Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock has never been the type to make excuses for his team. When he joined the organization as part of a massive rebuild in May of 2015, he expected growing pains.

He endured them early when his team struggled out of the gate last season, finishing dead last. He was patient this season with his new starting goaltender, Frederik Andersen, who struggled through his first five starts.

But after 25 games, Babcock finds his team going into Thursday tied for last in the Eastern Conference with 25 points.

“You feel it for sure,” he said following a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild. “We were set up to win a segment tonight, and we didn’t do that.”

The “segment” Babcock refers to is his goal of getting six points out of every five games played. He reminds his players of it as often as he can as a way of narrowing their focus to short stretches of games.

Going into Wednesday’s loss, the Maple Leafs had five points in their last four games. Trailing 3-2 going into the third period, the goal was simple: Force the game into overtime. Win the game, and that’s gravy.

Toronto threw everything and more at the Wild. Toronto dominated the final 20 minutes by firing 35 shots toward the net and allowing just four shot attempts at Andersen. Minnesota hung on thanks to goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who saved all 17 shots in the frame.

“It seemed like the whole third period was like that, really,” Nazem Kadri said. ”Tons of Grade A opportunities and lots on the power play. He’s a good goaltender. That’s what good teams do. They have timely saves, and they definitely got that tonight.”

Instead of looking at the way his team battled in the third period, Babcock instead put the focus on his team’s troubles defensively. Two of Minnesota’s goals were scored when one player was left vulnerable behind their own net as the opposition swarmed. Both situations led to a centring pass and a goal for Minnesota.

“We’ve done lots of good things, really good things, but I’m no different than you people or the fans. I get greedy. I want to be better,” Babcock said. “We want to be better… We’ve got to find a way to win every night.”

It’s clear Babcock is concerned with repeated mistakes that will bury his team. His aim is to get his players playing in meaningful games toward the end of the season so he can properly evaluate what he has in his young core of players. If the current trend continues, the Leafs could be in for another long March and April, out of the race.

For the uber-competitive Babcock, that simply won’t cut it.

The defensive mistakes

Kadri was behind the net when he was swarmed by the Wild. With Connor Carrick leaving Kadri alone, he was stripped of the puck, which led to a pass from behind the net and a goal for Jason Zucker for a 1-0 lead 8:42 into the first period.

“We gave up four chances from below our goal line, and you can’t give those up,” Babcock said.

The Wild scored the game-winner in similar fashion when Morgan Rielly was left alone behind the net with three Minnesota players crowding him. Eric Staal scored to make it 3-1 at 1:15 of the second period.

Pressure on Nylander

Trailing in the third period, Babcock replaced Nikita Soshnikov on the top line with William Nylander. Although it makes sense to have Nylander move back up to wing to look for an equalizer when the team isn’t being challenged in their own zone, it didn’t stop Babcock from pointing out Nylander’s need for better two-way responsibility.

“The reality is for him to play centre in the league, he’s going to have to get way better defensively and more competitive.” Babcock said. “It’s just a situation where we were behind, and he’s a guy who can shoot the puck in the net. Sosh did nothing wrong. Sosh plays hard.”

The sick bug

The flu has been going around the Leafs dressing room. Andersen was bitten by it last week but didn’t miss any starts. Matt Martin sat out of Monday’s practice and Nazem Kadri missed out on practice Tuesday. The first victim to miss a game due to it was defenceman Martin Marincin against the Wild.

“We expected him to play, he just wasn’t able to,” Babcock said. “We’ve had lots of guys sick.

The penalty kill

The Maple Leafs were shorthanded just once against the Wild. With the successful kill, they improved to fourth in the league at 85.5 percent. They have successfully killed their last 17 penalties, their longest stretch of the season. They have not allowed a power-play goal in the last five games – not allowing a power-play goal in this last segment.