Resident Maple Leafs scrapper Ryan Reaves has officially admitted to doing some homework on new Leafs coach Craig Berube's old fights.
Berube, who sits 5th in the NHL in fights all-time, has earned himself a solid reputation around the league as being someone who is both well-respected and certainly revered.
For a player like Ryan Reaves, whose game shares some similarities with Berube during his tenure as an NHL player, it's hard not to be excited about the potential for more ice time from a coach who values the same things Reaves values, like playing hard and standing up for his teammates.
This weekend, Reaves joined NHL.com's Dave McCarthy on Sirius XM's Sunday Brunch to discuss a range of topics, including his new coach. Reaves admitted during the segment that he has watched a few of Berube's old fight videos in anticipation of the upcoming season.
"I've seen a couple [of Berube's fights] for sure. I mean, he swings a little more freely than I do," Reaves said with a chuckle. "I like to be a little more technical, but the game was a little different back then and there was a lot more guys who just kind of chucked and didn't worry about what was coming back 'em, so I'm not going to say I'm adopting his style, but yeah, he was a bad man back in the day."
There's a good chance Reaves will be valued a little more under Berube than he was under Sheldon Keefe, but at 37 years old, I'm sure Reaves knows that the end of the runway is coming. Thankfully, he's a really good teammate and knows that he still has an important role to play within the organization, even if he's not an every-night player at this stage of his career.
