Craig Berube addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, which dropped the team’s record to 47-26-4.
On the difference in the game:
They wanted it more than us. It starts in the faceoff circle. They were 70% tonight. To me, it comes down to competitiveness and digging in more. They seemed like a more desperate team than us.
On his top players being held to very few shots and scoring chances in the game outside of John Tavares’ goal:
You are going to have to get in there and win battles against this team, that’s for sure. We spent too much time defending and not enough time in the offensive zone tonight.
The second period wasn’t bad, but we didn’t generate a lot because they won all of the battles in the offensive zone. I didn’t think we moved the puck quickly enough in the offensive zone. They are on you. They are tight. You have to move it quickly and deliver pucks quickly. We didn’t do a good enough job of that.
On why the Panthers seemed to want it more:
I said they wanted it more, and that is the word I used. As I said, we have to be more competitive than that.
On Joseph Woll’s performance:
He was excellent. He gave us a chance to get points tonight.
John Tavares: “We didn’t carry play as much as we’d like”
Tavares: It is a tight game without much room. That is what they do. They put you under a lot of pressure. We have to execute through that and make them have to play through our pressure, which they executed a little better than us.
When they are around your net more often than you are around theirs, it creates opportunities for good things to happen, which is what happened on the second goal.
We just didn’t carry play as much as we’d like to. They came hard. We had a much better second period and put ourselves in a good spot, but we just didn’t execute enough in the third.
Tavares: “[Forsling goal] is on me”
Tavares: That [1-0 Forsling goal] is on me. You understand the tendencies of the guys you go against and what they do. I was anticipating something on his end. I just completely mistimed it and misread it.
It is on me. You can’t lose them clean like that and give them an opportunity in the middle of the ice.
Matthew Knies: “Our forecheck wasn’t good enough”
Knies: Our forecheck wasn’t good enough. We were a little sloppy in that sense. We let them break out a little bit too easily. I think we didn’t get enough shots to their net or make it hard enough on them in front of their net. That was the difference.
