Auston Matthews emphasizes a lack of details in loss to Senators

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews held himself accountable after Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators, emphasizing a lack of urgency and details.

Matthews scored on a freak play where Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark flubbed the puck, but the Senators scored three consecutive goals and closed the gap in the Atlantic Division race. Toronto now holds a four-point lead over Ottawa, while the Tampa Bay Lightning now sit second in the Atlantic with 81 points, after defeating the Boston Bruins 6-2.

“The margins were really small in the last couple of games,” Matthews said post-game. “Details ina our game haven’t quite been there and it’s on us to figure that out and be better. We gotta get it through our head that all these games, especially some of these teams we’re playing, are going to be playoff-like games. These are teams fighting for their lives, they’re trying to make a push, they’re desperate teams. We have to wrap our heads around that and be better all around as a team.”

Toronto hasn’t won a game in regulation through March and the team is slipping in all facets, after pushing its chips in at the trade deadline for Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo.

“I think when there’s slippage like that, it’s just trying to get back on track as quickly as possible,” Matthews said. “And, you know, for whatever reason, it just hasn’t, hasn’t kind of clicked, hasn’t really gotten back on track for us. So, you know, I think it’s just important for us to just take a look in the mirror at the reset button. We’ve got an important week coming up with a lot of games.”

Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube also pointed to a lack of details as a key reason why his team lost. Berube put the forward lines in a blender for Saturday’s game and while William Nylander and Matthew Knies largely played well, it didn’t create a strong net result for his club.

“I’d use the word urgency, some detail stuff,” Berube said post-game. “Their three goals were all about losing battles inside the blue line. We didn’t win enough battles there. It’s urgency for me and details in the first two periods that weren’t there. When we decide to have urgency and do things the right way, we’re a way better team.”

Toronto resumes its schedule Monday against the Calgary Flames, before hosting the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. The small details are often the difference in professional sports and it’s incumbent upon Matthews to lead the charge within 16 games remaining, and the most important playoff run of the decade on the horizon.