Craig Berube, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube addressed the media after his team\u2019s 7-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, which dropped the Maple Leafs\u2019 record to 24-20-9. <\/p>\n
On where the game got away from the team:<\/p>\n
We had a couple of bad breaks go off our guys, but at the end of the first period, we turned the puck over, and they scored. At the end of the second period, it is a shot from the point, but we don\u2019t have our guys in front of the net, and they score. That is the difference in the game for me.<\/p>\n
We came out in the third, and we got scored on on the first shift. Two or three mistakes, and they\u2019re in our net.<\/p>\n
On how the team can cut down on those couple of costly mistakes per game:<\/p>\n
Keep trying to work on things, and stop making them, first of all. On a couple of them, the guys need to do what they\u2019re supposed to do \u2014 do your job. We are not getting any breaks right now, so we have to earn them.<\/p>\n
All we can do is push forward and focus on the next game. We have to clean things up. We\u2019ll look at it, try to clean things up, and go from there.<\/p>\n
On what he learned about the team during the 0-4-1 homestand:<\/p>\n
Well, that we have to keep the puck out of the net is what I learned. We didn\u2019t do that here at home, other than the Detroit game. It is the only game we did. Until we decide to do things right and keep the puck out of our net \u2014 and that is the goalies included \u2014 this is what you are going to get.<\/p>\n
We scored enough goals on this homestand to win games, but we didn\u2019t keep the puck out of our net. Until you want to keep the puck out of your net\u2026<\/p>\n
That is a couple of things: managing the game, puck play, don\u2019t give odd-man rushes up, and defend harder than we are. We need more desperation defending, and the goalies need to stop the puck. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
We can score goals. We score goals. But until we want to keep the puck out of our net, this is what we\u2019re going to get.<\/p>\n
It is no more than that. I don\u2019t want to talk about it anymore. That\u2019s all it is. I don\u2019t need to learn anything about our team. I know our team, and we\u2019re capable of doing it. We can do it.<\/p>\n
On how difficult it is to maintain confidence when the breaks are going against the team:\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve said it before. Confidence\u2026 You have to go, work, and compete. Your confidence will be fine. I mean, I get it, but we\u2019re in the NHL. You\u2019re getting paid to play hockey. You have to go and do the job.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s your job. Do your job.<\/p>\n
On the level of puzzlement about these mistakes cropping up in game 53 of the season:<\/p>\n
It is [puzzling], coming off the road trip and how good we had been playing. It is puzzling, for sure.<\/p>\n
On the identity of the team at the moment:<\/p>\n
The way I look at it: We looked at scoring as everything, and it is not everything. You are not going to consistently win in this league by focusing on scoring goals. You have to play the full rink.<\/p>\n
Right now, we are not doing a good enough job without the puck. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
On the lack of power-play opportunities:\u00a0<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t control the offensive zone enough to get some power plays tonight. We did at times, but if you want to get power plays, you have to skate, attack, and put people in vulnerable positions to take penalties.<\/p>\n
On whether he wishes he had Dennis Hildeby with the team still:<\/p>\n
These are our guys. Stolarz is back, ready to go. They\u2019re decisions you have to make. They\u2019re our goalies.<\/p>\n
Game Highlights w\/ Joe Bowen: Sabres 7 vs. Maple Leafs 4 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Berube, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube addressed the media after his team\u2019s 7-4 loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-438355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}