It is not unusual for coaches to stop practice in order to get the team to get back on track especially if it’s Craig Berube.
However, the Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off their third-straight win and are now about to face the toughest test of their season so far with the New York Rangers in town on Saturday.
Berube turned up the pressure a bit in practice, stopping it a few times and letting the team know when he wasn’t happy with their effort.
“We don’t want to get complacent, right? That’s the biggest thing. Staying sharp,” Berube told reporters Friday about stopping practice. “I stopped it a couple of times. Just execution for me, you know, being sharp and executing.
“It sort of goes back to the last game and 5-0. You take your foot off the gas a little bit. That’s where we got to get. We don’t want to do that.”
During Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings, Berube called a timeout when the Leafs’ 5-0 lead quickly became a 5-2 advantage.
It was not only a chance for the team to regroup but to get it to understand that it was not playing to his standard.
“I didn’t like what we were doing,” he said. “I just wanted to get a break there and bring everybody in and talk a little bit about getting the intensity level up more than anything. They were pushing hard, I thought they pushed hard in the second period too. Our intensity wasn’t good enough.”
Berube will get a good chance to see how the Leafs respond Saturday against the 3-0-1 Rangers on Hockey Night Canada, which can be seen on Sportsnet and streamed on Sportsnet+ at 7 p.m. ET.
