Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 3-2 win over the New York Rangers, which improved the team’s record to 37-20-2.
On the team’s performance:
A little lacklustre, in my opinion, but we found a way to get a win. I didn’t think we generated enough offensively or got to our game tonight with our forecheck and our hard play down low in the offensive zone. It was in and out too quickly. We spent too much time in our own end.
The penalty killing was really good. The goaltending was really good. I thought our D battled hard back there. We didn’t do enough with the puck.
We did a lot of good things defensively tonight. We blocked shots, and our sticks were good. We kept a lot of their shots on the outside, in my opinion, but we have to get up ice and play. We have to get our forecheck going. It is a big part of our game and has been all year. It just wasn’t there tonight.
On shifting Morgan Rielly to the top unit of the power play partway through the game:
There was just nothing happening. There wasn’t anything going on with that unit. The other unit has done a good job for us. We just wanted to make a switch to put Mitch down low by the net to make some plays from below the goal line. We really didn’t get set up.
We have to work harder on our power play. In my opinion, we are not competing hard enough. We are not digging in. On the power play, it is not just about making plays. You have to do other things, too, to make it successful. Right now, we have to dig in a lot more on our PP.
On the play of his blue line without Chris Tanev:
I thought our D were good tonight. They battled hard. We talked about getting pucks going north from our zone. They rimmed a lot of pucks — I get it — but that is what we asked them to do. They defended the front of our net pretty well.
For me, they were pretty solid. Without Tanev, our PK did a good job. I was pleased with our defense.
On Ryan Reaves’ first game back in the lineup since Feb. 4:
I thought he played good minutes for us. He was physical and made strong puck plays. We got good minutes out of him. He did a good job for us.
On whether Anthony Stolarz has exceeded his expectations this season:
I don’t know if I had expectations. He has been put into a role now where he is one of our starters and is playing a lot of games. He did a good job in Florida when he played and won a lot of games there.
For me, I didn’t have a ton of expectations on either of our goalies, but they have both played extremely well.
On Stolarz’s willingness to be vocal from the net:
He is very vocal (in the crease), and he’s vocal in the locker room, too, at times. He sees everything and sees the game well from the net. He lets our players know what is going on.
