Craig Berube addresses John Tavares’ fiery message to Maple Leafs teammates after shock 5-2 loss to Predators

John Tavares and the Toronto Maple Leafs lost 5-2 to the Nashville Predators on Saturday, ending their three-game winning streak. They started strong and led 2-0 after the first period, but struggled in the second and third. The Predators scored five unanswered goals, leaving the Leafs frustrated.

After the game, John Tavares said the team should be "pissed off" about the loss.

“We should be pissed off,” Tavares said postgame on Saturday. “It's a great opportunity to end a really good week the way we bounced back from a stretch that wasn't going our way. We weren't playing the way that we talked about our standard and the level of play we expect on a nightly basis."

"And it was a really good opportunity to go home and finish this trip in this week off really well. So it should piss us off and get us ready for another big week next week.”

On Tuesday, before the game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Berube responded to Tavares' comments. He agreed that the team was frustrated and needed to learn from mistakes.

“Yeah, I agree with that, I think they are upset about it for sure,” Berube said on Tuesday. [13:20] “You know, coming out of the first period we’re up 2-0, we’re in good shape, almost make it 3-0. But it’s a learning lesson, in my opinion, that you can’t get impatient in your game and get away from your game and that’s what we did in the second period. Next thing you know, we’re down 3-2. So, yeah, nobody’s happy about it.”

Toronto has already beaten Philadelphia twice this season and hopes to do it again on Tuesday. Maple Leafs have a record of 42-25-3 and they are placed second in the Atlantic Division. The Leafs are two points behind the Florida Panthers.

John Tavares' statement on second-period mistakes by Maple Leafs

John Tavares scored first for Toronto on a power play at 9:16 and later Mitch Marner scored the second goal with a one-timer after Auston Matthews won a faceoff.

Michael Bunting scored for Nashville at 1:39 of the second period to cut the lead to 2-1. Kieffer Bellows tied the game 2-2 at 9:15 with a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 rush. Filip Forsberg gave the Predators a 3-2 lead at 19:13, scoring off his own rebound.

John Tavares pointed out the second-period mistakes.

“We just didn’t have a very good second period, obviously,” Tavares said. “I think some of our detail in coverage broke down and led to odd-man rushes for them, which obviously got them on the board, got them into the game, got them the lead. Their energy and their game built as the night went on.”

Luke Evangelista made it 4-2 at 10:17 in the third with a wrist shot. Forsberg secured the win with an empty-net goal at 19:23, ending the game 5-2.