Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, which improved the team’s record to 8-5-2.
On whether he’s ever seen a goalie pick up the puck with his bare hand as Anthony Stolarz did in the third period:
I don’t know how he lost his glove, but he had another good one for us.
On the team finding a way to win in a low-event game:
Defensively, for us, I thought we were pretty sound. We did a good job.
We didn’t generate a lot offensively tonight. There were not a lot of clean plays. I thought we grinded well in the offensive zone. We had some real good offensive zone shifts where we had the puck, were competing, and hung onto pucks. But we just didn’t get a lot of clean looks tonight.
You are going to have games like that. It was great that the guys just hung in there, didn’t open up, didn’t expose anything, and just kept playing.
On the McMann – Holmberg – Robertson line:
I thought they were excellent. On the first goal, [McMann] touched the goalie’s head a little bit, but that line was really good. I thought they got to the offensive zone a lot, skated well, competed on pucks, and looked to get it to the net. They did a good job.
On the adjustments by the power play:
It is simplified. They are attacking more downhill and getting pucks to the net area. They are getting rewarded for it right now. It’s good to see. They’ve done a good job.
On John Tavares’ transition into playing without the captaincy:
John Tavares is just being himself. He is playing hockey. The captaincy thing… I thought he accepted it really well. In his mind, he thought it was the right thing to do.
He is playing really well for us. He is just so good in tight areas with the puck. He is so good at that. He’s strong on the puck and does all of those little things right. He is getting rewarded for it.
On Mitch Marner’s all-situations contributions:
He does a lot for us. Defensively and on the PK, he has been excellent. He is a guy who reads the play really well, anticipates, and breaks plays up with his stick. There is a lot of good there all around.
On Marner taking the ceremonial faceoff and his leadership qualities:
His leadership is excellent. He goes out and leads by example with his play. He is a leader who plays both ends of the ice. He does a lot of good things defensively. He does as much defensively as he does offensively. He is getting points because he is doing things right the other way.
I don’t know why he was chosen to take the faceoff; probably because he was a big fan of Datsyuk, who was a great two-way, 200-foot player. You don’t win three Selkes for nothing.
On Jeremy Roenick’s story about giving Berube a shot and taking a painful punishment for it:
I didn’t do much to him. It was nothing. He is lucky I didn’t grab him when I was playing on the ice. That would’ve been different.
