Craig Berube, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach
Craig Berube, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach

Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, which dropped the team’s record to 30-19-2.


On where the game got away from the team: 

We gave up the first goal. We have to win that battle down there below the goal line. We had coverage in front, but it just went through us. We have to do better there. We were down 1-0.

On their power-play goal, we tipped the puck in. We have to block that shot — not with your stick.

We made a couple of mistakes, but we battled. We had a lot of shot attempts. They blocked a lot of shots. In the end, we have to do a better job of getting those through and finding some lanes.

Sometimes, when you are not scoring and things aren’t going in, you take a little extra second to shoot and try to get a little bit too cute at times. I am not saying we got cute tonight, but it was not quick enough on and off shooting.

We had chances. It is a tough stretch right now with scoring. That is the bottom line. We have to battle through it.

On the scoring drying up:

You can nitpick every little thing — be in front of the goalie more, do this better or that better. There are a lot of things, and we are always on it, looking for different ways to score and where we can do a better job.

We just have to stick with the plan. We have to stick with our game and not get off track. We will score. We will get the goals.

On whether the team attacked the net and shot enough: 

I thought we did attack and shoot. We had a lot of shot attempts tonight. Again, we let them block too many shots.

They played a smart game. They got up 2-0 and locked it down pretty well. They had people back all night. They checked hard. We just have to battle through it.

On Morgan Rielly’s recent struggles: 

Can Morgan play better? Yes, he can. We all know that. He knows that. He is trying to work through it right now. The team game is not all on Morgan.

He is a guy who we need offense from on the backend. He just has to stick with it and keep working at it. We’ll try to help him as much as we can.

On Rielly’s mindset during his struggles:

He is a good pro. He comes to work. He keeps it pretty quiet and to himself. He knows that he wants to be better. He is just trying to work through it, and we are trying to help him.  As coaches, that is our job.

On how the team can draw more penalties:

It is a good question. We talked about it the other day — trying to get more net drive, more interior play, and get to the interior more. I thought we tried to do that tonight.

I thought there were a few penalties that we didn’t get called. I am not going to sit here and complain about referees. We have to keep grinding, keep driving the net, and put teams in a vulnerable position, so they have to take a penalty. That is how you draw more penalties.

On the upcoming road trip before the Four Nations break: 

I am glad we are going on the road. I think it will be good for the team to be together and spend some time together. We have a couple of days in between each game — the first two, anyhow — and I think it’ll be good for the guys to get on the road.

It is a big trip for us. We’ll get some healthy bodies back, hopefully, and go from there.