The Toronto Maple Leafs losing streak extended to seven on Saturday night, falling 5-2 to the Atlantic division leading Tampa Bay Lightning. Toronto has now not won a game in over a month, since before the Olympic break.

Toronto managed to strike first on Saturday, but Tampa Bay responded with four unanswered goals to take a 4-1 lead heading into the first intermission. Speaking to media after Saturday night’s contest, head coach Craig Berube talked about how his group fell behind early and had trouble responding.

“Tough break on the first goal,” he said. “Thought they kind of took a little bit out of us, put us on our heels a little bit, and they capitalized on a couple more, a power-play goal. We had some good looks, didn’t put it in the net. … We got to finish better, you know, we had some looks, we got to finish.”

The Maple Leafs goalscoring woes recently have been evident. Since the Olympic break, they’re averaging just two goals a game, failing to capitalize on key opportunities. Berube refuted a reporter’s claim that this has been an issue through the entire season, but said it’s something rearing its ugly head for the team once again.

“I’m not sure it’s been all year,” he said. “I thought there was a pretty good stretch where we were getting enough goals and the scoring was pretty balanced. Right now we’re not getting the bounces, we’re not shooting it well enough, you know, whatever. There’s a lot of reasons probably. But we had some good looks and we’re not finding the back of the net enough.”

As Toronto took an early deficit on Saturday, Berube said “the bench was a little bit down,” which hurt their ability to respond. He liked what he saw in how they bounced back in the middle frame, but ultimately it wasn’t enough.

“I thought the guys came out in the second and played the right way, so it’s a good sign,” he said. “But in the end, we gotta come out to play to win the game, not lose the game. I find that right now when a goal goes in or two goals go in, we kind of protect too much and not stay on our toes and play.”

With another loss, fans at Scotiabank Arena made their displeasure clear with boos for Toronto’s continued poor performance. From Berube’s perspective, that’s their right.

“Hey, they pay good money to come see us and they want to win, just like we do,” Berube said. “That’s part of the game everywhere.”

The Maple Leafs have a day off on Sunday before travelling to Montreal to face the Canadiens on Tuesday.

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