Craig Berube opens first Toronto Maple Leafs camp with plenty of optimism
Fraser Minten, Ben Danford and Connor Dewar among the walking wounded
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Craig Berube has begun his real lab work with the Maple Leafs — an eight-month study to find if they have playoff DNA.
Which might well be an acronym for Do Not Agitate, given how they’ve not played heavy enough in past springs.
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Craig Berube opens first Toronto Maple Leafs camp with plenty of optimism Back to video
But the new coach’s first day didn’t start with a whip crack, but rather with some well-chosen words about what’s expected the next 82 games to make a skilled team more sinister in April.
“I’m not here to take the sticks out of these guys hands, but there has to be an identity in how we want to play,” Berube said Wednesday morning as more than 70 players went through training camp medicals. “There is some high-end skill here, more than we had in St. Louis (his 2019 Stanley Cup champions). We want to play a north-south game, be hard to play against, but at the same time, we have guys who can score.”
They’re led by the Core Four: Rocket Richard Trophy winner Auston Matthews, who also is the new team captain, William Nylander, John Tavares and the winger everyone thinks Berube eventually will butt heads with, Mitch Marner.
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Berube said his cordial summer discussions with Marner, amid a wide call from the public to trade him after another soft playoff performance, were productive.
“That’s in the past,” Berube said of the knock on Marner’s post-season record. “He’s a great two-way player. He’s been up for the Selke Trophy, puts up big (regular-season) numbers every year.
“It’s about building up to the playoffs, but we’re not there yet, I’m focused on camp, instilling the work ethic, the battle that’s needed at camp.
“Mitch is a huge part of this team and I’m looking forward to coaching him.”
Marner politely told the media he would not talk about his current contract situation, which Treliving echoed and included Tavares, who enters the last season of his seven-year, $77 million US deal.
Marner insisted he’s all about forging a good relationship with Berube and showing he has grown as a player through eight seasons.
“I’ve changed a lot, came in really as a young child and now I’m married. I’m more mature, ready to take on the season. I’m ready to rock,” Marner said.
Berube, who comes with an authoritarian reputation born of a long NHL career as a fighter before his rise in coaching was capped by the Cup, was asked about changing the perceived leniency of predecessor Sheldon Keefe towards the stars when they strayed from the game plan.
“Everybody has to be held accountable, including me. But you can control two things as a player: Your work and your compete (level). If players aren’t working, they aren’t competing and that’s unacceptable in my opinion.
“Mistakes happen, (related to) what happened at the time. But to me, the biggest thing is when the players start holding each other accountable in the room. That’s when you know you have something.”
Berube was noted in St. Louis for a couple of high-profile assignment changes that put noses out of joint and natural scorers in checking roles. That would have the strong backing of Leafs general manager Brad Treliving.
“We can shoot it in the net, but for us, it’s keeping it out,” Treliving said. “We have to check better.
“I think we’ve upgraded our defence, (but) we have to upgrade penalty kill (bottom third in the league), find a way to be better on power play in playoffs (better than the 1-for-21 showing in that first-round loss to Boston). We were second in goals for and lost 21 in Tyler Bertuzzi. I look at our roster and think we can replace those, not necessarily by one person.
“We’ve got young players coming in (winger Matthew Knies moved to a top-six forward last year), Joseph Woll showed promise in net before injury.”
The cap-strapped Leafs — they have a few weeks to shave about a $1 million US excess — couldn’t break the bank over the summer on UFAs, other than pay good coin for defencemen Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. So they brought in Florida’s champion backup goalie, Anthony Stolarz, gave PTOs to winger Max Pacioretty, who is coming off ankle issues, Panthers forward Steven Lorentz and gambled that Jani Hakanpaa’s knee will allow him to join the defence at some point.
“You don’t hit grand slams every day, sometimes it’s singles and doubles and picking away at your roster,” Treliving said. “Getting better isn’t because you air-lifted in a bunch of new people. Internal growth is the best way to get better, not flying in the great free agent or making 10 trades.”
Berube gave hints about his lineup plan to start camp, after admitting he did a lot of written napkin combinations that he discarded and began anew. Nylander will centre a projected second line with Max Domi on his left wing, with Berube liking the way Nylander “can transport the puck” up the middle on the attack.
With a massive camp of 42 forwards, 26 defencemen and seven goaltenders, Berube will divide it into three groups — the third one mostly a ‘developmental” unit that’s likely AHLers and juniors, though Treliving insisted there will be lots of opportunity for youngsters such as 2023 first-round pick Easton Cowan to make the team at camp.
“It’s about getting better every day, not being worried about winning the Cup, you can’t do that Sept. 18,” Treliving said. “We have to be process-driven.
“I know it sounds like a cliche, but if you take care of those details, you’ll get where you eventually want to go.
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