Maple Leafs Full Media Availability | Practice | November 24, 2025

Maple Leafs Full Media Availability | Practice | November 24, 2025

What was your take on Saturday? Um, yeah, disappointing night. Um, obviously we’ll look to be better than that. Um, so we’ll move forward. What’s it going to take for you guys to to get back on track? Yeah, we’re working at it. Um, I mean, we’re going through everything. We’re talking internally and, you know, we know we have uh more to give and we have to be better. Um, so for us right now it’s just about uh uh digging in and execution and just uh sticking with it. When you’re talking internally, what’s being said? What’s the focus? Like what’s the message? Lots. We’re just I mean trying to communicate with each other about what we need and what we’re seeing, what we’re feeling. Um trying to have open discussions just about um you know what we need to do together to to work our way out of a slump. for the last nine years once Austin was drafted which then come in. Um you guys have been 100 plus point team virtually every year. Yeah. You never struggled to make the playoffs after that first year when you trained against Washington. What does this feel like now? You’re sitting at the bottom of the conference when you’ve been 100 point team for for nine years and never had to worry about sort of scratching and clawing to get to the finish line. Mhm. It feels like we’re grinding. Um You know, I think I think every year it’s it’s a challenge to make the playoffs and, you know, a challenge to be one of the better teams. Uh there’s no easy nights, but right now it uh you know, definitely feels like we’re grinding and um you know, no one is is avoiding that or making excuses. We’re we’re in it together. And like I said, we’re we’re working together to to dig our way out and we’re trying to communicate and um you know, be better and kind of uh move forward. But yeah, there’s no um there’s no easy answer. It just kind of feels like we’re we’re in it right now and we’re, you know, trying to fight our way out. Is it shocking to be sitting where where you’re sitting? The standings, I don’t think are a major point of conversation right now for us. I think, you know, it’s we’re aware of, you know, how it’s gone for us the last uh 10 games or eight or nine games, whatever it’s been. Um but, you know, you don’t spend too much time worrying about it. uh you know, as far as the standings go, we’re aware of what’s um ahead and we have to dig our way out and you know, that’s what we’re focused on. What’s your sense of Craig right now? Obviously, he’s facing a lot of pressure to get get you guys going. What’s your sense of him and his tone at the moment? He’s great. um you know he comes in here the same every day and he’s intense and he has high expectations for everyone in here and um as as we all do for each other and uh so um you know everyone I think right now is is trying to get the most out of themselves and um you know collectively we want to bring the most out of each other and uh that goes for staff and everyone so you know we’re all uh uh in it together and we’re all you know trying our best and trying to get out of this. How do you build chemistry and find a good seemingly a new injury popping off? That’s just part of the deal. That’s, you know, not something that we worry about. That’s going to happen to every team over the course of a season. And um it’s a good challenge for us. Any sense how Jake’s holding up? Obviously, seems good. Uh scary and painful. Uh but he’s a he’s a warrior. He seems good. What’s the takeaway you want from Saturday night in that way that game played out for you? It’s just not good enough. I said that there’s no uh explanation. Just not good enough. Uh uh had a day to rest yesterday. Rethink about our game individually. Development day today. We just got we just got to be better. That’s it. We have to be more hungry. Uh myself uh just start no we have to be more hungry. We have we need to show that we want to win out there. Why do you why do you think it is an issue right now? I don’t know. Like I Everybody wants to win obviously like the guys are trying but it just it just takes more. It’s it’s it’s a hard league to win. Uh you know and uh everybody has to show up every night and all together, you know, it’s a it’s a team sport and just not one guy can make it. Just it has to be everybody. How difficult is it to adapt with seemingly a new injury popping up pretty much every single game? I mean, we we can’t think about that. Like, uh, all the guys in the room are just are really good. So, like, if there’s an injury, some guys got to step up and get those minutes and and and play. That’s it. How would you describe the mood around the team? Uh, I mean, I haven’t really seen the guys have been on the ice. Some guys done their their own stuff, but I think everybody, like you said, like everybody wants it. Uh, we’re we’re all trying. Uh, is is going to click at one point, I’m sure of it. What do you think? When you play teams that seem to widen out the offense with speed, Detroit in the second game of the season, Saturday night, Montreal, it seems you guys have great difficulty adapting to that kind of speed and quickness with with a with wide vertical passes. Yeah, I mean I mean sometimes they the teams do make good plays. Uh know our system is built a certain way and you know we got to respect those speed. We got to stay with our hands and try to deny those those long passes and exposing those uh those like you said those those speed on the outside and we just have to be a better uh we have we just have to be better defending. What’s your sense of Craig right now? The tone he’s kind of hitting and his message. No, Craig means business, right? No, he he’s he wants us to succeed. He wants us to to play at our our level that we know we can be a much much much much better and he he’s pushing us to to achieve that goal and you know like all the guys respect him a lot. So no, he he he wants us to succeed. What do you focus about focus on as an individual at a time like this? Like when you talk about like trying to make yourself better? No, I have to be better. I’ve been too passive. Uh you know, I I don’t have the knife in the my teeth right now. I I got to be better for the team. I got to show up. I got to be hard to play against. I got to be like, sorry my language, but like a pain in the ass ready for the other team. And uh I’m looking forward for next game just to uh to be a better player for the team. Why do you think second periods have been given you guys trouble? I don’t have any explanation for you. It’s just we just got to be better. We just got to stay focused and uh and be ready to play as as soon as the puck drop. He’s holding up. That was scary to see him leave a little bit last game. Any sense how he’s holding up? I I don’t know. I’m I’m sure he’s fine. Like I I don’t want to say anything. I I I really don’t know. Right. Since you’ve been here, this has been a very good hockey team. You’re closer to beating the Stanley Cup champions than anybody else did last year. And you’ve been in 100ish point range the whole time. What does it feel like to go from that to where you are right now? I mean, adversity builds character, right? Uh I think you learn much more when you I don’t want to say you fell but when you’re struggling you learn much more because that’s when your weaknesses are exposed right so uh I think in the as a team perspective those struggling time could could be good for a team to come back way stronger that’s how I see it uh ultimately why did you decide to handle practice the way he did well there’s been a lot of guys with playing a lot of minutes lately injuries all that little extra mental and physical rest for some guys and other guys just kind of a more of a reset day for those guys. Work on some things that we wanted them to work on uh with the development staff. How are Matthews and looking to better first day for a while that we’ve seen with teammates like what’s the latest on him of a timeline? Do you have any sense when he might be timeline? Yeah. uh close. You know, let’s I’d say Matthews, NY are close. Okay. So, um I’ll probably know tomorrow if they’re available Wednesday. I know you said you were hoping Carlo might get back on the ice today. Did he end up No, he did not get it back on the ice today. Has Anthony skated? Nope. He’s a ways away. What’s the game? He’s fine. Play Wednesday. Yep. Yeah. What s What of tone do you strike with the group at a time like this when you’re going through it? Do I? Yeah. Like what’s my tone? Yeah. In terms of the message you’re delivering. I mean, my tone goes up and down. You know, it’s like everybody’s frustrated and all this, but you know, my job as a coach is to put them in the right direction, lead them, and that’s that’s what I do. And sometimes my tone is not fun, but that’s part of part of it all. And uh got to keep teaching, keep working. Um you know, just keep um you know, finding uh how do I put it? Like little adjustments we can make to help our team. Some some of the times you’ve looked the most vulnerable have been against quick darting teams that play a really wide offensive like the vertical pass. They kind of use that triangle at the top like happened on Saturday night happens game two of the season in Detroit. Um when you play those kind what aren’t you doing to play them? Okay, but I know what you’re saying but I think that’s times in a game it looks that way. So if you’re looking at um you looking at their power play, you’re looking at when they had delayed penalty on a couple of them where they had the puck zone a lot of times. No, for sure. I think th those for me when that when that stuff does happen in games for me, it’s about not being on top of the guy with the puck right away, not having a good stick, not closing him out, giving him time and space to make those plays. You know, if you give guys time in this league, they’re going to find ways to make plays. They’re just there’s a lot of good players with a lot of talent. So, you know, that’s just we got to be on our toes more in those situations and have good sticks, be aggressive, and the guy that has the puck the and we have a guy on him or going at him. The other four guys got to have better awareness at times where the opposition is. In your mind, how critical is this road trip coming? Well, it’s Yeah, it’s critical for sure. I mean, um, but listen, I’m I’m only focused on the game Wednesday. I’m not going to look beyond that. That’s it’s a big game. We got to go and we got to go out there and try to get two points on that on that day. So, and then we’ll move on to the next game, but it is a big road trip for sure. I think, you know, it’s good for our guys to get on the road here together and u we got to rally around each other. You think that’s maybe hurt them a little bit that they haven’t had a long road trip to these points? Yeah. know there’s times for sure that uh it’s it’s been a it’s been seems like it’s been a while since we’ve been on the road together as a group for a number of days for sure. Obviously, when you’re going through a tough time, there’s area lots of areas probably that you want to focus on and work on. What What is at the top of your list right now that you want defense on Wednesday? Yeah, I think it’s something we’ve been banging away at for a bit here and we got to keep banging away at it. Well, we’re third in the league in scoring goals. I mean, and we got a lot of injured guys out. I get that. And guys that put the puck in the net, right? But at the same time, we prided ourselves on defense last year checking and we got to get back to that. And um so that’s what we’re focused on. Why hasn’t been Why hasn’t been there, do you think? Um I don’t think our for chick’s been as good for one. I don’t think we stall enough pucks in the offensive zone. Create ozone. We do create ozone time and it’s been getting better, but I think those stalls are important um to neutralize the breakouts on the other team in the transition game. And two, I think, you know, just oddman rushes at times have hurt us this year. And there’s just reads on some of them and just getting beat up the ice on some of them. And then in the Dzone, you know, for the most part, I think it’s not been terrible, but just not tight enough. You know, like I I bring up the details of the sticks and things like that and protecting the middle of the ice. Protect the middle of the ice. What’s a losing streak like for a coach? Like do you do you find yourself getting less sleep like how you describe the the toll for for a coach during a time like this? Probably the same as a player. I mean, I you know, we all we all feel it and want to be better and want to do better and uh but at the same time, you know, like I said, my job is to help these guys, to teach them, to work with them. And everybody’s got to grind right now. It’s a grind. You got to grind. You know, my do I sleep any differently? No. Like I I enjoy I I wake up and look forward to coming to the rink and and uh trying to get better like everybody else. Do you consider like more drastic changes to the system at all or is we we made some adjust we made some adjustments already and um I think they’ve been really good. So, I don’t think a drastic change to the whole system. I’m not I’m not doing I’m not really thinking about that at all. To go to go from first last year in your in your division and seven games with the Stanley Cup champions and, you know, coming out of a season where you have to feel really good about so many things that happen to to be last in the conference right now. How how big a swing and how weird is that to happen in that quickly? Well, it’s been it’s happened before, I’m sure. I don’t know when, but I’m sure it has. It’s Hey, it’s just the way it goes sometimes. I think there’s I I’m not going to sit here and explain every little thing that’s gone on this year uh in terms of everything. It’s not that’s not going to help anything. We just got to build. We got like I said, we got to build here and we got to focus on Wednesday’s game and two points. That’s it. and then we’ll move on from that game and we’ll work on the next game. How much are you voyed by the fact that you know in 1819 you found yourself in kind of dire straits and went from worst to worse? Yeah, I mean same approach almost you know right now same approach.

Players and Coach address the media following Monday’s practice.

00:00 Morgan Rielly
03:28 Simon Benoit
07:28 Craig Berube

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