Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 4-3 win over the New York Rangers, which improved the team’s record to 42-24-3.
On the team’s performance:
I thought we played a really good game. It was a 60-minute game.
They have a lot of talent over there (on the Rangers). We didn’t give them any odd-man rushes tonight. I thought we defended hard. Our goalie was good.
The guys just played a smart game, I thought. They checked well. We scored goals on situations we talked about with the game.
Overall, I thought we were direct with our game. We put pucks deep all night and played the right way.
I liked our start. We came out of the gates really good. We were on our toes. We played last night, too, so sometimes, you wonder how we were going to come out. We were working right away and doing the right things. We took hold of the game, in my opinion. We had the lead, kept the lead, and got up in the second again.
The third period was really solid. We gave up that 6-on-5 goal, but overall, it was a solid period.
On the decision to place Bobby McMann on the wing with John Tavares and William Nylander:
In the last game, I didn’t like… Well, the line needed speed and some size. That is the reason I changed the line in the last game.
Bobby is skating right now. He is on top of things. He is playing a good brand of hockey right now.
On the team’s turnaround in the last three wins:
It is the simple things — puck battles, competitiveness, on our toes playing and attacking. We are back to our identity. That is what I see.
On whether the highs and lows recently are just a byproduct of a long NHL season:
At times. And there are times when I don’t (attribute it to that). There are times when we don’t want to play direct enough. We want to play a different way. It gets you into trouble sometimes.
On Anthony Stolarz’s performance:
He was excellent. It was good to see a game out of him like that. I thought he was solid.
That is a good team over there. They have a lot of talent. They are going to get chances. He came up big for us.
On John Tavares’ two-goal game:
I thought he was really good tonight. An older guy like that on back-to-back nights… It is a pretty quick (Rangers) team over there, too, but he was solid. He was so strong on pucks tonight and won all of his battles and faceoffs.
He does all of the little things right. He has that knack for scoring goals, I’ll tell you that.
