The Toronto Maple Leafs are going through the dog days of a lost season that began with a lot of optimism despite seeing a noted 100-point player depart the team in the offseason. While there were signs of the type of team that was envisioned by the higher-ups, the Leafs have not been able to sustain that which is why they sold at the deadline for the first time in a decade.

The only thing that the Leafs have left to play for at this point is pride, and even that is becoming difficult to come by when the disconnect between the players and coaching staff is becoming difficult to ignore. Not when the players are so obviously showing with their on-ice actions that they aren’t too keen on the system they are told to play, while head coach Craig Berube is out of answers to get a group of guys he probably isn’t keen on anyway to play his way. Those signs were certainly noticeable over the past few months as the team struggled to find their footing, but they are now bubbling at the surface based on the quotes that have emerged during some recent post-game pressers.

A back-to-back slate of games against the Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators was never going to be an easy task if they were in a playoff race, but it was not entirely surprising that the Leafs came away from those games with losses on both nights. What was surprising – or more accurately, infuriating – was how Berube decided to call out goalie Joseph Woll after the Hurricanes game.

“He’s played well,” Berube said. “Tonight, in the end, I think — I don’t think; I know — that we need a save, whether it is the OT or one of the breakaways. You just need a big save there.”

Woll had a 32-save performance in Friday’s loss, saving 0.47 goals above expected in all situations on a night where Carolina out-attempted Toronto 78-43. It was one of nearly 53 games (including Saturday’s loss) where the Leafs got outshot by the opposing team, which equates to nearly three-quarters of their games to this point in the season which is a mark not seen since the Randy Carlyle days. Any of the Leafs goalies, not just Woll, have had to essentially pull off a herculean effort to give the Leafs any chance at success, and that’s not a successful formula no matter how you slice it.

So when Woll was asked to self-assess his performance in the net, he stated that he feels ‘pretty solid’. That’s not to say he doesn’t feel the need to make improvements as he also said he would consult with goalie coach Curtis Sanford, but what more could Woll do when the system in front of him leaves him alone on an island. After Saturday’s game, Woll alluded to being forced to learn how to best manage his body after being given a high usage in terms of starts and workload. It’s not to blame him for that when he has little choice but to try and put on a Dominik Hasek performance on a nightly basis to give the Leafs any semblance of a chance to be in games.

Speaking of Saturday, the collective pressers were a telltale sign of disengagement between the players and Berube about what has contributed to their struggles. For instance, Easton Cowan stated after the loss to the Senators that he sensed that the Leafs got deflated after Tim Stutlze opened the scoring on the power-play. This makes sense for a team that is routinely chasing the game and routinely outshot regardless of the state of the game; trying to stay positive when things are going badly is a difficult thing to do. When asked what he thought of Cowan’s assessment, Berube essentially dismissed it as an excuse.

“I don’t know why they’d be deflated after we gave up a power-play goal,” Berube said. “We broke a stick, and we are trying to get a stick. They scored a goal, but big deal! We played a good first period. I don’t understand the thought process of not following up and not being ready to go in the second, knowing they’re going to push. We didn’t respond well enough. I don’t understand this “deflated” stuff, to be honest with you. It is a cop out.”

Then there was the fact that the Leafs were once again outshot, and on consecutive nights with the same goalie in the crease since the intended starter in Anthony Stolarz left warmups after taking a puck to the throat. It was a topic of conversation during the presser, which only further highlighted the divide between the players and the coach.

“ That’s the thing. I feel like some nights we have been giving up a lot of shots and not being able to generate that much offence,” William Nylander said. “Spending a lot of time in the D-zone. If we spent more time in the O-zone, we would relieve some of that pressure on Joe tonight on the back-to-back. But I think he battled his heart out.”

“It is frustrating for sure. We get pucks back in our zone. We don’t get it out of our zone. We don’t make the play to get it out, or whatever it is,” Berube said. “So then you play extended time in our zone and give up more shots. A lot of them came from the point. We just gotta do a better job of getting into the shooting lanes and disrupting that. For me, when we get pucks back, we aren’t doing anything with it.”

Both sides acknowledge the obvious fact that the Leafs are spending too much time in their own zone defending, yet it’s how they feel it can be rectified that you see the division. Berube thinks it’s because the Leafs aren’t doing anything with the puck, which could be attributed to the taxing nature of the system that he is implementing that leaves little left in the tank when they finally do gain possession. Rather than spend more time in the offensive zone like Nylander suggests, they are essentially asked to allow the opposition to throw the kitchen sink at the goalie with their only chances being on the counterattack. This makes Berube’s later comment on the Leafs not having enough guys who push all the more befuddling when given his flawed system.

John Tavares summed it up best when asked about how disappointing it has been to subject Woll to consecutive nights of a flurry of shots against, stating that “It’s just our game as a whole.” It’s hard to imagine that many other players on the roster don’t feel the same way about the state of the team with 11 games to go in the regular season.

This past weekend made it abundantly clear that the players have tuned out their head coach, while Berube is at his wits’ end with trying to get through to the Leafs. The divide is only going to widen as the campaign winds down, and there are no signs of it improving next year if the current setup is brought back for another go-around. The disjointed connection between the two sides is becoming difficult to ignore, and it only further enhances the notion that serious changes need to come in the offseason for the Leafs to turn things around.