That cup winning team he coached is not better than the current Leafs team. They won because of a super hot Binnington. Remember that was a last place team when he took over. After the Stanley cup the team turned back into what it was. A bubble playoff team.
Keefe changed the way he coached after the loss to Montreal in the 1st round. After that he coached not to lose instead of coaching to win. Not sure Berube is going to change much other than he will be more aggressive offensively and will over play the hot players.
I hate this narrative and feel the need to speak up.
Going into 18-19, they were not expected to be a bad team. Most people listed them right around the top 4-6 area, with the composition being a bit of an unknown due to so much roster turnover. They performed poorly because Mike Yeo did not know how to utilize the players he had. Their defensive scheme shifted from zone to man-to-man, which caused them to struggle mightily. Jake Allen also could never make the jump to full time and had a penchant for choking.
They also were never in last place by points percentage. They had multiple games in hand.
Binnington was a key component, but he was not the sole reason they won. He was lights out in the regular season. In the playoffs, Binnington was outplayed by Ben Bishop and Pekka Rinne. He played about even with Hellebuyck, and he outplayed Martin Jones. His save percentage was .914. He was good, but he had awful games and poor outings. You are not giving the Blues team the credit it deserves. They overcome much adversity, including an objectively blown call with the Sharks' hand-pass in overtime. That put them down in the series.
I credit Berube almost entirely for overcoming that hand-pass. Many of the Blues players were livid. Schenn broke his stick on the glass screaming at the refs. It would be worth your time to watch Berube's post-game comments to the press. He was calm. He didn't complain about the missed call. He said they were moving on, not one ounce of entitlement.
The other thing I strongly remember from that series was the camera shot of the San Jose bench a couple of games later. There were large visible gaps due to all of the Sharks' players in the locker room or out injured. The Blues pummeled the hell out of them with legal hits and aggressive play. They never let up.
I would say the Leafs current roster has a better top 6 for sure, at least in totality. It's hard to not recognize that O'Reilly won the Con Smythe though. I'd rather have someone who puts in that level of performance over someone with more skill on paper.
I would say in every other category but the top 6, the Blues team was likely better. Their third and fourth lines were excellent. Very underrated. Steen may have been one of the best 4th liners on any team in the playoffs at the time.
I would say the Blues defense was better. Everyone knows Petro, but many would say Bouwmeester was the Blues best defenseman during the playoffs. He brought out Parayko's best play, and they were our best pairing that shut teams down.
I'd also say Binnington, at that specific moment, was a better goalie than Woll likely is right now. That's hard to say though as Woll is a good goalie and could continue to play very well. I would not be surprised if Woll ends up with better career stats.
I think this is a solid Leafs team. I think it certainly is good enough to win the cup. You need some luck no matter how good you are. I think Berube could bring out the best in some of your players and I'm eager to see how the team performs under him. He's a solid coach.
