Craig Berube is set to embark on his first Stanley Cup Playoffs as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. One day before his team takes on the Ottawa Senators in a best-of-seven first-round series, Toronto’s bench boss was asked what he’s learned the most about coaching the club.
“I think more than anything, it’s the noise. There’s a lot of noise. Got to quiet the noise,” Berube said.
The veteran player and coach led the St. Louis Blues to a Stanley Cup in 2019, but the rigours of dealing with the pressure in Toronto are quite different. The Maple Leafs, who have only won one playoff round since 2004, hired Berube to be their coach last summer after moving on from previous coach Sheldon Keefe.
The “noise” term was first used by former Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle, who used that term to describe the outside attention on the club back then.
This year, the Leafs are heavily favored to get past an Ottawa Senators club who are in the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
Under Berube, the Leafs have put more of a focus on defense and appear ready to bust through. But are they?
“I think we’ve changed, you know, coaches, stuff like that. Maybe we played a little bit of a different style of game that you maybe think is more suitable to the playoffs. But in the end, I mean, it’s about executing and going out there and doing the right things, playing as a team, competing, physical, all that stuff,” Matthews said. “There’s always different things, different circumstances when you go into a new season and stuff like that, especially when you have a new coaching staff and personnel, stuff like that.”
Marner, who is possibly feeling the most pressure, given he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and has been scrutinized for his past playoff performance, wasn’t buying into the expectations, either.
“I don’t think we’re caring about any of that. We’re focused as a team in here. We’re not focused on anything outside of what people are saying,” Marner said. “It’s going to be a grind. You know it’s going to be ups and downs. You just got to stay together and stick through it and, you know, lean on one another.
“It’s not going to be perfect every single night. And you just got to be ready to pick each other up.”
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