Confirmed with Link: Craig Berube named the 32nd Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs

[Da Mash]

After thinking about this hire …I still thinks it’s still a meh hire. But what else was out there. I know he won a cup because of a hot goalie. Most cups are won with hot goalies.

Hopefully Woll is the guy here we can trust as he has the makings of a very good goalie.

Will be interesting to see what assistants are hired. Those hired will be just as important as the HC hire. Wonder who the former HC is that we want as an assistant ?

 

[57 Years No Cup]

I’m thinking Berube would like the challenge of trying to win with this core.
I’m sure this was discussed at length during the interview process.

No coach is that delusional.

 

[Darcy Tucker]

After thinking about this hire …I still thinks it’s still a meh hire. But what else was out there. I know he won a cup because of a hot goalie. Most cups are won with hot goalies.

Swayman was hot as hell this post season and it didn't get Boston far. Takes a lot more than a hot Binnington to win 4 rounds. He was great but it was a well coached gritty team.

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

Berube is going to love Knies

 

[ACC1224]

Berube is going to love Knies

What Coach wouldn’t?

 

[darrylsittler27]

Well, we were not close.. The Rangers would murder us. I wonder who the new captain is cause Berube and Tavares won't be on the same page.

 

[Brobust]

After thinking about this hire …I still thinks it’s still a meh hire. But what else was out there. I know he won a cup because of a hot goalie. Most cups are won with hot goalies.

Hopefully Woll is the guy here we can trust as he has the makings of a very good goalie.

Will be interesting to see what assistants are hired. Those hired will be just as important as the HC hire. Wonder who the former HC is that we want as an assistant ?

Blues were a bottom 5 offence when Yeo was fired. They were a top 10 offence for the remainder of the season.

Putting it all on the goalie is extremely shallow analysis.

 

[ACC1224]

Well, we were not close.. The Rangers would murder us. I wonder who the new captain is cause Berube and Tavares won't be on the same page.

Why won’t they be on the same page?

 

[darrylsittler27]

Why won’t they be on the same page?

Berube secretly will loathe him as cptn.

Blues were a bottom 5 offence when Yeo was fired. They were a top 10 offence for the remainder of the season.

Putting it all on the goalie is extremely shallow analysis.

That was a very good team that had it all.

 

[Evilhomer]

I look at the COVID bubble cup as a great barometer of quality coaching, because teams basically had to restart on a moment's notice, and every team essentially had a fully healthy roster. Look at the conference finals coaches that year - Cooper, Trotz, DeBoer and Bowness. Four of the best coaches in recent memory.

 

[SprDaVE]

It was expected. A lot of experience and a new voice should make things interesting. No idea how it will turn out but there are 3 things I'm looking for --- Better home record, a different breakout/forecheck and a new power play ideology.

 

[LeafSteel]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I know the answer.

Two things: he isn't Keefe, and Dubas didn't hire him.

Edit: also, he hasn't managed to get Nylander traded yet.

 

[ACC1224]

Berube secretly will loathe him as cptn.


That was a very good team that had it all.

Yea you’ve said that. You haven’t offered why though.

 

[Darcy Tucker]

A few things.

First the leafs were so proud of their new hire they released a news dump tweet at 5pm on Friday of a long weekend, WTF.

Second I am curious on the assistants as there is general consensus Berube is a great motivator coach but needs to have systems guys to help round out the edges.

Finally I hope he brings a new approach to regular season hockey that is more translatable to postseason even if it means sacrificing some player points. I think this has been biggest coaching failure of this team in the past 5 years. Played in a way that worked great in regular season and just hoped it would eventually translate to the postseason. It hasn’t.

Of course that will rely on major personnel change as well.

I’m a little more hopeful after this hire but still waiting to see what else happens.

Full press conference is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

 

[hotpaws]

No soft spot for Johnny at all. It's just that no one want him at any price without a sweetener like our first round draft pick, whereas Mitchy will be a commodity teams would want, albeit at a much lower cap number.

he's only owed 900k after his bonus so someone would take without attaching a sweetener , whether he'd waive to go that team is the issue

the strange part in the trade Mitch crusade is that he's head and shoulders better than Tavares but people what to ship him out regardless of the return while also doing back flips to keep JT and even extend him , lol

 

[Nineteen67]

Are our players good again? I can never keep up.

A .657 is still less than Keefe's average.

The Berube hire is fine... but this doesn't seem like a homerun.

Good again? Maybe they’ll be good at least once?

 

[LeafParade]

I kind of not want Marner traded just to see how long before Berube benches him.

 

[SprDaVE]

I kind of not want Marner traded just to see how long before Berube benches him.

He's not going to bench a 90+ point selke forward, I can guarantee you that much. He's demanding, but he's not an idiot.

 

[Darcy Tucker]

I look at the COVID bubble cup as a great barometer of quality coaching, because teams basically had to restart on a moment's notice, and every team essentially had a fully healthy roster. Look at the conference finals coaches that year - Cooper, Trotz, DeBoer and Bowness. Four of the best coaches in recent memory.

Fair enough but some people considered the bubble hockey with weird divisions pretty irrelevant. Was it good coaching or some teams not being at full preparation and potential (lack of usual trades and games played) ? Do you consider TB's cup legit or does it need an asterisk?

 

[Tedd]

This "hard-ass" coach stuff is another fan-driven narrative. Do people really think that their are "nice" coaches in any professional sport? The amount of pressure on these guys is not insignificant. Hell, there are plenty of clips of Keefe losing his shit, as well. If anyone thinks screaming at Matthews, Nylander, Tavares or Bertuzzi is going to achieve anything, I have the proverbial bridge to sell you. Maybe that stuff works with young players because it puts some fear into them. I promise that no coach is scaring Nylander or Matthews.

Near as I can tell, the best coaches are the ones who can create systems that players buy into and execute on a consistent basis. Hopefully Berube can do that. But if he is successful, it won't be because the players shiver in his presence. Matthews and Nylander know very well that in a dispute between player and coach, those guys win every time.

Berube will install a defense-first system, unlike the one Keefe and Dubas preferred. Take the case of Steve Yzerman and the Detroit Red Wings: You get the best player to buy in and the rest will follow. Scotty Bowman was a tough-ass SOB and a WINNER.

"How do you get a prolific scorer, someone who had put together six straight 100-point seasons, to buy into being a two-way player if that's what you think the team needs?

In the case of Steve Yzerman, all Scotty Bowman had to do was ask.

"I mentioned to him that his stats would go down, but hopefully the team would do better," Bowman told NHL.com of one of his first conversations with Yzerman when he took over as the Detroit Red Wings coach in 1993. "He was the reason that it did better because he understood what it took and he wanted to be on a winner."

Yzerman's willingness and ability to put the team ahead of his own stats was, according to Detroit GM Ken Holland, one of the table setters for the wave of success the Red Wings have ridden since the mid-1990s.

Detroit's long-time captain -- the longest-serving captain for one team in NHL history (20 years) -- never put up another 100-point season and only once scored over 90, but after Yzerman turned into a two-way threat, Detroit won three Stanley Cup championships in four trips to the Final, and won the Presidents' Trophy five times.

While the first part of his career was about personal stats, the second clearly was all about the team. Put it together and you've got a legendary career worthy of induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame."

 

[rumman]

No coach is that delusional.

Marner fanboys are hanging on to any hope their boy isn’t traded, marner and Rielly are the first core pieces going out the door imo…….

 

[Confucius]

Pretty sure that was Boy Wonder’s quote…….

Our power play is our toughness, take all the penalties you want

 

[Shooter2x]

Swayman was hot as hell this post season and it didn't get Boston far. Takes a lot more than a hot Binnington to win 4 rounds. He was great but it was a well coached gritty team.

Your last sentence is onto something.

Outside of the well coached, that non stop grit around our net and along the boards played a pivotal role in Wolls and Sammy's numbers from game 5-7. There was nothing there all game.

The whole no.1 G need is a bit over rated. As long as you play hard, structured and tight (for a lack of better words lol) , your goalie just needs to be inept.

The main thing that should be mandatory to provide our new coach is whatever Liljegren is supposed to be doing....because Lil for sure as hell isn't going to provide it. There's so many instances of that Boston series where you're left wondering if the game would have been a win if Liljegren could have at least been average at his job.

 

[rumman]

Berube secretly will loathe him as cptn.


That was a very good team that had it all.

I think Berube will love JT, he’ll utilize him properly in the middle of the 3rd or 4th line where he’ll excel. Hard work isn’t JT’s problem, it’s declining abilities…….

 

[GoonieFace]

Marner fanboys are hanging on to any hope their boy isn’t traded, marner and Rielly are the first core pieces going out the door imo…….

Marner yes, but I can’t see them trading Reilly.