Craig Berube Reveals Brand New PK Strategy for Maple Leafs This Season
The Maple Leafs struggled mightily on the penalty kill last season, but Craig Berube and Lane Lambert are hopeful that their new approach will change that this season.
At 76.9%, the Leafs' penalty kill ranked 23rd in the league during the regular season last year. Associate coach Lane Lambert has taken over penalty killing duties under Craig Berube and while it is only pre-season, the Leafs have killed off all six penalties they have taken. Quite the improvement, albeit in a very small sample size.
Following practice yesterday, Berube was asked about the changes to the penalty kill, sharing the following insights with the Toronto media.
He was also asked about having a variety of players take reps in a penalty killing role, such as Ryan Reaves and John Tavares -- two players who haven't taken a lot of penalty killing reps in Toronto.
Those comments came on the heels of his post-game comments Thursday about having Tavares playing on the penalty kill.
Early in training camp, Berube explained the type of style he wanted the team to play and it appears that it was not just at even strength as the aggressive defensive structure will stretch into the penalty kill as well.
While the adjustments may be working during the pre-season, the Leafs will have to do a better job under Berube than they did under Sheldon Keefe at adjusting during regular season games if they want to build better habits that they can take with them into the postseason.
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