Next Toronto Maple Leafs Moves? Craig Berube FIRED Soon? Leafs Trade Rumours | LIVE TV NHL ANALYSIS

three games of November were actually the story line for the Leafs, that roller coaster story line that they’ve seen uh throughout the season. You look at the game against the Blue Jackets where they’re down one- nothing. They make that late game come back uh and then they win in overtime. Then you go to the next one, it’s a two nothing lead against the Washington Capitals. That two nothing lead evaporates and you lose that game. And then everyone’s panicking. They want everyone fired. They want everyone traded. That’s kind of the fan perspective. And then you go into Saturday night and you win 7-2 where your depth players like Dakota Joshua, Nick Wah, Nick Robertson are scoring. Austin Matthews gets that monkey off the back and you’re also getting goals from your back end, the defense group, which was a massive problem last year. Uh, four goals from Oliver Larson, four goals from Morgan Riley, three goals from Jake McCabe. So, Petus, honestly, I’m looking at the positive because I think in so many ways in the recent years with the Leafs, it’s been kind of comfortable. it’s been uh getting complacent and with this team, they’ve actually got to wake up and do better in December. So, uh you know what, I think there’s a lot of things that need to get figured out. Uh the goalending has kind of been standing on their head and saving them in some games. Uh so, a lot of it is depth scoring, a lot of it is kind of structure with the new uh teammates because there are a lot of players on this team that are new. No Mitch Mner who is a massive point of this team. So, uh all of that Beatric putting it together. I am taking a bit of the positive outlook. Uh but also it’s easy to do that after a 7-2 victory Saturday night. You know what you and Leafs fans in general, John, back the day that we heard uh from the Leafs GM kind of with his assessment on the quarter of the season so far. I was surprised that most Maple Leafs fans said we still got this. The Stanley Cup’s not awarded in November. They’re ironing out the kinks. They’re going to figure this out. Now that they’ve got back guys like Austin Matthews, the captain Matthew N stolars is still out. How is the captain? and N essentially back in the lineup helping this team kind of figure out what it needs to do to get to the playoffs if they can get to the playoffs for sure. Yeah, you mentioned it. Health is a massive part of that, right? I mean, again, the Stanley Cup is not awarded in November, December, January, but you got to get those reps in and you got to get really comfortable going into the season uh and then into the spring and into the playoffs. So, I do think a guy like Austin Matthews has looked off. I think that’s just a simple statement. He hasn’t looked like himself. He does get two points Saturday night and gets a goal. So, like I said, a bit of that monkey off the back, but there are moments in the game where you’re seeing him kind of uh go through a point to the bench where he’s getting off early or he’s ailing. Like I I just think there’s different parts of his game that we’re not seeing. Uh and then a guy like Matthew N, he was battling injuries, too. So, we haven’t seen his full self. And as I’m saying that, both those guys are around a point per game. And then you have the guys ahead of him where it’s John Dvarez. 35year-old John Dvarz is well over a point per game. William Knander has 32 points in 21 games. He has 11 goals in that stretch and he’s missed some games. So honestly Beatus, it really is health. It isn’t an excuse because at some point you do have to get later in the season and just find a way. I think this team has it in them to do so. And it does help when your guy like Joseph Wool who comes back from time away has had like a 915 save percentage down that stretch and Dennis Hill to be the backup without Anthony Solarinet puts up a 935 save percentage in that win against Pittsburgh Saturday night. So there’s so many layers to this Beatric. It does start from the top with a guy like Austin Matthews at the leadership level. Uh but because of his health status, I think it does take a lot of the guys below him in the lineup uh to really step up as well. No question. You talk about layers. Let’s talk about flavors as well because in that same press conference, GM Brad Tree Living said, “Hey, this team’s vanilla. We need to actually work on finding an identity. Do you feel like they’re actually working on that right now?” Is that message from Tree Living received loud and clear, especially by some of the new guys who have come in who were supposed to make the team less vanilla? It’s funny, right? Like the terminology vanilla for me is very interesting from Brad Trey Living because if you look at the last few years from the Toronto Maple Leafs, more specifically when Austin Matthews, Mitch Martin, William Neander were drafted and those guys were really young. It was exactly the opposite of vanilla. It was high-scoring games, 75, 6’4, it was exciting. Fans got sick of it really quickly because it led to first round exits. It led to disappointment. Now you’re seeing that boring style of hockey not really be successful because you still have guys like Austin Matthews or William William Knander on the team and they love that fast pace. They love that possession based hockey uh side to side side create that opportunity where Craig Barubi and what he had with the St. Louis Blues he likes that north south game. He likes that hard-hitting fourchecking game and it really hasn’t meshed perfectly well. Also, I think when Brad Trey Living says vanilla, I mean, it really has been vanilla outside of William Knander, it’s been vanilla, I think, in a lot of ways, Beatric. And it’s funny because if you do look at the clips, I’m sure somebody at some point this season is going to put them all together. Craig Bub, Craig Buby, and William Knander from coach to player have had probably the most arguments of any player coach combination in the National Hockey League. And I think that’s the guy that’s not vanilla on this team. So, uh, to to your point, I think they’re trying to change that style because maybe it’s not successful in the regular season where space is very open, but when it gets super tight and super structured in the playoffs, that’s when maybe this style could translate. So, yeah, you know what? It’s vanilla, but sometimes van vanilla wins you Stanley Cups. Listen, I like vanilla when it comes to ice cream, not so much when it it comes to hockey. Let’s talk about Craig Barub, too, because I mean, people were were asking for his head to roll already, even though he’s only, you know, the second year on the bench. uh with the bench behind the bench with the Maple Leafs. What are you hoping to see from Craig Bubby? Do you think he’s going to kind of change his style of coaching of managing considering what’s been happening or is he kind of going down and having those head-to-heads with Knander and the rest of the guys for the rest of the season? It’s funny, Beatrice. It’s really uh what have you done for me lately from uh management and an organization, but it really is that mindset for fans. Like fans forget last year the Toronto Leafs won the division, won the Atlantic division with Craig Ruby as the first year head coach and now it’s really changed. There’s a lot of that uh loyalty kind of lost from some fans and again it goes back to kind of that style of play. I think the biggest thing for Craig Buby and what he probably has to start learning with this team uh is is really let the guys do what they’re successful at and and a guy like Austin Matthews, what is he successful at? Scoring goals. I I really think there’s those more defensive guys that Craig Bury has coached that it’s like that that selky mindset, a guy like Ryan O’Reilly who won a Stanley Cup with him in St. Louis. It’s really that defensive effort, the faceoffs, a lot of that focus where yeah, Austin Matthews needs to be better at the end of the day. We’re talking about the guy that scored 69 goals in the National Hockey League, in the modern day National Hockey League. So, I think it’s really at some point Craig Breur’s just got to let go. It’s the same thing with William Kner. let go. Realize these guys have to do what they’re best at and then the rest of the way really structure that depth because you probably look at that forward group right now there’s probably 15 16 forwards that could be NHL caliber. So he’s had to scratch quite a bit of guys and it actually worked out for Dakota Joshua who was scratched uh earlier in the week and then he comes back plays really well Friday and then scores a goal Saturday. So different things like that Craig Bub is going to have to figure out. I also think it’s just I mean different insiders have talked about it. You need to let these guys have a bit of a leash here because again Craig Ruby had that division win last year with this team. It’s a very different team and we’re only out of November beach. So if we’re January 1st and this is still a 500 hockey team and still they haven’t figured it out, then I think you start talking about the coach not being able to read his team and do best for his players. But we’re really at that quarter mark of the season or just past it and I think there needs to be some patience here. Listen, a quarter down, three quarters to go. We’ll wait and see what happens with the Leaves. Tom Diveros, host of Hot Take Hockey. Thanks so much for your time and your analysis as always. Do you like vanilla? Thanks. I love vanilla. Me, too. All right. Talk to you soon. Thanks. Thank you. You

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