Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, which dropped the team’s record to 18-10-2.
On the difference in the game:
We made two mistakes on two goals that we didn’t need to make. We have to be better on a couple of those plays.
I thought we competed hard and had a lot of good things going on in the game. We have to finish better. We can’t come out of the game with 24 shots on net only, whether it is a missed net or a blocked shot. Whatever the case, we have to find a way to get those onto the net more.
Defensively, we could’ve been better tonight.
On addressing the defensive mistakes with the players:
We go over it. We go over it between periods, too.
That is a good rush team, and they scored two goals off the rush tonight.
We have to be better.
On Detroit’s 2-1 goal late in the second period:
That is a situational play for me, with a 1:28 left in the period. We can’t give up a goal there. It’s that simple. Can’t do it, sorry. We have to be better.
On the need for more shots and traffic, similar to Matthew Knies’ 2-2 goal:
With the goalie out, we had a clear lane before we took the timeout. We had numbers at the net, and we didn’t shoot the puck there.
It is the little things right now, but we have to fix them. We’ve got to fix them.
On the power play breaking through with the 1-1 goal:
I thought the power play looked good. It was good to see them score one.
The other thing was that we took two penalties in the third period. That’s tough.
On Joseph Woll’s performance (22 saves on 25 shots):
I think he was good. He made a couple of saves where there was nothing he could do about it; he makes a couple, and they got another whack at it. Those are the mistakes I am talking about.
He was solid and gave us a chance to win.
On whether he will mix in fresh legs for the back-to-back tomorrow:
We have numbers here. We are going to look at the lineup tomorrow and make a couple of decisions.
On whether he shifts his focus to the Buffalo Sabres right away with the tight turnaround:
For me, I focus on our team a lot. I look at the tape. I look at the chances and some situational stuff.
Buffalo [prescout] is being taken care of, too, but I am going to focus on our team.
Auston Matthews: “A good effort for the most part… But there was maybe not enough towards the net”
Matthews: I thought it was a good effort for the most part. There were little breakdowns that can’t really happen on our side that they capitalized on.
I felt like we had the puck a lot tonight, but there was maybe not enough towards their net. They blocked a lot of shots and got in lanes, but I think we have to do a better job of getting more pucks to the net.
If you look at how we scored tonight, the second one was just getting guys to the net for tips. We could have done a better job of that.