The Toronto Maple Leafs are at a point in their season where there doesn’t feel like there’s any leeway with any losses. Perhaps at the start of the year, when they were coasting through their annual October blues, but those October blues have stuck around through November and well into December, so when they lose a game lately, it’s harder and harder to justify them.

That said, Sunday night’s loss to the Red Wings wasn’t the type of game that produced spicy soundbites from the postgame. In fact, head coach Craig Berube kept a positive attitude towards what he’s seen from his team lately.

“It was a hard-fought game, I liked a lot of our game tonight,” Berube told reporters following the game. “The guys competed hard, it was a good game both ways. The goalie was good. There was a lot of good. We could have executed on a couple plays better.”

After a couple of games that involved trading goals with the opponent and a much higher-octane pace, Sunday’s game against the Red Wings was a much tighter, defensively approached outing. Berube says that he’s happy with his team picking up five of six points and stressed that the process has been much better lately.

“It’s good, this game was a hard-fought game, Detroit played well, too.” Berube continued. “I thought our first period and most of the second, in the last five minutes of the second they started to push a little bit, and we turned pucks over and couldn’t get out of our zone. Other than that, it was a good game.”

The Maple Leafs will host former head coach Sheldon Keefe and the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday for their final game of 2025 before opening the calendar year with a date against the Winnipeg Jets. Berube is confident that if the Leafs continue to bring the efforts they have lately to every game, things will start to look a lot better for them.

“I thought our guys came in with the right attitude in the back-t0-back games. They competed hard and worked. There were a lot of good things, but we fell short by one point.”

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