Craig Berube pleased with Maple Leafs’ sense of urgency in win vs. Flames
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was happy to see his players playing with more desperation right off the hop in their win over the Calgary Flames on Monday. With the temperature from Leafs Nation at a fever pitch, given the team’s 1-4-1 slump, Berube expressed his frustrations with his players’ lack of urgency and letting…
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Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was happy to see his players playing with more desperation right off the hop in their win over the Calgary Flames on Monday.
With the temperature from Leafs Nation at a fever pitch, given the team’s 1-4-1 slump, Berube expressed his frustrations with his players’ lack of urgency and letting the opponents dictate play after Saturday’s loss to the Ottawa Senators. He met with the players before the morning skate on Monday emphasizing the need to be more hungry off the jump and maintaining it for 60 minutes.
The players responded with one of their most complete games in quite some time and calmed the outside noise for the time being.
“ The urgency in the way we came out and played, shot pucks, and our temps were way up. We were right on top of them. There was no room for them, so that was the key start of the game for us,” Berube said to reporters after the game. “ Our power play was very good tonight, obviously, and our PK did a good job. Those are big parts of the game. The challenge, our video guys did a good job there. It was taking a little longer than I thought. They told me we were 110 percent sure.”
Auston Matthews stood out as he finished the game with two goals and an assist, all of which came on the power play that went 3-3.
“That’s your leader, right? Led the way with effort, competitiveness, just work,” Berube said. ” I’m very happy. I thought our guys came through tonight, our big boys came through tonight. Led with the way we needed to play.”
Berube left fans scratching their heads when he shuffled the lines once again after having already done so over the weekend. Part of the shuffling included reuniting the third line of Nick Robertson, Max Domi, and Bobby McMann which resulted in Scott Laughton being ‘demoted’ to the fourth line.
Berube’s bet paid off in spades as despite two bad penalties from Robertson, the RDM line stood out in this one with all three members getting a goal.
“You get a little combination, you get a little speed on the wings right. Robby finishes, he finished tonight. Max made some plays,” he said. “But the line to me tonight, they had the hound mentality. I thought they were all skating, working, in the face of the other team, didn’t give them time and space and that was key to the line tonight, in my opinion.”
Call it the Luck of the Irish with the game being on Saint Patrick’s Day, but for a day at least Berube can be happy that his players responded well during a time when they were pissed off going into the game. Of course, getting the win is one thing but maintaining that more often than not is what he will be continuing to preach to the team going down the stretch.
