Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, which dropped the Maple Leafs’ record to 27-23-9.
On the team’s slow start to the game:
It is a tough start, right? We got down three. The shorthanded goal was tough.
We know Florida. We know they’re going to come out hard like that and push you. You have to weather the storm. We didn’t do a good enough job of weathering that storm in the first period.
In the second and third, we played our game. It was a competitive game. Even at the start of the game, we were competitive, but they had more jump and energy than us and won more races. They hemmed us in our zone too much.
On the concerning lack of urgency to start the game:
It is (troubling). It is the same thing as last night’s game in Tampa. You need it for 60 minutes, especially now. We can’t take any shifts off.
It is my job to make sure they have it.
On the message after the first period:
We have a lot of hockey left. I get it is not the start we wanted coming out of the break, but we have to understand that if you play the second and third for 60 minutes, you give yourself a better chance to win. That is it.
We are capable of doing it. We have to do it for 60 minutes. We have no time to take shifts off and periods off. We are not in that mode.
On the difficulty of maintaining confidence after a rough couple of games coming out of the break:
It is always hard. It is my job to instill that confidence in our guys. For myself, I stay confident. I am confident. I know what these guys are capable of doing. I have to get it out of them.
On Joseph Woll’s performance in goal:
He was good. I thought he was fine. He made a lot of big saves. Puck touches weren’t great all of the time, but there were some tough bounces on these boards. Other than that, he was solid in the net for us.
On Florida’s shorthanded goal to make it 3-0:
I didn’t like how they were coming up on the wrong sides, you know? That is why we like forehands.
I thought it was a tough play all around. We have to make a better read and maybe not make that play. The guy stood up on us.
It is a tough play; it is a tough play for Willy on the puck there. He had no time, and he tried to make a play, but it got picked off, and they were gone. We have to execute better there.
On another successful offside challenge to negate the 4-0 goal:
[Jordan Bean and Sam Kim] are sharp guys. They do a good job for us. They always have since I’ve been here. They don’t miss too much. Good job by them. They’ve done a good job all year.
