthony Stolarz got the hook on Saturday night. He’s had a very turbulent start. Long story short, all this is an easy and simple fix, which is good news. They just need to go out there and execute. Additionally, we broke down Nick Robertson’s hot stretch, the power play maybe turning a corner, and the Zadorov hit on Scott Laughton. The Oakville native just can’t catch a break. Simply put, there’s not one player on this roster who’s devoid of criticism right now. Collectively, they need to figure it out because they’re not playing like a team.

At any rate, all we can do is look ahead to the next game and see if this team has learned anything. Speaking of which, be sure to tune into the Tuesday edition of Leafs Morning Take (11 AM ET). The Leafs will begin a stretch of seven of 11 on the road when they visit the Bruins as Brandon Carlo makes his return to Boston.