Maple Leafs stumble back to .500 with pair of ugly losses

TORONTO (AP) — Craig Berube ran a gauntlet of emotions Thursday morning.

The Toronto Maple Leafs coach was poised to face the St. Louis Blues — the team he led to its only Stanley Cup in 2019, and the one that fired him last December — looking for a bounce-back performance following an ugly effort two nights earlier.

Berube was all smiles, evening joking with reporters that he didn’t know the location of his championship ring. The feeling was decidedly different at the final buzzer.

Berube cut a disappointed figure after Toronto bumbled its way to a 5-1 loss.

“Our whole team’s getting a little cute,” Berube said. “We’ve just got to play direct.”

The Maple Leafs didn’t clear the front of the net on the first goal against — netminder Joseph Woll (groin) made his season debut after coming off injured reserve — before Blues forward Dylan Holloway was left alone in front on a power play.

Berube then fumed on the bench after St. Louis made it 3-1 in the second on a sequence that started with Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe trying to play the puck between his legs.

“Just not doing things right,” said Berube, who spent parts of six seasons with the Blues and replaced the fired Sheldon Keefe in May in Toronto. “It was lazy hockey.”

Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews said the message was clear.

“We just need to be better,” Matthews said. “We need to be in spots, we need to fill positions, we need to check better.”

The Maple Leafs talked about responding after a loss Tuesday night at Columbus Blue Jackets, but that turned out to be mostly bluster.

“Two games in a row we’re just not good enough,” said Matthews, who has three goals through eight contests after scoring 69 last season. “Light on pucks, we didn’t win battles, we didn’t win the net-front.”

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