Former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube defended the way he coached the team in his two years and how he managed Auston Matthews.
A new era of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey arrived this off-season, and a big factor in that was the entire overhaul of the coaching staff. Jim Hiller came in to replace Craig Berube, who was fired after two seasons with the team.
His second season with Toronto was particularly sour when the Leafs finished last in the Atlantic Division, and their streak of making the Stanley Cup playoffs for nine straight years was snapped.
Since then, there has been some criticism of Berube and how he ran his team. One particular aspect was how captain Auston Matthews was utilized in his system. He saw a lot more defensive zone starts than in other years of his career with different coaches.
There were links to that being a big reason why Matthews' goal total was significantly lower than before Berube arrived in Toronto. But Berube defended his philosophy and methods.
"I think there were a lot of injuries with Matthews the last couple of years that hindered his goal-scoring," Berube said on TSN's First Up radio show. "Listen, I was trying to instill a 200-foot game for everybody. If that meant he had to take more D-zone draws than he normally does because he's playing against top lines, well, that was my thought process on it, and I stick by my guns."
Toronto's former bench boss mentioned that he believed that a team's best player must be able to help in all areas of the ice. He also vouched for himself, adding that he didn't completely hide the star center in the D-zone.
"If you look at it, he got a lot of offensive zone starts, too," he said. "I think last year I probably gave him more than any other player on our team - him and Nylander."
Matthews was highlighted as proof of Berube's system that didn't really pan out in his second year, but it didn't end there.
A report from Daily Faceoff noted that multiple wingers on Berube's team disclosed that they were "instructed to dump the puck in and would often fear reprisal for creative reads at the offensive blueline.”
He was given a chance to defend his stance and comment on that report.
"I had an identity going in there, and I wanted to play a more north-south game and put pucks behind teams and forecheck," he said. "I believe that is a way to win in this game. You look at Carolina and Florida, and even when we won in 2018 (St. Louis Blues), we didn't turn pucks over. We put pucks deep, and we forechecked teams, and we pressured teams. I wanted to instill that type of identity for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"I get it, I wasn't trying to take the sticks out of their hands, but that's the way it goes. I got no issues with players saying that they felt like they had to dump every puck in. That's fine. I'm not going to sit here and comment on that."
See more of The Hockey News on Google — Save us as Preferred Source
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
