The Toronto Maple Leafs are in second place in the Atlantic Division following the trade deadline, sitting four points back of the Florida Panthers for the division lead with a game in hand.

Tell yourself this back in September, and you’d probably be pretty satisfied with how the season has gone so far, but what makes things dicey is that the Leafs, Panthers, and the third-place Tampa Bay Lightning all sit within four points of each other. This divisional race is going to be a dogfight until the very end, and given that the Leafs were first as recently as last week before an ill-timed losing streak, they felt the need to sit down and address it.

Head coach Craig Berube revealed following practice on Sunday that the team sat down to address their recent struggles.

The Leafs’ recent losing streak started in the form of a 3-2 shootout loss to the league-worst San Jose Sharks, made worse by the fact that they choked a 2-0 lead. Following that was a 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, with Vegas scoring all five of their goals in the first half of the game, and most recently, another blown lead to the juggernaut Colorado Avalanche on Saturday spelled a 7-4 loss.

Even though the Leafs came into that losing streak having won five-straight, the wins weren’t exactly inspiring. Their last win was a 6-5 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins; the win before that was a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers in which they were outshot 35-16, and before that, it was a 5-4 comeback win over the Boston Bruins. Obviously, you’d rather be reading about a comeback win over a blown-lead loss, but the point is that the Leafs have not been playing at a sustainable level if they’re serious about winning the division and giving themselves the best odds to get out of the first round. This is likely why the team meeting was called.

The Maple Leafs will look to get back in the win column when they visit Utah HC for the first time ever on Monday night. One could argue that it’s a must-win game considering the circumstances in the standings and the fact that their next game is at home against the Panthers, the team they’re chasing. Either way, the Leafs will need better efforts going forward than what they’ve been getting since the 4-Nations break concluded.