The Toronto Maple Leafs delivered another embarrassing loss in what’s been a season full of them so far, and head coach Craig Berube appears to be done mincing words.

After the Leafs faced yet another shutout, with a complete failure to generate any sort of offence on the power play or at even strength, Berube said that the result came down to the Capitals players playing with more passion than the Maple Leafs.

“Ourselves,” Berube said bluntly when asked what made the Capitals a big challenge for them. “We had power play opportunities, the power play was not good, it’s gotta be a lot better. To me, they played with more passion than we did tonight. That’s what it boils down to. It looked to be like they had way more urgency in their game, way more passion in their game, that’s the difference.”

Berube was then asked how you explain the lack of passion considering the circumstances surrounding the Leafs right now, to which he delivered the dagger.

“Ask those guys,” motioning his head toward the Leafs dressing room. “Not me.”

Perhaps the most shameful part of the effort was the team’s horrendous power play. They went 0-for-5 with the top unit often getting pulled off at the one-minute mark for the second unit, and on the final power play the top unit was held off of the ice for the second unit despite the Leafs still being within striking distance. Berube said that the top unit didn’t do any of the things they needed to do to maintain offensive zone possession.

“The power play has actually been getting better, but tonight it got awful in my opinion,” Berube said. “I thought the other unit did some good things, they had a couple of opportunities and just misfired, didn’t go in, had some good chances. But, our top unit didn’t execute, didn’t win any battles then they needed to, just couldn’t make plays.”

Berube continued to lament the lack of production from his top players, with the line of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Matthew Knies being vastly outplayed at 5-on-5. The three players were paired in an effort to get some consistent offence going and took things in the opposite direction instead, to which Berube provided another blunt answer.

“No,” he said when asked if he saw enough from his top line. “Not even close.”

Despite all of this, Berube believes his message is going to get through to his players.

“No, I don’t think I’m concerned about that. I mean, the message is the message, you know they need to take it and go with it, but I’m not concerned with it, no.”

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