On the Nasty Knuckles Podcast, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube discussed Brendan Shanahan’s departure, the pressure Mitch Marner faces in Toronto, the experience of coaching William Nylander’s unique personality, and Auston Matthews’ first year as captain of the team.
Brendan Shanahan won’t be back with the Leafs next season. What was your relationship like with him?
Berube: Yeah, it was a tough day. I was in constant communication with Shanny throughout the season. He is a guy who knows about winning, and he was obviously a great player. I loved talking to him about hockey on a daily basis and being around him. He was around us a lot, which was great.
For me, it was excellent to have that type of person, with what he has accomplished in his career, to run things by — situational stuff. I really enjoyed him. We would go on the road and hang out together as a staff. He was always with us. It was fun. He will be missed.
He did a great job in Toronto and built a really good team — a competitive team — for as long as they’ve been. I wish him all the best. My time with him was excellent, and I’ll miss him.
You finished up your first season in Toronto with 108 points and a division title. It is one of the highest-pressure jobs in the league. What are your feelings after your first year?
Berube: It was great. I really enjoyed it all, to be honest with you. They are a first-class organization. The way the organization is run is exceptional, and the dedication and professionalism of the players day in and day out are really good.
People would probably think, “Well, it’s a country club there.” It is not. They have all the resources, and the players do have everything that they need, but they work. They’re focused, and they want to do well. They want to win.
That was great. They were great to work with. I have nothing but good things to say about the whole situation. It is a tough market, for sure, with what is expected from the media, the fans, and the organization. They’re there to win, and when you don’t win, it gets a little ugly. But that is the territory. You have to deal with all of that, and it is all part of it. We have to try to improve this summer, and we’ll see what happens.
You’ve always handled the media well, no matter the market you’re in. When you got to Toronto, did you not really change anything? You just stayed yourself and had fun with it?
Berube: For sure, you have to answer tough questions, and you have to give them information, but you only have to give them what you want. That is all that matters in the end. They have a job to do, and you have to understand that’s their job. You can’t get upset with them about questions, and I didn’t. I just keep it light.
I try to make them feel like it is okay. It is their job. You ask me what you want, and I’ll give you what I want. That is where we are going to end it. You can ask me anything that you want, and I might only give you this (much). They understood that, and I thought it worked out well. I didn’t feel like it was too overwhelming, to be honest with you.
You try to have some sort of relationship — a distant one, but it is every day there, and there are a lot of them. It is the same as the pressure in Toronto. You can’t fight it. It is going to be there. You have to embrace it and enjoy it.
We are in this pressure situation, and that is a good thing, in my opinion. That is what we signed up for. You can’t get mad at the pressure or mad at the questions. That is part of the situation. You have to embrace and roll with it.
Mitch Marner hit 102 points this season. There is so much talk about him still. Do you think there is too much pressure on this kid? It’s unclear if he will be re-signed, but it seems like he deals with a ton of pressure. What are your thoughts on him as a player, and what he might be doing next year?
Berube: He played great for us. He was one of our best players all year. He had a great year offensively. Again, he touches all areas of the game for us in terms of penalty killing and going head-to-head against top lines. Great guy. He is full of energy and is a hard worker.
There is always pressure. There is a lot of pressure there, and there has been a lot of pressure on him. With all of the not advancing in the playoffs, they seek out certain guys and get on them.
In the end, those guys have to produce for us in the playoffs, but it is not just all about them in the playoffs. It is a team. The way I look at it, we didn’t do a good enough job in Game 7 as a team to win that game. It is not on Marner. It is not on Matthews. It is on everybody.
Your top guys have to perform at a good level, but there are others who produce in the playoffs and score a big goal now and again that advance you to the next round. It is not just on Mitch. It is on everybody, including me.
There is a lot of pressure on those guys in Toronto. As a player, there is not much you can do about it. You have to perform, try to cut the noise out as much as you can, and go play. You have to be strong in your mind.
You joked with William Nylander one time, “Hey Willy, are you going to try tonight?” And he said, “Yeah, Chief, I’ll try this period.” What a player he is — 45 goals and over a point-per-game this season.
Berube: He is as skilled as any player I’ve coached, for sure, just with his ability to… It is hard to explain, but he has an unreal knack of stripping the puck off guys, putting the puck from his skate to his stick, and all of the little stuff.
I don’t know if you saw the goal in the playoffs, against Florida at home in Game 2; I think Pacioretty made the pass to him, and he had to take the puck, and the way he got it up over the goalie… That is hard to do, man.
He is great that way. He is so fast and so good on his edges, it is crazy. He is as skilled as any player I have coached, for sure.
He is a good teammate and a good guy. He wants to win. Like all of us, there are always things to improve on and things we are going to demand from him more, just like the other guys. I enjoyed working with him.
He is quite the guy, though. Rolling in, muscle shirt on, earrings, hair all over. He’ll say to me, “Yeah, you lost me in that first period.” I’ll go, “What are you talking about?” He’ll say, “I need a lot of ice time to get going.”
After a point-blank chance one time, I go, “You shot it right in the goalie’s glove! Can you not put it upstairs?” He goes, “Well, I wasn’t out there early enough. I wasn’t warmed up enough. I didn’t have enough ice time.” I am looking at him like, “What a beauty.”
He always has an answer for something.
Before the season started, Auston Matthews was named captain in place of John Tavares. How did Tavares handle it? How did you think Auston did as captain in his first year?
Berube: JT was great with it. He thought it was a good move. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be captain, but there comes a point in people’s careers where there are changes, right? That is one of them. JT is a pro, and he handled it really well.
He didn’t miss a beat in terms of his mindset going into the year. He scored 38 goals, which at his age is great. He had a great year. He was still a leader on our team; it wasn’t like he didn’t keep doing the same things he was doing.
Matthews grew as a leader throughout the year. He did a great job toward the end, I thought, just with the little things that, as a coach, you want your leader to do.
With his play on the ice, I get that he didn’t get the goal production he got the year before, but if you look at the whole game, he touches every part of our game. I used him in a lot of different situations with penalty killing and going against top lines on the other team.
I thought he had a really good year. He didn’t score the goals he did the year before, but he played extremely well, and his leadership grew. It will only keep growing. It doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes some time to learn and understand all of the areas you have to take care of and handle as a leader.
Leadership is not just going on the ice and playing well; there is a lot more that goes into it than that. JT was there to help him. It was a really easy transition. I didn’t think it affected either play very much.
Was it just an internal discussion when you showed up in Toronto to shake up the captaincy, or was it just more about Matthews being ready for the role?
Berube: It was more that he was ready, and it is a different voice going forward. It is his team. It was time.
That was an internal discussion, and you discuss it with JT and Matthews to get their thoughts on it. When I got hired, that was one of the things management wanted to move forward on.
Tavares seems to be the total pro who shows up every game and is willing to do anything for the team, and then he scores 38 goals as well. That’s a great season for him.
Berube: For sure. He is such a good situational player. I think he led our team in faceoff percentage. When Matthews was out for quite some time due to injury, he basically became the number-one center on our team, and we didn’t miss a beat. He handles situations so well. He is great on the power play still. He scores a lot of goals in tight around the net in that area.
He is just such a good pro. His preparation is the biggest part of why he is still able to perform at his age. He is always working. He is always doing things in the gym and is always preparing. That is why he is still able to perform at a high level at his age.
Was the outfit Justin Bieber wore behind the net at Game 7 at all a distraction?
Berube: Haha, I honestly didn’t even know he was behind me. I had no clue until later on.
What do you think happened in Game 7? Everybody is so jacked up for it. Was everyone over-stimulated?
Berube: We looked really good after Game 6. We felt really good. That morning, I thought the minds were good. The guys were in a good spot, even before the game.
If you look at the game, Florida came out hard. It was similar to Game 6 in Florida; we were all over them in the first 10 minutes, and that happens sometimes. We weathered the storm, and we were starting to come in the first period. We were doing a good job and killed off a penalty late in that period.
We were in a good spot in the second period, and we made two or three structural mistakes. You can’t get impatient against that team. It is hard — I get it — but with the way they play and how hard they play, you can’t get impatient. You have to stick with it.
I thought we got impatient a little bit and lost some coverage on some plays. They capitalized on them. Now, you are down 3-0. That is a hard hill to climb against that team.
Carolina is a team that can smother the opposition. Now, in the series so far, the Panthers are doing it to them, and the Hurricanes look like an inadequate team all of a sudden.
Berube: That is what they do. You can’t force things against them because it is just not there. You have to be okay with just getting pucks out and getting pucks in. It is a hard game to play, and it is a hard game to stay patient in. Guys feel like they are not accomplishing anything, but they are.
That is how you have to beat that team. They are just going to keep coming. We didn’t do a good job of it in Game 7.
Bobrovsky stopped two breakaways for them in the first period, and maybe if one of our more skilled guys has those breakaways, it is a different game. Their goalie is really good. He makes big saves for them when needed. That is a big part of their team.
Your team made the trade for Scott Laughton at the trade deadline. Were you happy with his game and how he contributed to the team once he arrived?
Berube: It took him a bit to get comfortable with the situation. That is always normal with trades for a lot of players. Once he got comfortable, found some chemistry with some players, and got his role down, he was really good for us.
Laughts is a good guy in the locker room and a character guy, with the checking line (role), the gamesmanship he plays with, and the penalty killing. I thought he was really good for us.
Laughton and Claude Giroux were going at it pretty hard in the Ottawa series. Did you get a chuckle out of that?
Berube: You want to try to get under his skin a little bit, so Laughts was telling me all of this stuff he was saying to him. I got a chuckle out of it. I laugh at that stuff.
It was good. They are old teammates, but when you play in the playoffs, that all changes, right?
Laughts has gamesmanship, which is good. You need that. He definitely was trying to get under the skin of G in that series. He played well in that series, and his line was pretty effective for us.
A lot of coaches don’t have that kind of relationship, and they don’t know how to handle these players’ character, and it almost gets too rigid. They couldn’t have that dialogue.
Berube: I think you have to handle every player differently in terms of individual stuff. The team is a team; you handle the team the same, and everybody is accountable to the same things in the team aspect.
With players, it is important to grab each player as much as you can, talk to them, and try to get them to another level in their game. With a guy like Nylander or Matthews, it is not the scoring or the playmaking stuff. It is the other things. As a coaching staff, if we feel we can get them to do this better or that better, it will help the team.
You also have to know your players and how they will respond in a positive way. Sometimes, it is a little sarcasm with some fun. Sometimes, it is a kick in the ass. Sometimes, it is, “Let’s f***’ing go.” It is all important.
You get pissed off as a coach, and you do whatever you have to do. There are a number of times when I am barking at somebody on the bench or in the room after, but they also know me personally and how I am. They know this isn’t a personal thing. This is just honesty.
It is constructive criticism, more than anything. That is important. It is important for the players to handle constructive criticism.
You received really good goaltending from Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz this season. What were your thoughts on Stolarz’s great season? Unfortunately, he got hurt twice, including in the playoffs.
Berube: I thought he had a hell of a year. He played extremely well. He got the injury earlier on and was out for a bit, but he came back and got right back to the same form pretty quickly. Going into the playoffs, he was really solid.
Both goalies were good. It was a good tandem. We missed Stolie in the playoffs, for sure, when he got hurt. We like the guy and the personality he brings. It has been really good for the team and for Joseph Woll, too, to have a guy like him around — a veteran goalie and a guy who has won. It has been good for [Woll], too.
Stolie was awesome. He had a really good season. He will come back and be ready to go again.
There was also the puck he took to the helmet earlier in the game when he got hurt. He then has the Sam Bennett situation. You had a couple of times as a player when you may have run into a goalie.
Berube: Oh yeah. I rocked a couple of them.
The game has changed, and there are a lot of accidentally-on-purpose plays that happen now. In the back of your mind, though, are you thinking you’d love to run through Bobrovsky through the wall after the Stolarz incident?
Berube: You have to try to make it difficult for those goalies. I thought we got into Bob’s crease quite a bit and were falling around. That is all part of playoff stuff. It was unfortunate that the play happened for us.
Hey, this is playoff hockey. Those kinds of things are going to happen. That is part of the game, and it is part of Florida’s game. They are very good at it. You can dislike it all you want, but in the end, it is playoff hockey. That stuff is going to happen. You have to deal with it.
It was unfortunate that it affected Stolie like it did.
Stolarz was always a laid-back player, dating back to his early days as a pro. Is he still the same guy?
Berube: Yeah, he is the same. He has that mindset and personality. He doesn’t seem like he gets affected by too much. He just goes out and does his thing. It is sometimes good to have a goalie with that personality. They are not all like that; we all know that they are pretty wound tight, for the most part, but he is a little different.
