An Irritated Head Coach Craig Berube Puts His Maple Leafs on Blast During Interview

While the Toronto Maple Leafs slumped to another loss on Saturday night, the bigger story coming out of the game was the treatment that goaltender Anthony Stolarz received.

The hulking netminder was run into once again, this time by Seattle Kraken forward Mason Marchment, and Berube was not happy with his team's response and effort.

The fiery head coach put his team on blast after the game and is hoping they answer the call the next time out.

Berube isn't asking for his team to head hunt the opposition or start a scrum after every whistle. However, he's clearly looking for a much better response to goaltender contact than what they've shown, which, to this point, has been weak.

It's etched in hockey lore that you're always supposed to answer the bell the moment your goaltender is in danger, but it's doubly important with Stolarz, who is coming off of a concussion that ruled him out during the playoffs.

It also didn't look like Marchment was ever going to stop up short either. The power forward was able to walk in all alone on his scoring opportunity before backing himself into the netminder. The rest of the team stood there and only responded until after Stolarz went after Marchment himself.

This isn't the first time that Stolarz has been run into in recent weeks and Berube has a legitimate gripe with his team lacking a response. While Brandon Carlo jumped in eventually, he should have been the first one to respond, considering he was the closest bystander.

It's totally unacceptable, more so because a Berube-led team is supposed to be the one setting the tone, not the other way around.

One has to imagine that Berube tore them a new one after the game and that they won't be repeating the same mistake the next time something like this happens.