Maple Leafs need more from Auston Matthews - can they rely on that?

There was a reunion of sorts at Maple Leafs practice on Monday.

William Nylander was on captain Auston Matthews’ right wing at the Ford Performance Centre as the Leafs returned to work following a day off on Sunday.

The two have started a handful of games together in 2025-26 and will get another opportunity as coach Craig Berube continues to try to find anything that will help result in success.

Little has gone right so far through 31 games as the Leafs continue to cling to playoff hopes, no matter how increasingly unrealistic they might appear to be.

There’s quite a bit to dig into as the Leafs get set to play host to the Chicago Blackhawks — who won’t have star forward Connor Bedard as he has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury — on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena.

THE ISSUES

Berube called out his leadership group on Saturday night after a dispiriting loss to the Edmonton Oilers, when Leon Draisaitl took the baton from captain Connor McDavid to start the third period and helped provide the difference in a 6-3 Oilers win.

The Leafs’ best players aren’t providing an edge, a difference, an impact — however you want to term it — when the outcome of a game is in doubt. It happened last Thursday as well, when the San Jose Sharks rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Leafs 3-2 in overtime.

Here’s a cold, hard fact that the Leafs should find troubling: They’re 5-3-2 in their past 10 games — not spectacular, but not terrible either — to collect 12 points.

Yet they’ve made no headway in the Eastern Conference standings. In fact, the Leafs are in a worse spot than they were 10 games ago.

Before National Hockey League games on Monday, the Leafs were five points short of the Montreal Canadiens for third place in the Atlantic Division and five points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the conference.

On Nov. 21, or 10 games ago, the Leafs were three points shy of both third in the Atlantic and the second wildcard.

WHAT THEY SAID

“We can all be better. The last two games, it’s frustrating. The third periods, we came out and were really flat and didn’t have enough energy, and let the game get out of hand. Rightfully so, it’s going to fall on the leaders, and that’s fine. We have to be better in that area.”

— Matthews on Berube calling out the leaders

“I mean, it’s fine. It’s been a grind lately. It’s trying to string together points and wins, and I think we’ve done a pretty decent job of that over the last seven, eight, nine, 10 games. Over the last two games, I think some of the details in our game and execution slipped a little bit, especially in the third period.”

— Matthews, when we asked him about his game specifically

“I don’t know. It’s hard to pinpoint one certain thing. For us, for myself personally, it’s just next game, doing whatever I can to help the team. That’s the most important thing for us in this room. You have to put your individual stuff to the side and do whatever is necessary to help the team win. You want to produce, you want to score. But I think the little things leak through the locker room just as much as the big things do.”

— Matthews on why this season feels like more of a grind than past years

“I’m not seeing enough from that line in general, offensively or defensively. It could be a real good line. They have to work together and do things right.”

— Berube on putting Nylander on the top line with Matthews and Matthew Knies, and taking Max Domi off it

“It’s not at the level that he wants it at, or us. It’s not just about scoring goals, it’s the whole game in general. But I do believe, and I know he believes, it’s going to get better. It’s not just him, I think it’s our team in general. It’s not just on one guy. I think our consistency has been up and down a lot this year and it bleeds through everybody on the team. It’s about the team. You look around the standings and how tight it is and we have to be better.”

— Berube on Matthews’ overall performance and the Leafs as a whole

OUR TAKE

Matthews isn’t close to being the player he has been in the past, whether it has been a failure to score with consistency or be the driver, if not dominate, in games.

Matthews has a salary-cap hit of $13.25 million US, less than only Draisaitl, whose cap hit is $14 million.

With 21 points (13 goals and eight assists) in 26 games, Matthews was 113th in NHL scoring before Monday’s games.

Matthews has maintained his health is not an issue, yet to say his game has been “fine” is ridiculous.

The captain continues to have not a lot of interest in taking full accountability and simply can’t say that he has to be a lot better than he has been and knows as much. You’d think there would be more concern shown publicly, especially when making headway in the standings is so difficult.

We’re about to hit Christmas. You could forgive a team’s slow start and a player’s slow start, if there were signs that the light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t a train barrelling down.

This has gone far beyond a slow start for both Matthews and the Leafs. Toronto is going to have to go a long run of wins and hope teams around them in the standings stop going to overtime, to have a true chance to get into actual playoff contention.

Berube was right to call out the leaders, a group that includes Nylander and John Tavares, on Saturday.

On Monday, when Berube said it was not just about one player, that it’s about the team, that’s true to an extent.

Where the Leafs are getting failure right now is the inability of Matthews, specifically, to take charge.

That’s why he is the captain. It’s what he is paid to do.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun