The best time for the 2025-26 Maple Leafs to make a coaching change was back in November (when the writing was on the wall), followed by every day thereafter. The next best time is now.

The surrender we’ve seen in the Leafs‘ losses since this season officially went off the rails, even in the trying circumstances with important players sitting out for “roster management” purposes, isn’t acceptable. They’re now getting tuned up by fellow sellers/non-playoff teams. There is losing, and then there is losing like this, with a severe lack of structure and effort. It’s not an ideal environment for player development. It’s actively disorienting from a player evaluation standpoint, as the Leafs try to chart the path forward here — without their first-rounder, barring a miracle, and theoretically still attempting to win something with a prime-aged (actually, is he still in his prime?) Auston Matthews. It’s undesirable from a culture perspective — accepting losing, or losing in this manner, can be contagious, and it quickly needs to be eradicated from an organization’s DNA.

There is a lot to cover regarding the pitfalls of the Berube era; from lineup decisions, to deployment, to systems/structure, to the astonishingly bad early-season power play (etc., etc.) — but fundamentally, his ultimate undoing is that he could never get the team to possess the puck enough. The warning signs were there when they seemingly took the wrong lessons from the Game 5 and Game 7 debacles in the Florida series. Eventually, when goaltending slipped and the defense regressed this season, the team found itself in a very precarious position.

Berube may have simply never valued or emphasized puck possession enough, or maybe he did value it (or started to value it) but couldn’t come up with the necessary tactical adjustments to improve on it (and/or didn’t have the ability to communicate those adjustments effectively to the players). Either way, Berube hockey has proven to be a losing formula over time. The team’s breakouts were a mess for too long this season, and when those got a little better (although never good), they still mindlessly dumped pucks in for easy turnovers far too frequently. Over time, not having the puck seeped into this hockey team’s fabric. The players became too accustomed to not having it as much as the other team, too used to reflexively handing it back to the opponent.

We can hear the delusional self-narratives in the post-game answers: Berube’s bend-but-don’t-break, weather-the-storm mentality crept into the players’ psyche to the point where — among many other examples — they recently called losses like the one to the Flyers a blueprint game to build on, and the loss in New Jersey (47 shots against, including the highest slot shots against of the season) was referred to as a good performance defensively.

The process, or what the team has come to consider a good process, is way off, and it starts with the head coach. After their recent loss in Florida, when the Leafs got blitzed and the game was over in the first period, Berube said they knew they’d have to weather an early push; this current Panthers team is easily missing the playoffs and has been handily out-scored in first periods this season. The Leafs this season were always ceding ground before the puck was even dropped; they were always expecting a push, always weathering a storm. They never set out to dictate play.

Now, Brad Treliving is making trades from a position where almost no player was/is shining on the ice, and the team is playing like it is the worst in the league. For letting it plunge this low with this coach, the GM’s job should be under serious scrutiny as well.

The team needs a new voice, even if it’s an internal candidate on an interim basis (e.g., Derek Lalonde), for the rest of the season. Berube has seemingly been tuned out on the bench, and he’s publicly questioning the players’ hearts and brains. What else are we waiting for at this point?

Brian Burke once said, at a similar stage of a miserable Leafs season back in March of 2012, “It would be cruel and unusual punishment to let Ron Wilson coach another game at Air Canada Centre.” The Fire Berube chants aren’t as audible as the Fire Wilson ones were then — the fan reaction at the SBA feels more indifferent so far, alarmingly — but we’re clearly at the same point now where the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs needs to be put out of his misery.

Oh, as for the game tonight: The score was 6-2 Rangers.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

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