Craig Berube Makes Some Very Interesting Comments About This Year's Maple Leafs Team
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has revealed that this current Leafs team reminds him a lot of his St. Louis Blues team that won the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Back in January of 2019, the Blues sat dead last in the NHL with no hope of even competing for the playoffs, let alone winning it all.
This year's version of the Toronto Maple Leafs are already near the top of the NHL standings, so they don't have nearly as far to climb to capture hockey's greatest prize.
This summer, when Craig Berube took over for Sheldon Keefe, the message from the organization wasn't about making Keefe into a scapegoat. It was more about expressing that the reason for the change was to bring in a different voice.
Now that nearly half of the season has passed, Berube seems to really have a handle on his group. He knows what they're capable of, and in a lot of ways, they resemble his former club -- at least in his mind.
In a recent article for Sportsnet, Maple Leafs beat reporter Luke Fox shared some direct quotes from head coach Craig Berube about how this team reminds him of his 2019 St. Louis Blues team that went on a fairy tale run to win the Stanley Cup.
"That team played with an identity every night, and I think our team is really starting to trend in that direction, playing with that identity every night. Staying patient, not forcing things too much. And it's not easy hockey. It's hard hockey. It's only going to get more difficult now, down the stretch."
While the make-up of the two rosters are entirely different, the way they play and how much they've bought into the program is very similar.
Berube believes that the Maple Leafs finding ways to win while facing adversity has been integral to their success. Even without Auston Matthews, Anthony Stolarz and countless others who have suffered injuries and missed time this season, the Leafs have found a way to keep rolling.
Their play during close games is what Berube really seems to enjoy.
"We've been in a lot of tight games this year, which is a good thing. Learning how to win those games. Going into third periods with leads and playing a good period - low-event in the third. We're not shooting ourselves in the foot. It's not always pretty, you know. You go through these stretches where you're not scoring a lot. We may not be getting a lot of scoring chances, but we're staying with it and finding a way to win."
The Leafs finally got Auston Matthews back last week after a 6-game absence due to an unspecified upper-body injury that has been nagging him all season.
Unfortunately, the team is still without the likes of Stolarz, who had to undergo a surgical procedure to remove a "pebble" from his knee.
It remains to be seen whether the Leafs can turn their success this season into a Stanley Cup run, like the Blues did in 2019, but Berube has coached a team to the promised land before, so he has it in him to do it again.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 7 | 3853 ANSWERS Craig Berube Makes Some Very Interesting Comments About This Year's Maple Leafs Team What percentage chance do you give the Leafs of making the Stanley Cup Finals this year? | ||
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| 41-75% | 1412 | 36.6 % |
| 76-100% | 656 | 17 % |
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