Craig Berube implies he can’t make Maple Leafs show up with heart following latest loss to Senators
After back-to-back losses to the Florida teams followed by an embarrassing display on home ice against the Ottawa Senators, who were one point ahead of them in the standings heading into that game, the Leafs sure appear to be out of answers. If nobody else, it seems like head coach Craig Berube is.
When asked about how his players can manufacture the pride that they need to squeeze out a miracle run in the dying months of the season, Berube made a pretty telling gesture in terms of where the team is at the moment.
“I can’t give the guys this, or this, and they have to come with that,” Berube said, pointing at his heart and then his head. “That’s gotta be on them, like, they gotta bring the heart and the competitiveness that’s needed, and it’s all the little thing. They gotta bring that, they gotta want to bring that. We can bring the Xs and Os and I can go in there and scream and yell at them all I want, that doesn’t do anything either.”
The Maple Leafs’ playoff chances already looked bleak coming out of the break, but despite all of the wrongdoings of the season to date, there was still a glimmer of hope that they could use their three straight wins going into the break as momentum to go on a run. After all, Berube’s cup-winning 2019 St. Louis Blues team was a product of simply getting hot at the right time (and other things, like a hot goalie. Sound familiar?). But after losing those three games, and in the fashion they did, the Leafs are approaching malpractice territory if they don’t take a seller’s approach at the deadline.
“It’s concerning for sure,” Berube told reporters when asked about their consecutive losses to come out of the break. “It really boils down to being simple and direct, which we’re not right now. We want the easy ice and there’s no easy ice anywhere, any game.”
Despite the team looking like they’re at their lowest point of a season full of lows, Berube insists that the team hasn’t quit on him, or each other.
“No, they didn’t quit. I don’t believe that, I don’t worry about that.”
The Maple Leafs have three more games before the March 6 trade deadline.