Craig Berube says Maple Leafs need to stick together and fight through adversity

The Leafs have lately been struggling to generate any positive momentum for a sustainable period of time, compounded by their ongoing four-game losing streak, where they have allowed at least four goals against in each of them. Even when they were winning games, the defensive struggles have been paramount, with less than convincing performances for a team that was expected to be in the upper echelon of the league going into the season.

Berube knows that the issues lie in getting the puck cleanly out of their zone and spending too much time defending, so the solution is to keep building on the good that has come from their recent form.

“ I thought the guys worked. They had pretty good energy out there, which is good,” he said to reporters after Friday’s practice. “Things aren’t good right now. A lot of times, you can come in today with practice, everybody’s hanging their heads and kind of going through the motions. I didn’t see that today, which is good.  We had energy, guys worked hard, they did what we asked them to do, and just trying to reinforce things here. Just get going in the right direction, and you never know.”

“He’s the same old Joe to me in practice,” he said. “I like what I see, he’s a hard worker. He looks good. He went down and played a couple of games with the Marlies, which is good, getting game action. He seems normal to me and ready to go.”

While there are some reinforcements on the way, including the returning Easton Cowan, the Leafs are still missing numerous key members of the team right now. The most notable is captain Auston Matthews, who was placed on injured reserve retroactive to November 11 and will miss at least a week of action.

The good news is that they have the remaining star players leading the charge and carrying the load, headlined by William Nylander, who is among the league’s scoring leaders. It is through difficult times like this that Berube wants to see them, and Nylander especially, take charge.

“ I think more like he’s shown it and to me he has shown it, but I think he’s shown it in the room too,” he said. “On the ice, I just need a little bit more consistency.  There’s a lot of good like he does, but then it kind of is a little bit inconsistent. So  consistency, just staying with it, and working.”

Above all else, the Leafs need to find a way to work their way through this difficult stretch and not let the outside noise creep into the room. Berube knows how big the team is in the market and the fact that many more people will be talking about them, but he always tells his players to tune out the noise and focus on what they need to do to right the ship. For that to become a reality, he stressed that the team will need to stick together and fight through the adversity both as a unit and as individuals.

“Confidence is a funny thing. But if you want to get your confidence back, you go and work to get it back.  That’s how you get your confidence back,” he said. “We’re in adversity right now. Well, what are we going to do? We’re going to go through that adversity, go through that wall. Find a way to get through it. Climb over the wall, whatever it is.  You gotta push your way through it as a team and every individual”

PRESENTED BY TABLE FAIR + SOCIAL