Craig Berube, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube addressed the media after his team’s 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, which dropped the Maple Leafs’ record to 27-26-11.
On the team’s performance:
Tough break on the first goal. I thought that kind of took a little bit out of us and put us on our heels a little. They capitalized on a couple more and got a power-play goal.
We had some good looks and didn’t put it in the net. I felt like we were a little bit… not tentative after they scored their first goal, but we didn’t stay with what we were doing. We kind of backed off too much.
The second period was better. We checked better and didn’t give up a lot. We have to finish better; we had some looks and didn’t finish.
On whether the finishing has been an issue this season:
I am not sure it has been all year. There were stretches when we were getting a lot of goals, and the scoring was pretty balanced at one point. Right now, I guess we are not getting the bounces, or we aren’t shooting it well enough. There are a lot of reasons, probably.
We had some good looks. We are not finding the back of the net enough.
On the vibe on the bench when the team went down early:
In the first, after that goal — the first goal that went in, followed by the other one — the bench was a little bit down. I thought the guys came out in the second and played the right way. That’s a good sign, but in the end, we have to come out and play to win the game, not lose the game.
Right now, when a goal goes in or two goals go in, we kind of protect too much. We don’t stay on our toes and play.
On the boos from the home crowd:
Hey, they pay good money to come watch us. They want to win, just like we do. That is part of the game everywhere.
On Jacob Quillan’s contributions on the PK:
I thought he did a good job tonight. He works. He has really good feet. Again, I was happy with his game all around.
Game Highlights: Lightning 5 vs. Maple Leafs 2