{"id":261702,"date":"2025-11-04T09:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T09:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/261702\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T09:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T09:57:09","slug":"berube-maple-leafs-still-searching-for-60-minute-effort-despite-improbable-comeback-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/261702\/","title":{"rendered":"Berube, Maple Leafs still searching for 60-minute effort despite improbable comeback win"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, for that matter, were the players. Just ask Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly<\/a>, who agreed it was the poorest period turned in by the team in a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think it was, in terms of holding onto the puck and executing and making plays and playing with speed,\u201d he told NHL.com. \u201cThere was none of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

His teammates sang a similar tune.<\/p>\n

Forward William Nylander<\/a> called it \u201cterrible\u201d and \u201cunacceptable.\u201d Captain Auston Matthews<\/a> said the execution \u201cjust wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d Stolarz said it \u201cwas just not up to our standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what changed heading into a third period in a game in which the home team had just eight shots in the first 40 minutes?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of had to wake up and put our foot down in the third,\u201d Stolarz said. \u201cAnd we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of Xs and Os, the Maple Leafs got back to what Berube has been preaching to them for more than a year: playing north-south with a tough, physical forecheck instead of going east-west and attempting to make fancy plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d been struggling to find our identity the past five or six games before the Philly game,\u201d Rielly said. \u201cAnd so, it was just about, ‘Hey, let\u2019s get real.’ And we were able to do that in the third.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, you still need to address how you got to that spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, falling three goals behind is not normally the recipe for success.<\/p>\n

Then again, this was no normal comeback.<\/p>\n

It was Matthews who got it going, scoring at 3:31 of the third to ignite a three-goal outburst in the span of 3:24 that included a pair from Nylander.<\/p>\n

Forward Bobby McMann<\/a> then sealed the deal, scoring the winner with 6:17 remaining.<\/p>\n

Under those circumstances, the expectation would be that the coach embraced his team\u2019s feisty final 20 minutes to secure the win. Instead, he could only shrug his shoulders when asked why a full 60-minute effort eluded his players on this night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no clue,\u201d Berube said. \u201cI have no answer for that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, in itself, speaks volumes of what the coach thinks of the state of his team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So, for that matter, were the players. Just ask Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly, who agreed it was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-261702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}