A Fed Up Craig Berube Blunt About What Needs to Happen for the Leafs to Turn Their Season Around

The month of November has been tough on the Toronto Maple Leafs for a variety of reasons, as they currently sport a 9-10-3 record. Their most recent loss to Montreal was their 7th in their last 8 games as things keep going from bad to worse.

Injuries have certainly played their part with key absentees including Brandon Carlo, Matthew Knies, Scott Laughton, Auston Matthews, Anthony Stolarz, and Chris Tanev. However, their overall game play has been abysmal and doesn't seem to be getting any better.

Last night's loss was almost a microcosm of their struggles as they looked completely outmatched from the beginning. Montreal took the Leafs out of the game early as they jumped ahead to a 2-0 lead after the first period before doubling their lead in the middle frame.

Following the loss, a frustrated Craig Berube acknowledged that the Leafs can't keep turtling after going down early in games. He feels it's almost inexcusable, considering it's a veteran-filled team that should know how to respond to adversity at this stage of their careers.

On how he believes his team can turn things around, Berube admits that getting reinforcements back in the lineup would help, but he also knows that the players in his lineup are more than capable of handling the workload in the interim and they just have to dig deeper moving forward and commit to playing the right way.

The schedule offers a bit of a reprieve with their next game not being until Wednesday, but then they end the month with 3 games in 4 days on the road against Columbus, Washington, and Pittsburgh, who all hold winning records.

They will more than likely have to accomplish that task with a shorthanded lineup as Carlo, Stolarz, and Tanev aren't expected to return in the near future. Knies and Matthews have a chance to return, as both were spotted at practice recently, but their return dates are not set in stone.

The sky is falling in Toronto with how things have shaken up in recent weeks. Berube has his job cut out for him, but if there's anyone that can instill a bit of pride and confidence, it's Chief, and it's one of the main reasons they brought him to Toronto two summers ago.