The Toronto Maple Leafs have dropped five of their last six games, with their only win during this 1-4-1 run coming via shootout.

"There’s certain stretches that you go through where it’s not there and you just keep battling away as a coach and you gotta hold your players accountable," said Craig Berube. "They need to make their mind up in the room, the importance of the start of the game and 60 minutes, you know, urgency, details, doing things right, playing our game. I didn’t find that we wanted to play our game early enough in this game."

Toronto has held a lead in four of the five losses during this skid.

During Saturday's 4-2 loss to the Senators, the Leafs led 1-0 and 2-1 only to see Ottawa roar back and tie the game quickly. The Senators then took the lead on a power-play goal before the second intermission.

"I thought that their three goals were all about losing battles inside the blue line," Berube said. "We didn’t win enough battles there in that area of the game. It’s urgency for me and details in the first two periods that weren’t there."

The Leafs made a push in the third period, but couldn't break through against a Senators team eager to make the playoffs for the first time since 2017. That was the year the Leafs started their run of eight straight playoff appearances.

"Details in our game haven’t quite been there," said Leafs captain Auston Matthews. "It’s on us to figure that out and to just be better. We gotta get it through our head that all these games, especially some of the teams we’re playing, are going to be playoff-like games."

The schedule is unrelenting right now. The Leafs will host the Calgary Flames, who are two points out of a playoff spot, on Monday night. Nathan MacKinnon and the surging Colorado Avalanche will visit Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday. Then it's off to New York to face a rested and desperate Rangers side on Thursday.

The Leafs have just one regulation win in their last nine games.

Berube believes the team's leadership group will be able to get things back on track.

"These guys, they want to win," the coach stressed. "Trust me on that. They want to win. There’s a sense of frustration, for sure, and we gotta look past that. We can’t complain about or get undisciplined because teams are checking us hard. And that’s what you gotta get through," Berube said.

"They checked hard. Florida checked hard........

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