Craig Berube Addresses His Blow-Up On Auston Matthews During Thursday's Loss to Blues

When you're among the highest-paid players in the National Hockey League, you're still not immune from criticism, whether in the media, behind closed doors or in the public eye for everyone to see. This is especially true if you play for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Auston Matthews found this out the hard way on Thursday night.

After a disastrous performance against the St. Louis Blues, Craig Berube expressed his displeasure over a loss, which in all honesty should have been a gimme. Berube had laid into Matthews during the game in a clip that was seen just about everywhere on Thursday night. Berune was asked about the interaction and managed to finesse things in a way that made it very clear that things are good between he and his captain.

While this may be true, and there's no reason to believe that it's not, Matthews is taking the interaction in stride, although based on what he suggested, he's quite disappointed in the way he played.

Mitch Marner was also asked about the interaction between the captain and coach and had the following to say:

For the most part, it appears as though everyone is on the same page in Toronto, though that may change very quickly if this losing skid continues. The Leafs have dug themselves a bit of a hole over these past two games and it's on them to dig themselves out. As far as Berube goes, he knows this is his group and that he has to be better as well. My gut tells me that he will be, and that the team will get the ship pointed in the right direction imminently. There's evidence of that in how aggressively the team practiced on Friday.

The Leafs' next matchup will occur tomorrow night in Boston. Here's hoping they bring their A-game and get back to playing the way they did to begin the season and not the embarrassing effort they brought into these two recent losses.