Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, which dropped the Maple Leafs’ record to 9-9-3.
On the team’s performance:
I thought we played a pretty good game all around. The guys worked, competed, and did a lot of good things.
Overtime… It’s the way it goes.
On Easton Cowan earning the coach’s trust quickly:
He has taken some good steps from day one. He is like a dog on a bone out there for me. He just works, skates, and sees the ice extremely well.
He is being a lot heavier on pucks and is making good decisions with the puck. I thought he played a really good game tonight.
On whether there are encouraging signs in the team’s play over the last few games:
For sure. We are defending a lot better. We are doing a lot of good things. We needed to finish better tonight — that is really the story — but things are going better, and they’re going in a good direction right now. We just have to keep working, keep building, and get some healthy bodies back.
On the team’s forechecking effort:
Good dumps and rims. We talked about riming it in. We got on it, created a bunch of stalls, and got it back. There were a lot of good things off our forecheck.
We talked about it before the game: Put pucks behind them all night. I thought we did that. We did a good job of it.
Again, we just came up short tonight.
On whether John Tavares has elevated a specific part of his game this season:
I don’t know if anything is going up; he just wills his way around the ice. I mean, the effort he puts in every shift is remarkable. It really is.
Another solid performance from him.
On whether he is checking in with Tavares about his energy levels/if he can tell Tavares is tired on the bench as Tavares logs more minutes than usual:
I can tell sometimes. It was great having Laughton back because I didn’t use him against the Fantilli line all night. I used Laughton against him to give him a little breather there and get him against different lines, different D pairs, and not so many d-zone faceoffs, either.
On Scott Laughton’s first game back after injury:
I thought he was really good tonight. He had a lot of energy, skated well, killed penalties, and created some offense. He brings that tenacity to every shift along with work.
On the team’s reaction to Dakota Mermis scoring his first goal since the 2023-24 season:
They were excited. He is a very well-liked guy on our team. Solid guy.
He has come in and done a good job for us with the injuries. He has played pretty well.
MERMIS FIRST AS A LEAF vs Blue Jackets
🔊 @Bonsie1951 @Jim_Ralph pic.twitter.com/JYnEscgiD0
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) November 21, 2025
On the team’s power play effort (0 for 2, six shots on goal):
The power play was good. I am not going to sit here and complain about not scoring on it. We did the right things to score. I thought it created momentum for our team.
