Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was seen stopping practice twice on Friday due to lapses in judgment on drills.
One of the times that Craig Berube stopped practice earlier today.
Berube: “We don’t want to get complacent..” pic.twitter.com/VEVKAukgx4
— David Alter (@dalter) October 18, 2024
It is part of his ongoing mission to preach a consistent standard of honest effort and attention to detail with lacklustre play being deemed unacceptable. This part of the reason why he chose to call a timeout midway through the third period during Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings because he deemed the players were not pushing hard enough.
To their credit, the players are buying into what he is preaching and the process of adjusting to his system is beginning to bear fruit.
“He keeps guys honest. He gets the best out of us,” Nick Robertson said to reporters after Friday’s practice on what is like to be coached by Berube.”You know, you don’t want to be lackadaisical in practice like that, you want a coach that’s hard on you and expects better. That’s what brings the best out of us.”
This new approach of keeping the players accountable and not tolerating anything less than the best has been seen as a breath of fresh air by Leafs fans. Berube has also done his part to maintain a high standard by choosing to healthy scratch players even if he deems their performance to be fine because he does what he feels is best for the team.
It is part of the reason why Berube chose to halt practice and demand a better effort in drills because he wants his players to remain focused and not lose sight of their attention to details.
“We don’t want to get complacent, right? That’s the biggest thing. Staying sharp,” he said. “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.”
In terms of the timeout he called on Wednesday night, Berube’s rationale was to get their competitive level back to where he felt it needed to be even if the Leafs were up by three at that time. He told reporters on Thursday he was pleased with their response to his pleas during the timeout since they went on to extend their lead but emphasized there is still a lot of work needed to get the system in full swing.
This means you can expect more moments like the timeout in Wednesday’s game or halting practice like he did on Friday as the season progresses. So far, the players are on board with it and it will be put to the test in a big upcoming tilt against the Rangers on Saturday.
