Craig Berube Reveals the Real Reason Behind His Outburst at Tavares and Holmberg During Win Over the Kings

PUBLICATION

Chris Gerics
October 18, 2024 (7:22 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

Craig Berube surprised some by calling a timeout when the Leafs were up 5-2 against Los Angeles, and now the head coach revealed the method behind his animated madness.

Never being one to shy away from speaking his mind, either to his players or to the media, Craig Berube has endeared himself to fans and his team alike due to his non-nonsense nature, blunt coaching style, and the ability to fire up his team when they need an extra jolt of motivation. It's a stark contrast to Sheldon Keefe, who could get very animated behind the bench but it never felt like he was translating a message to his players.

If Berube wants to send a message, you'll get it one way or another. This is exactly what happened with Toronto winning 5-0 against Los Angeles on Wednesday. After giving up two quick goals, Berube called a timeout and blasted his team for their lack of effort.

After firing them up, Toronto didn't surrender another goal and won 6-2. Berube's reasoning for calling the timeout perplexed some, however, the head coach cleared things up pretty handily:

"It was a feel thing for me last night, I didn't like what we were doing. I just wanted to get a break there and bring everybody in and talk a little bit about getting the intensity level up more than anything. They were pushing hard, I thought they pushed hard in the second period too. Our intensity wasn't good enough."

Toronto would do their best to listen to their coach when he's barking instructions, as his style of play offers no room for mistakes and players find punishment waiting for them if they choose not to give it their all. Max Pacioretty has been a healthy scratch and Berube liked the energy his team showed without him.

Wanting to utilize all of his options, Berube has players he can swap around in the rotation, whether it's due to a positive or negative reason. The main reason Berube wins is due to his relentless aggressiveness on both offense and defense, giving the opposition no breathing room in either zone and if players aren't giving their all, it messes up the entire game plan. The emergence of the BMW Line, not to mention the bottom-six being a huge bright spot for Toronto so far, means there are only so many roster spots. So if you aren't here to try and impress by playing your heart out, you don't have a spot in Berube's squad.

Toronto has seemingly started to buy into Craig Berube's old-school mentality of coaching, bringing a modern spin on tradition, and with a properly built roster for the first time in 20 years it looks like this could finally be their time.