Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 5-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken, which dropped the Maple Leafs’ record to 24-21-9.
On the team’s performance:
I thought it was a good effort. We did a lot of good things tonight. We made a couple of mistakes, and they were in our net.
Overall, we had our opportunities to score more goals. It didn’t go in. Their goalie played well. But I liked the effort. I thought we controlled most of the game.
On whether it’s disheartening that the team can’t seem to win even when it plays well:
It is tough. Nobody is happy. In the end, that is the way we have to play. There were a lot of good things in the game. We can clean up a few things — mistakes that were unnecessary — but in the end, if we play like that, we will win a lot of games.
On the two quick goals against in the second period, and the response afterward:
I thought they battled back. In the third, too, they got that goal. It was a one-goal game, and we were back in it. Our PP was really good tonight, I thought.
We made a mistake on the next goal that we shouldn’t have made.
On Anthony Stolarz’s performance:
He wants a couple back, for sure, but overall, his game was better.
On how he can keep the team positive after another loss despite a decent performance:
It can be difficult, for sure. It is about just communication with the team, and the leaders grabbing it and making sure we stay positive and are ready to go for the next game. That is part of their job.
On his concern level that there is not enough runway left to erase the growing deficit in the standings:
We can’t worry about that or look at that. We just have to focus on the next game. You can’t start looking at how many games are left. You are putting yourself in a bad spot. We have to go to Vancouver and get two points. That is what we should be focused on. Nothing else.
I get it about the standings and where we are at with the games left, but it is not going to accomplish anything. The goals need to be small right now. We need to focus game-to-game here and try to take care of our business the best we can.
