Maple Leafs 'awful,' routed by Predators at home

TORONTO – The best way to overcome a bad performance against a lesser team is to put up a good performance against a good team.

The Toronto Maple Leafs did the opposite Tuesday night, getting routed at home by the Nashville Predators 9-2.

Combined with a Saturday loss to the last-place Sabres in Buffalo, the Maple Leafs have been outscored 15-4 over their last two games.

Goalie Jonathan Bernier got the start but he was gone by the start of the second period. James Reimer held the Maple Leafs in it for a period before the Predators had another offensive explosion in the third.

"It was an awful performance," coach Randy Carlyle said. "How can you sugarcoat what happened?"

Added captain Dion Phaneuf: "We got beaten in every aspect of the game."

And while the two blowout losses will lead to speculation that Carlyle could lose his job, the players took the blame for what happened.

"We have to take ownership," Phaneuf said. "It's not the coaching staff. It's the players in the room."

Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Bernier wasn't sharp, Phaneuf got beaten on a play for the second game in a row.

There were too many close-in shots. Reimer had a shot roll up his body into the net.

Carlyle said there were 35 turnovers in the first two periods, and the offense, defense and goaltending all needed to be better.

The Predators tied their franchise record for most goals in a game.

"We made too many dumb plays as far as turnovers and not playing within our structure and you see the puck end up in the net," said forward James van Riemsdyk.

The night, which started on a nice gesture as fans completed the U.S. national anthem when the singer had a faulty microphone, got ugly.

There were boos, and the stands at Air Canada Centre were half full by the start of the third period. One fan threw a T-shirt onto the ice.

"It's tough not to hear the boos or see the jerseys thrown on the ice night after night," defenseman Cody Franson said. "We have to do a better job of managing that in the room and keep things focused solely on hockey, but when things start teetering a bit, it's tough not to hear that."

The one thing that was missing was any chants for Carlyle's departure. But the Leafs coach knows that the tough Toronto media will be discussing that.

"When you get in this business, you better understand that when things don't go well, there's going to be a huge amount of scrutiny that's paid to your position," he said.

New president Brendan Shanahan kept on general manager Dave Nonis and Carlyle so he could evaluate them. He changed up the assistant GM and the assistant coaches instead.

Regardless of whether Carlyle survives the twin debacles, Toronto will have to try to rebound against a highly skilled Tampa Bay Lightning team on Thursday.

"Individually, we need to prepare better to play," van Riemsdyk said. "We're making too many mental mistakes and when you do that, you make it very hard on yourself and you start chasing the game too much. And when you do that, you start forcing things and it snowballs."