Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators in the final game of the 2025-26 regular season.
Concluding thoughts on the 2025-26 season:
It’s disappointing, the season. That’s really the focus, looking at everything. We didn’t live up to expectations.
On Dennis Hildeby’s performance (35 saves on 37 shots):
He was great tonight. And he was prepared at camp. He came in and did a really good job for us with Joseph Woll down. There is a lot of upside there with him.
On Easton Cowan’s eligibility for the AHL playoffs
We’ll discuss that tomorrow.
It is definitely a benefit for him to play in the playoffs, right? You can look at the league and dissect it any way you want, but it is a good league. It is a good experience for him.
On how much Cowan’s game progressed from game #1 to game #82:
A lot. He became way more confident throughout the season as the season went on. He’s learning at the same time at the NHL level.
Good future ahead of him. He has a great IQ. He has ice water in his veins. He is a worker. There is a lot of upside there.
On what the next step looks like for Cowan:
I think he made strides this year, for sure. I thought he hit a wall before the Olympic break. That is normal for a young kid like that in his first year in the NHL, with the schedule and how it was condensed.
The next level is learning how to finish at this level. Keep working on the details of the game, the defensive side of the game, doing all of the right things, and managing the game.
When young kids come in, it’s all about scoring, and that is normal. They want to produce. They did it in junior or college. They’re scorers or playmakers. And he is going to be a scorer or a playmaker at this level. How high? I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see, but he has to learn to score goals at this level.
On which Marlie stood out the most among the late-season call-ups:
I think they’re all pretty equal, to be honest with you. I thought they played well again tonight. They worked, competed, and did the right things. They tried to do the right things. They’re not always going to do the right things; they’re young kids.
That’s a tough question. You’ve got to wait and see on that. But I thought they all handled themselves well.
I thought William Villeneuve played another good game on the backend tonight. The other guys worked, competed, and did some good things tonight.
On Nick Robertson’s post-game comments that buy-in might have been an issue for the team this season:
I don’t think buy-in was an issue. We’re trying to play a certain way here. I don’t think that we fully grabbed that buy-in that way.
On how taxing a season it was for him as a coach:
It’s taxing, for sure, but that is the job, right? I talked this morning about it. As a coach and player, you go through adversity as a player, no matter what. And it was a tough year.
At the same time, you keep grinding. You keep trying to find ways to get out of the situation you’re in, which we did. We tried to do a lot of different things this year. It didn’t work out.
On the message to the players at the end of the final game:
We’ll keep that private. I don’t want to open that up, sorry.
