Craig Berube, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach After Friday’s practice, head coach Craig Berube discussed his team’s ugly loss in Washington, the current mood of his players, the areas of focus in practice, and his message to the team ahead of Saturday’s game in Nashville.
A day later, how have you digested the loss in Washington?
Berube: Pretty much the same as last night. We came out in the first period, and I think we were ready to go. Things were fine. We got a power play. We killed some penalties. We had a few looks on the PP, but it just seemed like it unraveled after that for us.
They scored a couple of goals in the first period that were defendable. It is not like they did anything spectacular. They were actually, in my opinion, pretty easily defendable goals.
In saying that, we had 40 minutes to play. As I talked about last night, we have to do more as a group and have more pushback than we did last night in the game.
How did you want to approach practice today, coming off the loss?
Berube: Well, our neutral-zone forecheck was not very good last night. They walked through it pretty easily and entered our zone. That was one area we wanted to focus on. And then we kept hammering away at that defensive-zone coverage and creating some situations in practice that we will see in a game. We keep working at it.
The whole approach from me today with our group: We can’t go out and play with the fear of mistakes. We’re too tentative. We have to be on our toes more. With our neutral-zone forecheck, that was what I was trying to get out of it: let’s skate, and let’s get after them. I feel like we sagged back too much and let the team come at us.
We have to be on our toes more, and we have to play with more jump and confidence in our game. Mistakes will happen. Let’s make them being aggressive. It’s the same as the power play; yeah, we had some looks early, but it’s almost like we let that get to us after we didn’t score. On the power plays after that — we had two or three more — they just dropped. There was nothing, instead of just staying with an attack mentality. Keep attacking and keep executing. We have to execute better, and we have to attack more.
How do you combat the tenativeness you’re referring to?
Berube: It is a good question. It is more of a mindset for everybody, right? As a coach, my job is to try to get them to be in attack mode more and be on their toes more. That was what the meeting this morning was about.
All that matters is playing for each other, playing aggressively, and playing on our toes. Let’s play the way we can play. We haven’t done that. We are going to make mistakes — every team does — but definitely, we can’t make mistakes by sitting back and letting teams come at us as they have been.
What is the mood or spirit of the group like at the moment?
Berube: Well, we’re definitely down, right? They’re not where we want to be, and neither are we as coaches. We are all in it together. I just said, “Guys, we are in the NHL. Let’s have some fun.” But we are still okay. We have to string some wins together and put ourselves in a better spot, but you love this game, right? We all do. That’s why we are in it, and that’s why we do what we do. You have to enjoy it, and you have to have that attitude going into tomorrow. Go out and play. Play the game. You guys have played it forever. You can’t be tentative.
Is there a comparable experience that you can draw on from your time coaching in the league?
Berube: I am sure I could draw on a lot of them. It happens all the time, right? There is a lot of experiences — as a player and as a coach — where I have gone through this type of situation before.
I truly believe we are going to get out of it. I do. I believe we have the good group in there. We have leadership. We have everything that we need to get out of it. It is just about coming together as a team and playing for each other. That is it. Play for the guy beside you. That is all it is about in this game, really. Your teammates are the most important people. Play for them.
John Tavares got off to such a good start in the first 20-25 games of the season. Where does his game stand now?
Berube: We talked about that before. Older players, sometimes, throughout the course of a season, are going to have some dips in their game. I thought he was really good last night. I thought that line was really good for us last night. They provided energy, and they had scoring opportunities that didn’t go in, but it wasn’t from a lack of work or playing the right way. It was a good sign for me to see John playing the way he did with those guys.
It didn’t look like you shuffled up the lines too much in today’s practice.
Berube: I put that top line together, and right now, that is what I feel like is best. I told you I liked JT’s line, and I’ve liked [Roy’s] line for a while. That is where we are at.
Practice Lines – Dec. 19
#Leafs lines during warmup @ practice Dec. 19/25
Knies-Matthews-Nylander
Robertson-Tavares-Cowan
Joshua-Roy-McMann
Domi-Laughton-Jarnkrok
Extra: Lorentz, Maccelli
Rielly-Myers
McCabe-Stecher
Benoit-OEL
Extra: Thrun, Tanev
Woll
HIldeby@BodogCA pic.twitter.com/wNlZ3EezTz
— David Alter (@dalter) December 19, 2025