BOSTON — The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to take on the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday. Following a pair of disappointing back-to-back home losses to the Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube tinkered with the forwards, splitting up Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
What is Berube hoping to see from the change?
“Not a lot of difference. It’s just spread it out a little bit,” he said following the team’s full morning skate. “I do like Willy with Matthews but I think at the same time it’s nice to have a little bit more threat on two lines so that was the reasoning for tonight.
Berube said the team got together in Boston to look at some film and talk things over following their 5-4 loss to the Hurricanes that saw them get outshot 21-2 in the third period.
“Well, I think that defensively, we put ourselves in some tough spots with the turnovers. It’s just really put stress on everybody with the turnovers,” Berube stressed. Our puck management wasn’t very good the last two games, mostly the last game. Then defensively for me, it’s the turnover for sure. But, you know, we can just be firmer and harder in our own zone. and winning more of those battles. I mean, I thought Carolina came out with the puck too much. We had numbers in there and ended up they come out with the puck, and now we’re extended in our zone a little bit more. Turnovers will cost the game, in my opinion.”
So what can the forwards due to help the defense?
“Don’t turn pucks over,” Berube said with a smile before expanding. “It’s not just on the forwards are on just on a D it’s on everybody I mean for me the forwards getting caught in the offensive zone three guys and giving up odd man rushes is not good for our D or our goalies you know that’s one area that we can be better at for sure we’ve been talking about it a lot of the year you know we got to get back to where we’re not giving up odd man rushes for sure.”
Berube discussed a lot of topics several other topics in his pre-game media availability including where he things Anthony Stolarz’ game is at. The goaltender will start in the game after being pulled against the Bruins after allowing four goals on 19 shots. There are also updates on Scott Laughton, who was injured in that game following a hit from defenseman Nikita Zadorov. And an updated timeline for Joseph Woll to return to the Leafs following his conditioning stint.
Do you think the team buy-in is there?
“I do. I do think the buy-in is there. I think that we do it well at times, but just the consistency is not there. But also, I feel like we’re scoring a lot of goals, and I think sometimes we think about scoring more than we think about our play without the puck, too, and just different things like that. It’s just all about getting to our identity and sticking to it like you know we can’t be trying to make all these plays high ice turnovers in the ozone turnovers at the blue line that that kills your team. It kills the momentum. It kills everything.”
Do you think that’s what’s led to the difference in offensive or odd man rushes this year versus last year?
“No I think it’s a combination of reads at times You know, I thought early on in the season, some of our D, there was some tough reads on pinching. And the other one for me is just a lack of urgency by our forwards at times. Just getting back and beating people back up the ice. That’s a big part of it.”
“I think Anthony’s game goes a lot… has to do with our game, too. I think there’s a lot of games this year where he’s been solid, but we’re giving up, chances that we did not give up last year. To me, it’s a big difference. We have to tighten that up and we have to, you know, give up the shots from certain areas of the ice. Our goalies will have more success. so it’s a little bit of a combination there.”
Because of how things went defensively the last couple games how seriously did you consider making a change (at the position)?
“I talked to Brad (Treliving) about you know call-ups and things like that it’s like you know we’re we’re at where we’re at right now and we have Mermis here on defense, but putting Mermis in there to me it just we don’t have a righty-lefty on the three pairs as it is, and that’s going to make it even worse. You’re putting somebody on the right side that’s, you know, we’ve got McCabe there now, which is new for him. He played the left side the whole last year, and OEL’s played the right at times, left at times, but I think it creates a little bit of a problem.”
What’s the latest on Scott Laughton? How’s he feeling?
“He’s progressing nicely. I think he might have skated today. I’m not sure, but I know that he wanted to get on the ice, so he’s going in the right direction.”
You guys weren’t happy with the hit, obviously, by Zadorov
“Well, nobody would be happy with that. I mean, it’s a tough hit, you know, I mean, but it is what it is.”
Do you expect, like, an emotional carryover? You’re seeing him again pretty soon after the hit. Like, does that inject anything into this?
“Yeah, it should inject some fire in you for sure, but we don’t want to be stupid either. We’ve got to play the game. We’ve got to do a play right. Yeah, opportunity arises. You get a good lick on a guy, you get a good lick on a guy. I thought Bobby did a great job. Answered the bell, did what he did. You know, we’ve got to move on, and we’ve got to play.”
Do you have a plan for Woll yet when he’s going to re-join the group?
“Woll is going to play in Grand Rapids tomorrow, I believe, and then he’ll get the whole game. And then, you know, hopefully we’ll see how that goes and get him back maybe with us. We’ll see.”
The New York Rangers finally found offense at Madison Square Garden Monday night, defeating the Nashville Predators 6-3, thanks to a two-goal performance from Artemi Panarin, a two-assist night from Vincent Trocheck, two points from Vladislav Gavrikov, a three-point game from Alexis Lafreniere and a 27-save performance from Igor Shesterkin.
The Rangers have struggled mightily to score at home this season: in their previous seven home games, they were shutout five times. Now with an 8-7-2 record through their first 17 games of the year, five of New York’s next six games will be on the road, starting with a trip to Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the Rangers’ big win at home and what it could do to improve their fortunes through the 2025-26 campaign.
Tyler Yaremchuk: It was the Rangers’ first win at Madison Square Garden, and they were the last team in the NHL to not have a win on home ice this season.
Carter Hutton: It was about time. It felt like it was going to pop, right? They needed to get one goal, then it was going to pop off. Panarin played well last night, finding the back of the net twice. As for Lafreniere, it felt like he was coming into his own the last few seasons, like he was becoming a superstar, but then there was a big drop off.
The Rangers needed to find a way to win, and the Predators were the victim. I thought Shesterkin was good early in this game, as the shots were a little lopsided for Nashville. For this New York team, this is something to build on.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…