Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, which dropped the Maple Leafs’ record to 3-4-1.
On the team’s performance:
Obviously, it’s just the loss, right? I loved the effort tonight. I thought we did a lot of good things. We competed extremely hard. The backend is banged up, but the guys played hard and competed hard.
They outscored us. That is really the bottom line. We had a lot of good opportunities to put more on the net, and we just couldn’t get it done.
On the play of the Matthews-Nylander line:
They looked really good. They were quick. They supported each other really well and were strong on pucks. There was a lot of offensive-zone time. A lot of good things from that line.
On whether the game could be something to build on, despite the loss:
It can be, for sure. For me, tonight, we played more to our identity and our game, with the way we want to play it.
Now, there are always things to clean up, right? Keeping the puck out of our net — there are some things there where we can do a better job, but overall, this game showed me the speed of our team when we play direct, the compete, and the heaviness. There were tons of shots going toward the cage and puck recoveries.
On the adjustment period of integrating new faces in the lineup:
That is part of the game, too, right? There are bodies in and out all year, a lot of the time. There are injuries and other things that go on. Our new guys that we got are starting to come around and show why we went and got them.
On the effort of the PKers at 5-on-3:
They did a great job. There were some great blocks. That is what you are going to need at 5-on-3. They are going to shoot pucks. Those guys did a really good job.
On Anthony Stolarz’s performance:
I’d want to wait until I talk to him first. It is a lot for him. We leaned on him heavily here. It is a lot of games and a lot of hockey that he’s played. I am sure he is tired a little bit.
On Joseph Woll re-joining the team:
It is great. We are so happy to have him back. We are really looking forward to it. It is awesome.
On Dakota Joshua breaking through offensively:
His game has gotten better and better. In his last two or three games, his game has gotten to what we have expected of him.
His goal is a classic goal that he is going to score, but to me, that line had a lot of offensive-zone time. They were heavy on pucks. They shot a lot of pucks and made a lot of attempts at the net. They just didn’t get there a lot of times. It is one of those things where it was blocks or missed nets — whatever it was — but I thought they did a good job.
On William Nylander’s status for Saturday’s game:
We will see tomorrow.
