Craig Berube questioned the brains and hearts of the Maple Leafs players and that's the moment he lost the job
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Craig Berube called out the Maple Leafs' heart and soul on several occasions leaving them no choice but to fire him for being unable to protect the locker room.
The firing of Craig Berube was somewhat of a shocker on Wednesday not because of it actually happening but the fact it happened so soon and only a few weeks after the team seemed to feel like he might deserve one more shot at redemption.
However that wasn't meant to be and now the coaching search begins for a Maple Leafs team that has a lot of positives ahead of them, but also a ton of questions too.
But the main focus today was letting Berube go, and besides looking for a new coach that can lead a modern and analytical approach to the game; it might also help to get a bit of a friendlier face too.
Berube questioned the heart and soul of his players and you can't expect to keep your job doing that
As we saw several times this year, Craig Berube was not too keen on his team's performance and while he was right to criticize them at times, there were other incidents where he took it a bit overboard for no real reason whatsoever.
Towards the end of the season, Berube took umbrage with goaltender Joseph Woll's performance in an overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. While sure, you can point to him losing as a negative but he actually made several key saves that kept Toronto in the game but Berube didn't care:
He's played well, but tonight in the end -- I don't think, I know -- we need a save, whether it's the OT or it's one of the breakaways. We need a big save there.
The team had given up two shorthanded breakaways that game and made 32 saves against a Carolina team that had been unbelievable this season. To target him especially when you're already eliminated is a bizarre motivation tactic.
Then he turned around later and said that he doesn't understand why losing so much and having close friends sent away would be 'deflating' and blamed the players and their mentality for his system being 31st in shots for; the buck kept getting passed with no accountability.
Firing Craig Berube was the only way to help repair a fractured Maple Leafs locker room
You had a whole list of cultural issues that sprung up this season in the Maple Leafs locker room that need to be addressed.
Anthony Stolarz was incensed he had nobody stick up for him after getting run over not only in the playoffs, but earlier this year and flat out called them out. He literally said 'enough is enough' and directed his fury at not only his teammates but his head coach, but it fell on deaf ears.
Then you have William Nylander's laissez-faire attitude and the broken record of 'we have to do better' that everyone in the locker room shows after each loss. It's about action not promises.
Sundin mentioned in his brief statement in his introduction that he wanted to bring back a culture that made it not only fun to be a Leafs fan, but a player as well. You want to show up to the ice every day happy to be around the team, not worried about if you're going to annoy the coach.
When you have a coach calling out players willy-nilly and neutering Auston Matthews to form some type of pseudo-Ryan O'Reilly, it was time for Berube to go.
Matthews was once a 69-goal scorer and a shoe-in for the Rocket Richard, however under Berube he was used more defensively than ever before, never had the proper matchups, and the dump-and-chase style neutralized Matthews' ability to go end to end.
There was a time when Craig Berube's motivational methods would be seen as a positive and something that can spark the lineup. Be mean, play mean.
But when it's become a liability and detriment to his own team - Toronto had to make sure he was shown the door.
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