Craig Berube’s urgent demand to Mitch Marner after Maple Leafs’ Game 4 loss

The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost back-to-back games to the Florida Panthers, blowing a 2-0 series lead in the process. Mitch Marner, who has been one of their best players all season long, isn’t playing at the level we’re used to seeing from him through Games 3 and 4.

Marner has failed to record a single shot on target during that span. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube issued a challenge to the superstar ahead of Game 5.

Via NHL.com:

“Sometimes your top guys, they’re looking to get too good of a chance sometimes instead of just putting the puck on net,” Berube said Monday. “I think there’s times where we could put more pucks on net at angles, bad angles, just firing it in there with people going to the net. You never know, it goes off somebody, rebounds or anything like that.

“I think Mitch could just be a little bit more direct in that area. He has the puck a lot, we know that, and he’s got to look to put more pucks to the net. I get what he’s trying to do, he wants to upgrade his chance, upgrade the chance. He’s a passer first, we know that, but we need him to shoot pucks too. So yeah, I agree with you on that. Two games without a shot, he’s got to shoot the puck.”

Marner had five shots through the first two games of the series. He has four points so far in the Eastern Conference semifinals, but he’s not being aggressive enough offensively. That’s what Berube wants to see, which is understandable.

Sure, Marner is a pass-first player. After all, he tallied 75 helpers during the regular season while scoring 27 times. But, with Auston Matthews also struggling to produce with no goals in the series, it becomes that much more important for Marner to step up.

A bounce-back performance from the upcoming free agent is badly needed in Game 5.