Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 5-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, which dropped the Maple Leafs’ record to 8-7-1.
On John Tavares calling the team’s mistakes “immature:”
It could be immaturity. Not a willingness to make the easy play. Turnover after turnover cost us the game tonight. We didn’t check anybody tonight. We didn’t win any battles tonight.
Two games in a row.
On how the team can break the inconsistency defensively:
For me, it is just a mindset. If you want to be a good defensive team, you have to check. You have to have good sticks. You have to be hard and win battles. You’ve got to have good structure.
Right now, it is a mindset for me. We don’t have any of that right now.
On how the team can improve on all of the above-mentioned issues:
You just keep working on it. My job as a coach is to get them back on track. That is what I am going to try to do. That’s what I’ve done, and I am going to keep banging away at it. It’s all you can do.
You look at the video. We are going to have discussions with players and the team.
We are scoring enough goals every game to win games, but we are letting in too many. Pretty much the season so far is that we don’t value the defensive side of the puck enough. There are a number of things that go into that — I am not going to get into it all — but right now, we don’t value that.
On Dennis Hildeby’s performance in net:
Well, he made a lot of saves. We gave him three or four breakaways in the second period? I lost count. It has nothing to do with the goalie.
On William Nylander missing a pair of golden opportunities late in the last two games, and if it’s just a case of bad luck:
I don’t think he has bad luck. He scored two goals tonight. He has been scoring regularly this year. Those things happen. Those are just bad breaks at times, but that doesn’t necessarily cost you hockey games.
Yes, he could’ve tied the game up the other night and missed one tonight, but it is all of the other stuff that happens before that that is the reason we’re losing.
On the team falling short in two home games this weekend:
It is disappointing. In the last five games going into the Boston game, we were really trending in the right direction without the puck and doing a good job. Now, our power play starts to click, and we’re scoring. We’re scoring goals, but we just went right off the rails the last two games defensively.
It’s caused by puck play, costly turnovers, and the urgency that is needed to defend.
Game Highlights: Hurricanes 5 vs. Maple Leafs 4
