Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube spoke to NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger recently and opened up about what life’s been like since taking over behind the bench in Toronto. Berube also touched on his roots, changing the culture with the Leafs, and how much he’s looking forward to coaching against the St Louis Blues on Thursday night.
Needless to say, Berube cares a lot about his job, he cares a lot about the players he coaches, and he keeps his roots, near and dear to his heart. Berube grew up about 30 minutes outside of Edmonton, in the very small town of Calahoo. A community that was full of Oilers fans, and apparently, full of Berubes.
“I can’t give you an exact number, but there’s a lot. I mean, my dad had six brothers and a sister growing up. And with all of them, I think they had 18 or 19 kids all together. They all pretty much still live there. I’m the only one who ever left,” said Berube to Zeisberger.
“I brought a bunch of [Toronto] swag out there this summer and brought it out to them.”
From small-town living to the bright lights of the NHL, Berube’s journey to coaching the Maple Leafs went through the depths of being an enforcer in the league for over a decade. 1054 career NHL games, and 3149 career penalty minutes, nothing was handed to Berube, and he earned every single minute in the league. This work ethic is the type of culture he’s looking to build in Toronto. Nothing comes easy, and never let your opponents outwork you, regardless of what game of the season it is.
This type of culture has taken effect immediately. Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly was asked about what he’s seen from Berube over the first month or so, and it’s obvious the changes are quickly taking effect. “He makes things quite clear how he wants things, it takes a while to learn a new system, but I think we’re getting there,” Rielly said.
The players are starting to pick up what Berube’s laying down, something the Leafs’ bench boss is very happy to see, just a couple of weeks into the regular season. “The work ethic this team puts in is really good,” stated the Leafs head coach.
The Maple Leafs sit 3-2-0 on the young season and are playing the Tampa Bay Lightning on Amazon Prime Monday Night Hockey. While it’s certainly a great game to test your talents against one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference, it’s hard to not look ahead for Berube, who will coach against his old team, the St Louis Blues on Thursday night in Toronto. Berube will face his former team for the first time, after being fired on Dec.12, 2023.
“It’ll be great,” said Berube. “I had some great years there. I got very close with a lot of players and management and the people of St. Louis, and always will be.
“As for the players, I coached Brayden Schenn since he was a kid in Philly. Robert Thomas, Jordan Binnington, I coached them for a long time. So, I care a lot about those guys, I care a lot about the organization and about the Blues.
“But I’ve moved on now. I’m with the Leafs now.”
Schenn, now the captain of the Blues, felt Berube’s impact immensely throughout their time together. It’s easy to tell how much ‘Chief’ means to him, on and off the ice, and it’s very easy to tell how Berube coached him – hard and to the point. “Oh yeah, definitely, it makes you keep tabs on Toronto a little bit more,” Schenn said Saturday. Chief has been so good to me over my career and gave me such a great opportunity to play in this league for a long time. I definitely owe him a lot.”
“You kind of know where you stand with him,” Schenn said. “There’s really no BS when it comes to Chief. I’ve always said he’s the first guy that would come and say, ‘Let’s get going, you played like crap last night.’ But after that, 20 minutes later, it’s more like, ‘How was your day?’”
The days have been great so far in Toronto, as Berube has the Maple Leafs buying into a new system, and the culture change has begun. It’s not something that’s going to change overnight, it’s a process, and one both the coaches and the players need to believe in.
