'You Want A Piece Of Me?': Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube Recalls Team Bonding Trip While Playing for Mike Keenan
Berube was a rookie when Keenan and the Flyers went to Lake Placid, New York, and the coach challenged the players.
Craig Berube is about to embark on his first team bonding trip as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs and he recalled the first one he went on as a rookie while with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1980s.
"Mike Keenan took us to Lake Placid. It was in the middle of the year, and we went there for three days. We get dressed for practice, right? We're going to go out and practice. Here comes Mike Keenan in the room, fully dressed. He says, 'Let's go, boys. You want a piece of me? I'm going to be playing today'. So we went out on scrimmage, and Mike was playing, but nobody took a shot at him. I got a good kick out of it."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FowbdVeY9Z8[/embed]
The Leafs are scheduled to hit the ice in Muskoka on Wednesday, but Berube doesn't plan the same kind of surprise with his players.
"I used to, years ago, I would get involved in three-on-three and play two pass games, but not so much anymore," Berube said. "The knees can't handle it."
Keenan in the NHL for 20 seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994. It was 25 years later that Berube won his first Cup as a head coach of the St. Louis Blues.
The Maple Leafs have been making the trip up north to Gravenhurst for the past three years but will be in Bracebridge this time around with a practice on the ice scheduled for Wednesday.
It's good to kind of break up the rhythm of things and go out and get outside, go up north a bit, it'll be really nice," Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll said.
The Maple Leafs have two pre-season games remaining on their schedule before they open their regular season against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Oct. 9.
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