Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, which dropped the Maple Leafs’ record to 24-19-9.
On his takeaways from the loss:
I thought we came out and were fine. We made two puck-play mistakes, and it was in our net. Execution was the cause of a couple of the goals. If you give their guys 2-on-1s or odd-man rushes, you are in trouble. We got down 2-0, and it kind of deflated our team.
We tried to fight back, but overall, we have to fix the execution part. The battle level, when you get down in a game… We have to come together as a team and fight through that. It is going to happen. We all know that.
Losing at home has worn on our team a little bit, but that is pro sports. We have to all pull it together here and get ready for Tuesday. We need a win. That’s the bottom line.
On why there has been a recent downturn in the results on home ice:
I talked about it the other day. We’ve come home after a pretty good road trip, and we’ve made a lot of mistakes — a lot of execution mistakes with the puck, which has caused us to be where we’re at right now at home.
On how the team can get its confidence back:
That’s a choice. I mean, come on. They’re NHL players. You’re paid to play in the NHL. You have to go out and play.
I get what you’re saying. I’ve played. I know the feeling. Confidence comes from hard work. Confidence comes from playing the system and being direct. For me, confidence comes from work and compete. If you work, compete, and understand — when going into a game — that this is the most important part, you will get your confidence.
We got scored on for a couple of goals, and we kind of stopped playing. We watch instead of coming together as a team. We have to come together as a team and pull out of it. No individual is going to pull us out of it. It’s the team.
On the chatter on the bench when the team goes down a few goals:
It depends on the game. It depends on the time in the game in different situations. It changes throughout the year.
Right now, it is quiet, and that is not going to help. You have to cheer for your teammate, and you have to have energy no matter the situation. When you talk about confidence, that is going to create confidence for your team, too.
On the frustration level of the team as the situation deteriorates in the standings:
Coming home here, I thought we put ourselves in a pretty good place to climb in the standings. We have been a good home team. But that wasn’t the case this time coming home.
Again, that is in the past now. We are going to focus on Tuesday. It is all we can do.
On how Joseph Woll is handling the adversity of recent losses:
I thought he was good tonight. I don’t fault him on any of the goals.
He’ll look at it, or we’ll look at it, and say, “Well, we can get a save here or there,” but he gave us a chance to be in the game and win the game.
On the message during the timeout after falling down 2-0 early:
Just to settle down and execute with the puck. It cost us two goals, right? Just settle down and execute with the puck. Get to our game, as we talked about before the game. That’s all. It was just to settle things down.
