The Toronto Maple Leafs are playing some of their worst hockey of the season, and head coach Craig Berube is growing frustrated with his team’s lack of urgency, and attention to details, with and without the puck.

The Maple Leafs dropped to 0-4-1 on their five-game homestand, thanks to the Buffalo Sabres converting on the extra point to handedly defeat the Leafs 7-4 on Tuesday night at Scotiabank arena. Berube spoke to reporters following their latest drubbing and discussed how this game got away from his hockey club.

“We had a couple of bad breaks go off our guys, but at the end of the first period, we turned the puck over, and they scored,” Berube said postgame. “At the end of the second period, it is a shot from the point, but we don’t have our guys in front of the net, and they score. That is the difference in the game for me. We came out in the third, and we got scored on on the first shift. Two or three mistakes, and they’re in our net.”

Berube has been trying to defend his hockey team all week but hasn’t been shy to call out their mistakes as well, as the Maple Leafs now drop to 24-20-9 on the season, sitting eight points out of a playoff spot, with two teams to leapfrog. Berube can’t understand why his hockey club continues to make costly mistakes that wind up in the back of their net.

“Keep trying to work on things, and stop making them, first of all. On a couple of them, the guys need to do what they’re supposed to do — do your job. We are not getting any breaks right now, so we have to earn them. All we can do is push forward and focus on the next game. We have to clean things up. We’ll look at it, try to clean things up, and go from there.”

The hardest part to comprehend at the moment is how bad the Maple Leafs are playing at the moment, considering how well they played on the prior road trip. It’s been a complete 180. Toronto had swagger during the road trip, they had confidence, and they had all the facets of their game rolling at the same time. Now, it feels like they’re at the other end of the spectrum, and everyone is shaking their heads wondering – what’s going on right now?

“It is [puzzling], coming off the road trip and how good we had been playing. It is puzzling, for sure,” Berube said.

The Leafs head coach feels in order to get back into the winners circle, his hockey team is going to need to realize it’s going to take a full 200-foot game and a consistent effort in all three zones.

“The way I look at it: We looked at scoring as everything, and it is not everything. You are not going to consistently win in this league by focusing on scoring goals. You have to play the full rink. Right now, we are not doing a good enough job without the puck. That’s it.”

While the Maple Leafs search for answers, they’ll head west for a four-game trip, followed by two more on the road in the sunshine state, Berube has some pretty straight forward advice on his hockey club, which could remind some people of the simple motto of the New England Patriots football team for years.

“I’ve said it before. Confidence… You have to go, work, and compete. Your confidence will be fine. I mean, I get it, but we’re in the NHL. You’re getting paid to play hockey. You have to go and do the job. That’s your job. Do your job.”

Now we wait to see on Thursday night in Seattle, which Maple Leafs show up and do their job.

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