Leafs coach Craig Berube on struggle to close out Senators: ‘It’s on everybody’

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TORONTO — Preparing for a third crack at eliminating the Ottawa Senators in the Battle of Ontario, Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube believes there’s been too much external focus on his best and highest-paid players after they were kept off the scoreboard in Game 5.

“I get it, that’s all I hear around here is ‘core, core, core,”‘ Berube said Wednesday. “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.”

Those players are the Leafs’ top scorers through five games in this series: Mitch Marner (7 points), William Nylander (6), Auston Matthews (6) and John Tavares (5).

However, given their historical inability to break through with big goals when faced with a chance to close out a playoff series, a 29-save shutout by Senators goalie Linus Ullmark in Tuesday’s 4-0 win came with a pointed round of questioning for the Leafs.

That included an 0-for-3 showing on the power play — pushing their collective total to 0-for-30 in potential elimination games dating back to 2018. That inability to break through was further compounded by a Dylan Cozens short-handed goal in the third period — the second short-handed marker the Leafs have surrendered in as many games.

The team’s five-forward formation with the man advantage is clicking at a 31.3 percent conversion rate during this series and Berube didn’t sound inclined to mix in a defenceman for an extra layer of support heading into Game 6 on Thursday night.

“That’s the only really (short-handed) chances we’ve given up,” he said. “I think we’ve just got to do a better job in those situations. Now, it’ll be discussed and we’ll look at things and see what we want to do.”

The coach didn’t tip his hand about any possible changes, whether it be a line reshuffling, bringing in forwards Nick Robertson and/or David Kämpf from the press box or starting Joseph Woll over Anthony Stolarz in goal.

It’s been a close and tight-checking series featuring three overtime games, Berube reasoned.

The team with the lower shot total has won each game. And the Leafs actually hold a slight overall edge in total shots (128-121) and goals (15-14), with the Senators holding a tight 51-49 percent advantage in expected goals at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.

“I don’t want to change too much,” Berube 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.”

The responsibility for that falls primarily on the players who have been in Toronto for all 14 potential series-clinching games played since 2018. The games where they’ve produced a 1-13 record.

As for how Berube is viewing the play of Matthews and Marner, in particular, he believes two-thirds of his top line still have more to give.

“There’s things that we can do better offensively that we need to look at and go and do ’em,” Berube said. “I think, like, they defended well and they did a lot of good things in the game, but there’s more there. That’s my job to try to get them out of it, and their job. We’ll discuss it as a team and go over things and we’ll be, hopefully, better.”

The head coach has taken to sending out his “Passion Line” at the start of games and periods during this series and hopes that the approach shown by Steven Lorentz, Scott Laughton and Calle Järnkrok can help create an identity for the more gifted offensive players to follow.

In Berube’s eyes, the work ethic and puck-hounding skills displayed by that trio have knocked the Senators off-balance during their shifts.

“I think we can have that mentality more as a team, for sure,” Berube said. “You want to score goals in the playoffs and you want offence and you need it. 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 on 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.”

(Photo of Craig Berube and Max Domi at practice earlier in the series: Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images)

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