Berube calls out Maple Leafs’ ‘leaders’ after no-show versus Oilers

TORONTO — They say your best players gotta be your best players.

But first, they need to show up.

On a night when the Edmonton Oilers’ best players flooded the scoresheet, added to their highlight reels and stopped celebrating goals because the outcome was so out of reach, we’re gonna have to check the walk-in footage to see if the Toronto Maple Leafs’ stars even entered the building.

Captain Auston Matthews mustered two shots and won just 42.9 per cent of his faceoffs. He was requested but did not speak to reporters post-game.

John Tavares had a couple shots to go with his minus-3 rating and lost most of his draws, too.

Morgan Rielly got posterized by you-know-who and was also dash-3.

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Same with William Nylander, who got benched towards the end of Saturday’s 6-3 rout, coach Craig Berube said, because he “wasn’t even close to 75 per cent,” so why bother keep throwing him out there.

None of those Toronto stars had a point.

Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid put on a clinic, each running their own line, each piling three points on plus-3 efforts.

“I talked to the team after the game. Our leaders got to take control of it a lot more than they are right now,” Berube said. “It’s all mindset.”

A week ago, the Maple Leafs appeared to have turned a corner.

Now, with consecutive blown-lead losses and roll-over third periods at home, they’re acting like crawling out of the basement is good enough.

This meeting between two notoriously slow-starting perennial playoff teams began fun, fast and frantic. And with time dwindling in the second period, the score was 2-2.

Who wants it more?

Nick Robertson threw a blind pass that led to a deadly Oilers counterstrike, and McDavid orchestrated a tic-tac-toe goal for Darnell Nurse with 31 ticks before intermission.

“It’s not smart hockey,” Berube said.

The Maple Leafs came out for the third with all the intensity of a passport renewal office.

By the time a solid but “tired” Dennis Hildeby (Berube’s word) got the mercy pull, he’d given up six goals on 32shots and five unanswered.

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Artur Akhtyamov, Toronto’s fifth goaltender this season, made his NHL debut in mop-up duty as patrons filed out early. Some stuck around to boo or mock-chant “Let’s! Go! Blue! Jays!”

Could you blame them?

They’d just watched the home team get outmanned and outworked at the net-fronts, weaved through like traffic cones by the speedier side, and give the puck away 24 times.

“Not taking care of the puck, turning the puck over, and obviously not playing hard enough in front of our net. That’s what’s happened the last two games,” said Oliver Ekman-Larsson, another minus-3.

“We need to want to have the puck too and help each other out. So, I think that’s something we gotta look at.”

A couple Leafs mentioned poor execution, but effort looked nonexistent in what Rielly called an “unacceptable” final 20.

“Well, I think they go hand in hand, and I think it’s across the board,” Rielly said. “You go to the third, you just have to play better than that, if you’re gonna win in this league.”

Scott Laughton, whose fourth line was Toronto’s best on this night, says these flat third periods are difficult to understand.

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“We have to be better managing games in certain situations. You see those guys, you know how good they are in moments. And then it can turn on you that quick,” Laughton said. “It’s a 60-minute game for a reason. You gotta wear the team down and go the other way, play north, make them come 200 feet. I don’t think we did enough of that.”

The Oilers’ best players were quick.

The Maple Leafs’ were quick to disappear.

“We played into their speed, too. You can limit them a little bit. And obviously they got two of the best players in the world, right? But you can make it harder on them getting up and down the ice. But, yeah, we need to be better in every area of the game — and it’s just not good enough,” said Laughton, speaking like a leader.

“So, pick ourselves up and pick up some points here at home. We got to start pushing. Have some urgency and get going.”

Fox’s Fast Five

• Tough moment for Oiler-turned-Leaf Troy Stecher, who sniped an own goal off a McDavid centring pass in the second period.

“Tonight’s probably my biggest test as an individual player, going up against 97,” Stecher said pre-game. “Hopefully know some of his tendencies where I can have some success tonight, but I’m sure he’s going to get his look. Just fortunate for the opportunity.”

Outside of the costly gaffe, Stecher held his own on another busy night at the office (one assist, plus-1, 22:22).

“A great teammate. That’s the biggest thing,” McDavid said. “An unbelievable teammate. Does whatever is asked of him. It’s been great to see him come here and have such a big role. And he’s playing great.”

• Draisaitl put up three primary assists in a span of two minutes and 26 seconds.

His next point will be his 1,000th.

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• McDavid does not seem too concerned about the unfinished Olympic rink in Milan.

“You’d like the ice quality to be good. The size of it doesn’t matter,” says the Canadian superstar.

“I’m excited. I think everybody is. Seems to be in the back of everyone’s mind that is going or thinks they have a chance to go. You’ve seen guys get off to great starts, pushing for spots all across the league. It’s been fun to watch.”

Like fellow top-five scorers Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard.

“Great to see them take steps,” McDavid said. “They’ve been really impressive.”

• The way Ekman-Larsson left Thursday’s game, unable to place weight on his left leg, we’re floored he played Saturday. His injury looked serious.

“Crazy how much it can change in a day or day and a half,” the defenceman said. “So, I’m lucky.”

Ekman-Larsson’s perfect attendance remains intact — and he scored.

• Safe to say, the third-round pick Toronto sent to Utah for Matias Maccelli won’t be upgraded to a second-rounder.

That was the condition tagged on the trade if Maccelli scored at least 51 points.

The man can’t even get in the lineup.

Maccelli took warmups but was scratched for a seventh straight game. He hasn’t played since Nov. 28 and hasn’t scored since Nov. 8. The Leafs have won only one of their past nine games when the shifty winger does dress.

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