The pressure is mounting as the Toronto Maple Leafs now hold a slim 3-2 series lead over the Ottawa Senators. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube spoke to reporters Wednesday, following a 4-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators in Tuesday’s Game 5.

Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were on the ice for all four goals, and took the brunt of criticism in a dreadful game, and while the focus is on the Maple Leafs’ stars, both from the media and fans alike, Berube emphasized it will take more than the headliners to eliminate the Senators on Thursday.

“It’s on everybody on the team,” Berube said. “I get it. That’s all I hear around here: core, core, core, the Core Four. But, it’s on everybody on the team. We’re a team, it’s on the whole team. It’s not just four guys.”

Matthews in particular made two critical blunders, accidentally screening Anthony Stolarz on Thomas Chabot’s opening goal. As the Senators held onto a 1-0 lead in the third period, and with a vital opportunity to tie the game, Matthews’ pass to Marner was picked off by Adam Gaudette, who raced down the ice and found Dylan Cozens for a short-handed marker. From there onwards, the Maple Leafs couldn’t solve Linus Ullmark, and the Senators added two empty-net goals to seal a 4-0 victory.

After the game, Matthews held himself accountable for the key giveaway.

“I just tried to find Mitchy up top. Thought we kinda drew them in. I didn’t see the guy there, obviously he picked it off. That’s on me, I have to make a better play,” Matthews said.

Marner also emphasized that the Leafs weren’t taking the Senators lightly, ahead of their next challenge.

“It’s not supposed to be easy,” Marner said post-game. “This is never supposed to be easy. We knew it was going to be a challenge, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. They pushed back the last two games. Now we have to go into a building and play our best game.”

“There’s things that we can do better offensively that we need to look at and go and do them,” Berube said. “I think they defended well and we did a lot of good things in the game, but there’s more there. That’s my job to try to get them out of it and their job. We’ll discuss it as a team and go over things, and we’ll be hopefully better.”

Berube is correct in the most literal sense, but there is disproportionate weight on the core of Matthews, Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander — a group that also includes Morgan Rielly as the team’s longest-tenured player. Toronto is firmly in its contention window and surrendering a 3-0 series lead to a provincial rival that finished 11 points behind in the regular season is the worst-case scenario.

The Core Four, and the rest of the Leafs will be tasked with eliminating the Senators on Thursday night in Kanata.