With only two days before Christmas and one game before the holiday, the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves in a situation nobody wanted them to be in. The team has lost five of their last six games, they sit at the bottom of the Atlantic Division and they just fired one of their assistant coaches.

Marc Savard joined the Leafs’ bench prior to the 2024-25 season after the hiring of head coach Craig Berube, and the biggest of his responsibilities was the power play. The result is a power play that is currently dead last in the league with a horrendous 13.3% conversion rate. This isn’t entirely Savard’s fault, but a message had to be sent that the current happenings aren’t good enough.

Head coach Craig Berube met with media prior to the Leafs’ afternoon game against the Pittsburgh Penguins and expressed regret over the way things played out but acknowledged that this is a results business.

“Yeah, it’s always hard when you lose somebody and things change,” Berube said. “But, we didn’t perform well enough and that’s ultimately on me…we’ve struggled all year. It wasn’t improving, we didn’t see enough improvement. Obviously results are what it’s all about, and there definitely weren’t enough results.”

Berube was then asked how much of the struggles can be pinned on underperforming star players Auston Matthews and William Nylander, to which he refused to blame a single party but rather, the entire team.

“Well, it’s on everybody,” Berube told reporters. “Like I said, it’s on me, I’m the head coach.”

MLSE CEO Keith Pelley said in the spring that Berube would have more input on decisions, and he reiterated that he and general manager Brad Treliving are in constant communication.

“Tree [Treliving] and I communicate on everything very well, and, you know, we make decisions on what we both think is best for the team.”

The Maple Leafs will have one last chance to cool the temperature a little bit before Christmas, but if there’s no improvement, there will be more questions asked.

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