“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them.”
That wasn’t Craig Berube after the Maple Leafs’ ugly Thursday night loss in Washington. That was Craig Berube in February 2023, when he was still the head coach of the St. Louis Blues. An overtime loss to the Canucks marked the Blues’ fourth consecutive defeat.
Berube blasted the Blues, his best players in particular, in almost identical fashion to the way he lambasted the play of the Leafs after their 4-0 loss to the Capitals.
“Our best players don’t play with any passion, no emotion and no inspiration at all,” said Berube back in 2023. “They don’t play inspired hockey. You cannot play in this league without emotion, grit and being inspired. They’re getting paid lots of money, and they’re not doing the job. End of story.”
He followed up his “you’ll have to ask them” remark with another stinger: “I guess they don’t care about the team, I don’t know.”
That Blues losing streak ultimately lasted six games. The team ended up missing the playoffs, and the following December, amid a rough start to the season, Berube was fired.
Brad Treliving backed Berube in November when there was legitimate reason to consider, and even make, a coaching change.
What management and ownership should be wondering now is whether Berube has lost the team entirely.
His comments after the game in Washington were one thing. They hint, strongly, at a divide between coach and players, not to mention a coach who has run out of answers for his team’s poor play.
It’s a bad sign when it’s “those guys,” not “we” or “us.”
“Ask those guys, not me,” Berube said.
He added, “To me, (the Capitals) played with more passion than we did tonight. It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game. That’s the difference.”
It was a lethargic performance, certainly.
And plenty of blame should fall on the players, especially the top ones. However, the coach should also shoulder some of the responsibility. It’s his job to have the group ready to play hard, to have them energized, engaged and in position to dictate play and win.
If not, why have a coach?
Sluggish performances like that have been a regular — and disturbing — occurrence all season.
In fact, just three weeks earlier, the Leafs had a similarly dull losing effort to those very same Capitals.
It’s not just the constant lethargy that’s troubling and points to a coach not getting through to his group.
It’s the strategy that’s failing, too.
The Leafs haven’t controlled games all year. They rank 25th in the NHL in expected goals percentage and 31st of 32 teams in the amount of time spent in the offensive zone at even strength.
Only the young San Jose Sharks have managed less time in the other team’s end.
Once a jewel of the league, the Leafs’ power play has been a disaster from day one. The Leafs have scored just 12 goals with the man advantage — 22 fewer(!) than the league-leading Dallas Stars.
Berube and his staff, with Marc Savard chiefly at the controls of the power play, have uncovered no solutions. Not like last season, when a tweak to five forwards got the team charging back to the top of the league after a bumpy start.
Ultimate responsibility for the power play’s failures falls on the head coach.
What’s especially concerning is that nothing is changing, not in any meaningful way. The Leafs are playing almost as poorly now as they were in October and November. They have yet to put together any sustained stretch of strong play and are now suddenly struggling to score goals.
The Leafs have scored only 11 times in their last six games, four of them losses.
When the goaltending hasn’t been otherworldly, as it was last season, this team has been unable to regularly win games.
The Leafs are on pace for just 87 points (they had a division-leading 108 last season) and the team’s first absence from the playoffs in a decade. No, they aren’t far out of playoff position, but there’s been little indication that a prolonged run of excellence is coming.
Furthermore, they aren’t far from the bottom of the Eastern Conference either.
This roster has flaws, certainly, and injuries — in goal and on the back end especially — have been a factor. Top players have struggled, too. Auston Matthews hasn’t performed to expectations. And after fast starts, William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthew Knies have all cooled down. Contributions from depth players have been inconsistent, and defenders like Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson have wobbled at times.
The players have to own that. So does the coach.
It’s hard to argue that Berube is getting the most out of the talent at his disposal.
Is that because the players aren’t buying what he’s selling any longer? Is it because they can’t execute what he’s selling? Is it because what he’s selling simply doesn’t work, with this roster, in today’s NHL? Is it all of the above?
Can someone else do better?
From Keith Pelley, the head of MLSE, to Treliving, the Leafs’ brass should be asking these questions right now and determining whether this season is still salvageable with Berube at the controls.