Craig Berube clarifies confusion following comments from Brad Treliving
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images (left), Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images (right)
Brad Treliving's comments seemed to disagree with Crag Berube's regarding the power play, so the coach decided to clear things up once and for all.
Marc Savard's firing came a surprise to many, though it probably shouldn't have been considering that he led the Maple Leafs to the league-worst power play and couldn't figure out how to best utilize the stars he had.
Now, it'll be up to Derek Lalonde to run things according to the GM, and he'll be given every opportunity for now to do what he can to improve the man advantage.
Berube clarifies Derek Lalonde's role on the power play
Or so we first thought, because Craig Berube later said that the team would be working through committee on the power play. It's another disconnected statement that showed maybe things weren't as smoothed over than we expected.
However, Berube was quick to calm any anxiety and set the record straight when it came to what exactly is happening with the Maple Leafs power play.
Speaking to reporters after Tuesday's 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Berube explained that while Lalonde runs the meetings, there is still going to be other voices giving their opinions as well:
It's good that Berube wanted to clear things up because if anything, the anxiety, lack of transparency and cohesiveness is causing a lot of issues for the Maple Leafs.
Toronto didn't get much chance to showcase new power play anyways
Well, the team got about thirty seconds of power play time on Tuesday before Matias Maccelli ended that with a penalty of his own. That was the only power play chance, and Toronto didn't even get credit because it wasn't a full two minutes.
The team running with Lalonde isn't going to be the be all end all for the Maple Leafs, however for now he's as good as the team has. As Berube said, he runs the meetings but you have other voices like himself, Mike Van Ryn, and even development coaches like Jake Muzzin could have a say.
Something needs to turn around though for Toronto if they want to make a push going into the new year. It's not conducive to winning when you go 0-for on the man advantage, and you start to wonder how this team had nearly a 25% success rate last year.
But knowing their next game is against Ottawa on Dec. 27, there's a good chance that we are going to see several chances for the new look power play. So let's hope that something actually changes, or there might be more names on the chopping block.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 24 | 1611 ANSWERS Craig Berube clarifies confusion following comments from Brad Treliving Do you think Toronto's power play is going to improve in 2026? | ||
| Yes | 967 | 60 % |
| No | 644 | 40 % |
| List of polls | ||