Photo credit: Toronto Maple Leafs – YouTube
Craig Berube started to explain why he believes Toronto can’t get penalties but stopped short as he may be indicating that his silence is keeping him out of trouble.
There’s some feeling of bias in the air, and you can’t help but think that other teams are starting to get away with things simply because of who they’re playing against.
It’s continued on this road trip as the Maple Leafs are now two games down without a power-play opportunity, going 2.5 hours of in-game time without a man advantage and for Craig Berube; that’s unacceptable.
Craig Berube holds his tongue over lack of penalty calls in Toronto’s favor
Speaking to reporters after Toronto’s 4-2 win over Calgary, he was not impressed with the lack of calls going his way but stopped short of criticizing the officials — potentially saving his hide in the process:
I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that. I do. But I’m not going to tell you guys.
It’s apparent that Berube was not too happy with the officials and as much as it must have bothered him to hold his tongue, you can see it game in and game out:
That was after a win as well, so it’s not like Berube is going to be pleased regardless of the result.
But it does offer a more glaring issue that perhaps Berube wanted to avoid, which is the fact that you can’t really draw penalties if you don’t have the puck.
The Maple Leafs’ issues with the penalty box
Toronto often gets outshot and out-possessed, so it’s hard to get tripped or held etc. if you’re the one defending.
Of all the skaters on the team (min. 100 minutes played), the leading penalty-drawer is Max Domi with 34 PIM drawn, while Matthew Knies is second with 25 and if you take a look at differentials (taken vs. drawn) it’s pretty bad when five of your six worst offenders taking penalties are defensemen.
It’s also odd to see that according to Money Puck, the Maple Leafs are 28th in the NHL in penalties drawn per 60; but looking at who draws the most — Tampa Bay, Boston, Montreal, Florida, and Ottawa are all in the top-six and all Atlantic Division rivals.
It’s an incredible feat to see that over half the division itself can draw a bunch of penalties, and even Buffalo themselves are sitting 14th; still above average. The only other team is Detroit at 18th which is still 10 spots higher than Toronto.
Craig Berube may not be impressed with the refereeing, but it’s his players he needs to start looking at because they’re the ones on the ice and it’s up to them to start making better choices.
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