Craig Berube Brings Edge to Leafs as Marner and Matthews Show Fire Against Blue Jackets

As the Maple Leafs took on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, they were without a few of their important pieces as Jake McCabe and David Kampf are injured, and Anthony Stolarz was making his second consecutive start.

It seemed to be a tough task, though if anyone can get things done it's Craig Berube's iteration of the Maple Leafs. Adding some more edge, grit, and toughness into his players' mentality has paid off very well so far for the team.

It also seems to be rubbing off on their top stars as well.

After Sean Kuraly of the Blue Jackets ended up shoving and trying to intimidate Auston Matthews, it was Mitch Marner who decided to take matters into his own hands and essentially yoink Kuraly back and away from his captain who was going for a change.

It's a surprisingly bit of grittiness from a normally reserved Marner. He's ultra-competitive, and it doesn't matter if you're one inch or ten inches taller; he's going to give you a piece of his mind.

You also need to remember that Auston Matthews is 6'3, Kuraly is 6'2, and Marner is a GENEROUS 6'0; which is more akin to 5'10 realistically. So it's quite a feat that the superstar was able to physically pull Kuraly away, and didn't end up on his butt for his troubles.

Given that a year ago, you'd rarely see this type of fire shows that the Craig Berube effect is real. Not putting up with any apathetic or lackluster behavior, it's gone a long way into transforming a Maple Leafs team that may not be as offensively powerful as before, but make up for it in grit, defense, and passion.

This season has been something of a wonder-season for Marner. Not only on pace to break the 100-point mark (94 points in 75 games with six games to go) but was a catalyst in Team Canada winning the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this season.