Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, which dropped the Leafs’ record to 32-34-14.
On William Villeneuve’s debut (18:45 TOI):
I thought he was really good. On the first couple of shifts, there were obviously nerves, but I thought he had a good game. He did good things tonight: competed, defended hard, moved the puck fairly well. I was pretty happy with him.
On the team’s performance:
We got down 2-0 on two kind of lucky goals by them. I thought our second period was our best period. We gave up that third one, which we shouldn’t be giving up. We made a push and got some opportunities late.
We didn’t execute on our chances. We had three breakaways and didn’t get a sniff on any of them.
On the goaltending interference challenge:
I wasn’t real confident, but down 2-0 at the time, I thought he kind of went into him, and it is a 50/50 one. You never know with those, but I challenged it anyhow. The penalty kill has been good.
On how Joseph Woll is handling all the losing:
He is handling it well. He is not happy, for sure. He wants to win. He wants to play well. But hey, you just have to keep battling. It is what it is. He is battling.
On the difficulty of getting up for a meaningless game like this one:
It is difficult, no doubt about it. But you’ve got to perform and play. You’ve got to compete. I thought we competed. We didn’t go out there and not compete, but there were just mistakes. Whether it is turnovers or different plays in certain situations, there were mistakes. They’re finding their way into the net.
On William Nylander driving the bus offensively with both of the team’s goals:
That line was our best offensive line, for sure, and had a lot of opportunities. They got us a couple of goals, including one on the power play. It just wasn’t enough.
