Your thoughts on Berube & coaching staff

[thewave]

Coaching is irrelevant if the stars mail it in…….

Also irrelevant if the stars are making demands and ignoring the coaches requests. Keefe eluded to that.

 

[Dreakmur]

If the team struggles for scoring during the playoffs how are they going to be better when there significantly worse at scoring during the regular season?

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me

if this new gameplay actually Worked wouldn't we score more goals more consistently?

In the play-offs, teams can more easily gameplan for players and systems. That reduces certain types of goals a whole lot more than others.

 

[kevsh]

After a month or so into this season I'd have said (cautiously, because it wouldn't last) pretty positive overall but as expected, it's gone steadily downhill since then.

Yes, they've had lots of injuries but there's an alarming number of lapses in defensive play lately (from both forwards and defense), the usual "meh, all is okay" attitude and of course Berube has had no success so far getting the bottom 6 to score, the blueline more involved offensively, getting Reilly & Domi on track and of course the still inconsistent power play which needs to be great for this team to have a prayer.

And as of today very pessimistic he's done or will be able to do anything that Keefe or Babcock couldn't getting this team to play the way it needs to win in the playoffs. They simply can't or won't.

To be fair to Craig, he's stuck with a core that simply doesn't have it when it counts and no one apparently has the clout within MLSE to change that (or replace them with players that do) combined with really weak forward depth means that unless Woll and/or Stolarz can literally steal a series on their own (or two) this team isn't getting out of the division.

 

[Kiwi]

In the play-offs, teams can more easily gameplan for players and systems. That reduces certain types of goals a whole lot more than others.

We struggle to score now so how are we going to score against significantly better competition with more time to gameplan?

Even if we continue at our current pace we're going to struggle to win playoff series

Were horrendously inconsistent

 

[34]

Matthews has 20 goals. That about sums up Berubes coaching style of this team. Not the right coach for the offensive players that the Toronto Maple Leafs have.

 

[Menzinger]

Too soon to say either way. His real worth will be determined by how he handles the playoffs.

There are concerns about offence, but those will get forgotten quickly if the Leafs get into the second round and beyond.

In the meantime the power play has been disastrous and needs fixing by the coaches

 

[ClarkSittler]

Like others have said, too soon and Berube's worth will be evaluated on how successful we are come playoff time.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

It’s all about the playoffs. But I will say I’m disappointed that our defensive play and numbers aren’t ranked as highly as I would like, especially given how neutered the team is offensively. Special teams is also a growing issue, the powerplay has been garbage all season, and the penalty kill has been going down the toilet all of January.

I’m also not a fan of his lack of creativity with the lineups. We’ve been dealing with injuries all season and instead of even trying to spread the wealth he’s had Marner stapled to Matthews for 90% of the year. This during our worst month of the year and with both leaving a lot to be desired as we’ve been held to one goal or fewer too often this year.

Think it’s a bit of a square peg in a round hole right now with how Berube wants this team to play and the available personnel on this team. The defence is about right save Rielly playing poorly, but there’s a lot of dead weight among the forwards. Guys who can’t score and provide little else besides adequate defensive play. Holmberg, Robertson, and Domi are our most consistent third liners and all have struggled to find a role under him. Pacioretty is too often injured and everyone else outside of the stars plus Knies and McMann are fourth liners.

Regardless of how this season ends a revamp of the bottom six is necessary. Maybe they can get a 3C before the TDL to help the depth but at this rate the guy we’ll acquire is going to stink.

 

[DarkKnight]

If the team struggles for scoring during the playoffs how are they going to be better when there significantly worse at scoring during the regular season?

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me

if this new gameplay actually Worked wouldn't we score more goals more consistently?

Well, there were great at regular season scoring all these years and that type of attack didn’t translate, so that didn’t make much sense. He won a cup playing this way, so I’m all for trying a different approach. The playoff goals are greasy, rebounds, dirty area tips, which is what he’s preaching. See how it goes.

 

[Hellcat]

yup seems like you can probably count on one hand the instances where goaltending actually costed us a game

in past years it was more like you could count on one hand games where goaltending won us a game

Outside of Woll and Stolarz, I agree. Murray and Hildby were/are pretty bad.

Too soon to say either way. His real worth will be determined by how he handles the playoffs.

There are concerns about offence, but those will get forgotten quickly if the Leafs get into the second round and beyond.

In the meantime the power play has been disastrous and needs fixing by the coaches

The first sentence , I agree 100%. It will be interesting to see how he manages the team in playoff style hockey.

 

[Hellcat]

Well, there were great at regular season scoring all these years and that type of attack didn’t translate, so that didn’t make much sense. He won a cup playing this way, so I’m all for trying a different approach. The playoff goals are greasy, rebounds, dirty area tips, which is what he’s preaching. See how it goes.

He won the cup but did Binnington win the cup for him or did he just coach his team to a cup? Show me a great coach and I'll show you a great goalie..

 

[barilko05]

Honestly, give Keefe led teams this goaltending and I think they may have been even better. But he will be judged by playoff success or failure

Honestly, goaltending wasn't the reason for last year's failure. It was no depth and the stars not stepping up when we needed them. That's on them. But questionable lineup decisions pre-game and in-game? That's on the coach.

 

[GoonieFace]

Honestly, goaltending wasn't the reason for last year's failure. It was no depth and the stars not stepping up when we needed them. That's on them. But questionable lineup decisions pre-game and in-game? That's on the coach.

I was referring to the regular season. Playoffs is where he will be judged. So far, Bérubé makes more questionable decisions than Keefe did

 

[Kiwi]

Well, there were great at regular season scoring all these years and that type of attack didn’t translate, so that didn’t make much sense. He won a cup playing this way, so I’m all for trying a different approach. The playoff goals are greasy, rebounds, dirty area tips, which is what he’s preaching. See how it goes.

Different team, the Blues seem to have the types of players who would thrive at that type of game, unfortunately not a lot of our guys are willing to do that

Knies, McMann, JT and Matthew's a bit, the 4th line

I hope your right but that's not a lot of guys who do that

 

[thewave]

What he does these next few games means thin ice or redeemed. If he doesn't start shifting things before the break, you know nothing changes after. That to me means this team will be fools gold again.

 

[DarkKnight]

Different team, the Blues seem to have the types of players who would thrive at that type of game, unfortunately not a lot of our guys are willing to do that

Knies, McMann, JT and Matthew's a bit, the 4th line

I hope your right but that's not a lot of guys who do that

The D is suited to defend that.

He won the cup but did Binnington win the cup for him or did he just coach his team to a cup? Show me a great coach and I'll show you a great goalie..

And we have the best tandem we've had with this core.

 

[Niagara Bill]

Well, there were great at regular season scoring all these years and that type of attack didn’t translate, so that didn’t make much sense. He won a cup playing this way, so I’m all for trying a different approach. The playoff goals are greasy, rebounds, dirty area tips, which is what he’s preaching. See how it goes.

So far they have been able to get greasy goals in a volume to win.I can't see the rate improving

 

[leafsfan5]

Different team, the Blues seem to have the types of players who would thrive at that type of game, unfortunately not a lot of our guys are willing to do that

Knies, McMann, JT and Matthew's a bit, the 4th line

I hope your right but that's not a lot of guys who do that

Exactly, the Leafs aren't built to play the style that Berube wants. He's not a bad coach by any means, the pieces just don't make sense

Give him a team like Vegas and he'd have them humming like they are right now

 

[Hellcat]

And we have the best tandem we've had with this core.

This is my concern, without those two this team is cooked.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Berube is elite.

End of thread.

 

[Hellcat]

Different team, the Blues seem to have the types of players who would thrive at that type of game, unfortunately not a lot of our guys are willing to do that

Knies, McMann, JT and Matthew's a bit, the 4th line

I hope your right but that's not a lot of guys who do that

Safe to say those types of players are what us Old School fans would call "gamers" vs our guys who are generally considered soft?