‘Unacceptable’: Leafs secure comeback win, but lament ugly effort through two periods

TORONTO – Craig Berube could breathe a sigh of relief. The Maple Leafs head coach was also far from pleased.

His team looked dead and buried through two periods on a listless night where they appeared either unwilling or unable to get out of second gear.

The script — almost out of nowhere — then dramatically flipped.

Toronto roared back with three goals early in the third against the Pittsburgh Penguins before Bobby McMann buried the winner with just over six minutes to go in regulation to snatch an unlikely 4-3 decision.

Berube, however, was at a loss to explain much of Monday’s showing in the immediate aftermath.

“I have no clue … I don’t have an answer for that,” he said of an ugly performance over the game’s first 40 minutes. “The second period, they got the puck and did whatever they wanted with it, and we didn’t check anybody. We didn’t knock anybody off the puck. And when we did get it, we gave it back to them, and they just kept coming back down our throats. 

“It’s not good enough.” 

Berube expected the Leafs’ push that eventually came to start the middle period. The group instead had just eight shots total when it headed down the tunnel and into its locker room for the second intermission.

After that lacklustre showing, the veteran bench boss addressed the group.

“You guys can use your imagination for that and everyone else just echoed,” said Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who kept things close when the score was 3-0 and finished with 34 saves. “We’re big boys. We’ve been around long enough. We knew that’s not our game.”

Berube loaded up his top line in the third with William Nylander joining Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies in hopes of gaining a spark — and it worked.

Matthews got things going on a breakaway before Nylander scored twice in his return from a lower-body injury that saw the winger sit for three of the last four contests.

“Energy and passion, emotion … first two periods, it wasn’t pretty,” Matthews said of what was missing. “We just couldn’t really get much going on either side of the puck. Proud of the way we fought back, but you don’t want to put yourself in that position to begin with.

“Definitely something that we want to clean up right away.” 

Nylander, meanwhile, was more succinct in his assessment.

“Unacceptable,” he said. “Our compete level was not there. Losing every battle, losing every puck.” 

Monday did, however, mark just the fourth time in franchise history — and first since March 1977 — that the Leafs rallied from a three-plus goal deficit in the third to pick up a regulation victory.

“It can give you confidence,” Matthews said. “But in the end, we’re a veteran group. We’ve been in situations like that before. The message is not as much, ‘It was great to come back and get the two points and have a great third period.’ The focus should more be on the first two periods and why we lacked all those different things that got us down. 

“It’s something that we’ll figure out, but we’ll take the two points and move on and continue to try to build.” 

Berube will no doubt be harping on some key points when the Leafs reconvene for practice Tuesday.

“Guys played in the third and did what they’re capable of doing, and came back and won a game,” said the 2019 Stanley Cup-winning coach. “That’s a good feeling, but we have to understand that you’re going to get down in this league at times by a couple goals … it’s the response that’s needed to get back in the game.

“We got that response in the third. I don’t understand why we never got it right away in the second — that’s the frustrating part. And that’s all mental for me. It’s all mental for me. Just got to be better.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2025.