Craig Berube's honest reaction after the Leafs ended their losing streak says a lot about this group
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
After Toronto snapped their five-game losing streak, Craig Berube was honest with his post-game comments and showed unwavering belief in his players.
Finally snapping their losing streak on Tuesday with a 3-2 OT win against St. Louis, the Maple Leafs find themselves back in the win column -- an impressive feat given the number of injuries they're dealing with right now.
It wasn't a perfect game, and even included an own goal by William Nylander a couple minutes into the game that seemed to doom the Maple Leafs.
But they clawed their way to OT, and after a sluggish four minutes, it was John Tavares who went in the corner against three Blues players, managed to kick the puck to Morgan Rielly, who fed a trailing Nylander which led to a brilliant OT winner:
Craig Berube had to have been thrilled his team pulled out a victory, and sounded as much in his post-game media scrum.
What Craig Berube actually said after the Leafs finally ended their skid
Speaking to reporters after the win, Berube explained that he was proud of his team for not giving up even with the heavy amount of adversity they've faced already:
It's always nice to end a skid. When I look at the team and everything going on with the injuries, it could have been easy for our guys to say, well, we're all banged up, we got nobody. I didn't get that at all. Our guys competed really hard. I'm proud of them.
It was a much better game overall from Toronto although they couldn't capitalize on St. Louis' 30th ranked PK, but otherwise controlled the pace while also getting some solid goaltending from Joseph Woll, who is looking more comfortable since returning.
What Berube's post-game message really tells us about his belief in this group
Doing what the team set out to do -- snap their skid, it showed that it doesn't matter what is going on, this is still a capable team.
Which is why it's perplexing that they can't do this with a healthy lineup, but it felt like the team was playing as a cohesive unit, and playing for each other.
Berube is stuck right now. He's forced to ice a lineup that is filled with depth pieces and AHL players, meanwhile he gets a new players injury every game.
On top of that, the Leafs briefly lost Sammy Blais on Tuesday after he left the game and was seen in clear discomfort.
That's a serious roadblock to success, but Berube has stayed consistent in his belief in this group, even with everything going wrong around them.
Fans are having a hard time believing in the team, but Craig Berube is standing firm, and is ready to guide the Maple Leafs to success regardless of the circumstances.
