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Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube Shares Blunt Assessment After Disappointing Loss to Islanders
Photo credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube shared his honest thoughts on a disappointing 6-3 loss to the New York Islanders in post-game interview.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off of a pretty embarrassing loss to the New York Islanders, albeit in the second half of a back-to-back on Saturday night.
After giving up two quick goals in the first five minutes, the Leafs were unable to fully recover, despite a strong performance from William Nylander, who scored two goals on the evening.
Naturally, nobody was pleased with the effort from the Leafs, least of all head coach Craig Berube, who had to call an early timeout to lay into his team and tell then to wake up.
Following the loss, Berube commented on how the team came out flat, as per Dave McCarthy on X:
''You're on a back-to-back, fresh team waiting for you who hasn't played in a while and we give up two 2-on-1s in the first five minutes of the game' That's how I see it, just not very smart. A little (surprising). Early on in the period, they were better than us, on their toes and we weren't very smart.''
Berube acknowledged that the Leafs were on the second game of a back-to-back but emphasized that it still wasn't good enough:
''I get they're rested and they're going to be a little more quicker, but we have to be smarter than that. You can't give the freebees, and we gave them two right away and got behind. Wasn't a good game.''
The Maple Leafs will also need to adapt to life without Auston Matthews, who re-aggravated an injury after taking a cross-check in the 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
In an unusual move, David Kampf replaced Matthews on the first line, a surprising sight despite Kampf's impressive assist on Nylander's second goal of the game, showcasing his skill.
The Leafs will now have a day of rest on Sunday before gearing up to face the impressive Winnipeg Jets.
The two Canadian teams will meet on Monday in what promises to be an exciting clash between two of the better teams in the league.
Hopefully Berube comes in with a good game plan for that one to enter the Christmas break on a high note.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 22 | 2113 ANSWERS Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube Shares Blunt Assessment After Disappointing Loss to Islanders Are the Leafs going to enter this year's playoffs with home ice advantage? | ||
| Yes | 1351 | 63.9 % |
| No | 762 | 36.1 % |
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