Despite how the playoffs came to an end, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube enjoyed his first campaign manning the bench.
The team had another successful regular season that included their first proper division title since 2000, and were able to win just their second playoff series of the Auston Matthews era. The Leafs pushed the Florida Panthers to Game 7 but were blown out in front of their home fans 6-1.
Berube made an appearance on the Nasty Knuckles Podcast with Riley Cote and Derek Settlemyre on Sunday, where he touched on the ‘great’ season and how much he enjoyed the experience.
“They’re a first-class organization. The organization, the way it’s run is exceptional,” he said. “The players we have there, the dedication and the professionalism that they show day in and day out are really good. I guess people would probably think, ‘Oh, it’s a country club there.’ It’s not. They have all the resources and the players do have everything they need. But they work, they’re focused, they want to do well, and they wanna win.”
There is no doubt that the star talent the Leafs have on their roster cares about winning and growing, even if the results when it matters have not followed suit. Even with all of the outside noise surrounding the Core Four, Berube has always been complimentary of his players and how they handle the pressures of playing in the Toronto market.
This certainly applies to Mitch Marner, who the coach felt had a great year overall while complimenting the star forward as a great guy and a hard worker.
“There’s a lot of pressure there and there’s been a lot of pressure put on him,” Berube said of how Marner has dealt with the pressure. “I think all the playoffs not advancing enough and then moving forward, they seek out certain guys and get on ’em. In the end, yeah, those guys have to produce for us in the playoffs. But it’s not just all about them in the playoffs, it’s a team. The way I look at it is we didn’t do a good enough job in Game 7 as a team to win that game, and that’s why we lost. It’s not on Marner, it’s not on Matthews, it’s on everybody.”
Berube went on to add that the best way to deal with the pressure is to focus on being the best you can be and having the mental toughness to not let the outside noise get to you.
Speaking of that Game 7 loss, a lot has been made about what went wrong and why the Leafs lost their composure that much when things began to unravel in the second period. When reflecting on what was the cause of the disappointing defeat at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup champions that ended their season, Berube felt they abandoned what helped them win Game 6 by being too impatient with their game.
“ You can’t force things against them because it’s just not there, and you gotta be okay with just getting pucks out and getting pucks in,” he said. “ It’s a hard game to play and it’s a hard game to stay patient because guys feel like they’re not accomplishing anything, but they are. That’s how you gotta beat that team. They’re just gonna keep coming no matter what, and we didn’t do a good enough job of it in Game 7.”
As a result of the loss, changes are expected to be coming to the Leafs and the first domino to fall was Brendan Shanahan’s contract not being renewed by MLSE. It marked the end of an 11-year tenure where the team’s hockey operations caught up with the modern era and a successful rebuild brought the Leafs back into the playoffs on a regular basis, though they had no Cups to show for it.
Berube may have only gotten to work alongside Shanahan for one season, but he enjoyed the time spent with the recently departed president and said he will be missed.
“ It was a tough day,” he said. “ I was in constant communication with him throughout the season. Here’s a guy that knows about winning and obviously was a great player. I loved talking to him about hockey on a daily basis and just being around him. He was around us a lot, which was great. For me, it was excellent to have that type of person and what he has accomplished in his career, just to run things by and situational stuff. So I really enjoyed him.”
You can watch the full interview with Berube down below:
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