Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ dramatic 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers, which improved the team’s record to 31-19-2.
On the team’s performance:
We got the lead, and I thought we could’ve made a harder push. We let them come at us too much. They are a very good team; we know that, and they have great players.
We did a lot of good things, but I think we could’ve been more aggressive with the lead. We got the 4-1 lead right away. I am not critiquing wins — wins are wins, and they’re good — but we could’ve pushed a little bit more on them.
Woll was great. The guys battled. It was a playoff battle type of game. A lot of credit to their team. They’re very good.
On the video team spotting the offside to negate the 4-4 late tying goal:
We couldn’t quite get the angle they wanted, so I called the timeout to give them more time. They made a great call.
On the message to the players during the timeout after the overruled goal:
If we win the challenge, the goalie is coming, and we talked about what we are doing at 6-on-5. We had the puck and could’ve scored on an empty net, but it didn’t happen.
We battled at the end. Again, our goalie was really good. We were down to five D, and I thought our D battled hard. It is not easy.
On Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s status after leaving the game injured:
Right now, day-to-day. We have to evaluate him a little bit more. It is a lower-body (injury). We will see where he is at tomorrow.
I didn’t even see it happen. He left the bench, and we were down to five. The trainer said he wasn’t coming back.
On how the team handled the McDavid-Draisaitl matchup:
We had two lines most of the time against them tonight. They did a good job, for the most part. It is hard to handle those guys. They are very good players, and we know that
Our D did a really good job against them. Which forwards were out there tried to stay on them and get above them, not giving them too much time or space.
Overall, we kept them off the scoresheet goal-wise. They had some looks, obviously.
It was a good game. We battled. It was a great atmosphere in Edmonton tonight. It was a playoff-type game. That is what it felt like to me. It looked that way to me, too.
On the power play coming through with two goals in the first period:
Really big. The power play had to be really good tonight. They executed really well.
They got on the inside. That is the bottom line. It is how you score goals.
On what stood out about Joseph Woll’s 45-save performance:
Just the battle. With the way they play, they move the puck around and shoot a lot. There are a lot of attempts coming at the net. He was fighting through traffic and fighting for the puck. He battled hard. He made some great saves from competing.
"HOLY MACKINAW!"
WOLL DESPERATE SAVES AS THE GAME ENDS vs Oilers courtesy of @Bonsie1951 and @Jim_Ralph pic.twitter.com/tXOhplKkcW
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) February 2, 2025
On the split-crowd atmosphere:
Great support from Leafs fans, like in most cities, especially in Canada.
Very appreciative. We are lucky to have fans like this who travel and support the team. Great to see them here. They supported us really well out there tonight.