Sheldon Keefe is gone, and Craig Berube has been brought in to replace him as the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The pressure is always immense in Toronto, with fans and media always demanding more of the team. And to be fair, things haven’t been going according to plan for a long time.
Although the Leafs have reached the playoffs in seven of the eight last year, they still haven’t managed to get past the conference semi-finals. They have an incredibly talented group of players, with stars such as Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares, but they’ve had a tough time making a push for the cup, with fans getting more and more desperate for success.
It’s not easy playing for the Maple Leafs with all the pressure, but a couple of losses in the pre-season shouldn’t be a worrying sign for anyone.
But the fact is that Craig Berube has lost his first two games as head coach for the Maple Leafs this pre-season. Both games have been against the Ottawa Senators, but while Sunday’s game featured all of their ’core four,’ there were no star in Tuesday’s lineup. The Maple Leafs managed to score five goals on Sunday but still lost 6-5 in overtime, but on Tuesday, they just managed one goal.
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Several players hoped to push into a lineup with the stars absent in the second-straight game against the Senators, but the Leafs lost 2-1 in a low-scoring game. There were positives for Toronto, though, even without their biggest stars. Pontus Holmberg, a guy who’s not really known for fights, dropped the gloves— and two goalies really shined. Anthony Stolarz stopped 15 of 16 shots before his night was over. Dennis Hildeby stepped in to play the second half and made a magnificent save as he stretched out his glove side during a Senators powerplay to stop Brady Tkachuk’s tap-in delivered by Tim Stutzle.
The pre-season is always the pre-season, and it’s especially non-concerning about losses when your biggest stars and most important players are rested in games. However, Toronto media is known for its ruthlessness, and Craig Berube experienced that firsthand after Tuesday’s loss.
One member of the Toronto media asked Berube if it was ’time to panic’ after the two losses, to which Berube responded, ’It’s pre-season.’
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The account ’World Hockey Report,’ with almost 30,000 followers on X, shared a video of the question that read:
”Whoever asked this question should lose their credentials. Makes absolutely no sense to ask this.”
Overall, fans were absolutely furious over the question.
”Are they just letting anyone ask questions now?” one user said.
”Welcome to Toronto, Craig. Get used to it,” another said.
