Craig Berube latest Leafs coach to experience no playoff pay-off

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Welcome to the crowded club of confounded Maple Leafs coaches, Craig Berube. 

Like his two immediate predecessors, Mike Babcock and Sheldon Keefe, Toronto’s newest bench boss saw a great regular season grind to a halt before the playoff tournament was half complete. They were hammered by the Florida Panthers in Game 5 and 7, at Scotiabank Arena by 6-1 scores that will be seared into the team’s collective memory all summer. 

“To me, that’s the most disappointing part of the series,” Berube said Sunday night. “I can’t explain it, nor do I want to. We did a great job fighting for home ice all year, had a great record. 

“(The Panthers) were the more desperate team, the more aggressive tonight. You win a Game 6, that’s great, come home and you have to have a little desperation, determination. And we didn’t have it.  

“There are obviously things we have to look at and talk about as an organization.” 

Berube and general manager Brad Treliving will digest that in coming days. 

After Florida made it 3-0 in Sunday’s second period, Berube lost his patience and berated the team at the bench. Mitch Marner, in possibly his last Leaf game, was shouting at teammates to wake up. Auston Matthews partially blamed the loss on “too many passengers,” an opinion shared by Marner, yet it is getting to be a tired refrain. Those two, William Nylander and John Tavares have all been mostly silent in the six Game 7s of the Core Four Era.   

“You can’t have anybody not at their best,” Berube added of the Game 7 stage. 

“I don’t think the moment is too big for them. We went into Game 6 in Ottawa and won that series, won a Game 6 (in Florida) to make it a Game 7. To me, it’s all between the ears, it’s a mindset. 

“These guys are capable of doing it, but you have to execute it. That’s the bottom line, but I don’t know why.” 

Defenceman Morgan Rielly, the longest-serving Leaf, couldn’t shed much light, either. The Leafs had a 2-0 series’ lead and were an overtime goal away from being three up.

Opportunity lost. 

“That’s what it feels like,” Rielly said. “The real frustration is the Eastern Conference final starts in a couple of days. And we’re not there.” 

lhornby@postmedia.com

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