Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars, which dropped the team’s record to 27-16-2.
On the team’s performance:
Tonight, the game was right there. I thought we started off well. It was a really good power play right away. We hit a few posts on it. It would’ve been nice if one of them had gone in.
It was a special teams battle tonight. At five-on-five, it was a pretty even game and a pretty tight game. Not much was going on either way. We have to win that battle.
We are not getting the bounces, but we are not executing well enough with the puck. I think we can execute better. We seem a little off on the execution part of things.
On shifting Steven Lorentz off the top line in the third period:
Well, we were down. I was just moving guys around. They went out and scored right away, and I was trying to get some goals back as quickly as possible.
On whether the team needs to work harder to earn more power-play opportunities:
I don’t know. I thought we worked pretty hard tonight. They want to call that on John Tavares, that second penalty, but let everything else go in the game?
I am not going to get into the referees, but we are working. We are not not working. We are working.
On the team’s energy level compared to Saturday night’s loss to Vancouver:
I thought we had a good start. Things were good, and we did a lot of good things. We defended well against a real good team. They are tight, and they don’t give you much. It was going to be a low-event game at five-on-five. Special teams were the difference tonight.
On the PK’s great run coming to an end with two goals against in the game:
We were killing great until they got the first one that went off the guy and in.
It is what it is. We have to fight through it. You go through adversity throughout the year. It happens every year. We just have to keep working. We’ll get back to work tomorrow and get ready for the next game.
On the fans expressing their frustrations with boos at the end of the game:
It’s everywhere. They do it in every rink, don’t they? It is part of the game. They pay good money. They come to see hockey, and they want to see us win. That is the way it goes.
On the team’s 0-for-2 power play:
They moved it around really well. They shot the puck and attacked like we wanted to. They did some good things.
We’ll keep working at it. It’s all we can do.