Monday marked the first ten games of the Craig Berube era. In this small sample size, the Toronto Maple Leafs have maintained their status quo of lacklustre starts to the season. You have to return to the COVID-era North Division season in 2020-21 to have the Leafs picking up more than five wins in their first ten games. In short, this group hasn&#8217;t been coming out the gate strong, which has been one of the many things that haven&#8217;t changed under Berube.
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There is certainly a narrative around the bump a team gets from a new coach, one that Berube rode pretty well during his first year in St. Louis. But even if the said bump was real, you could argue the narrative applies more to in-season coaching changes as that&#8217;s when you&#8217;ve seen the Berube or Kris Knoblauch Cup runs, and when the Leafs have had the full summer to communicate with Berube, go through a full training camp with him, and bring in seven or eight newcomers into the lineup, that narrative isn&#8217;t going to apply as much anyway. The sense of urgency of having to get better is reduced when the front office seems committed to running back the group that was part of what got the last coach fired.
There&#8217;s also something to be said about the expectations for Berube. If the assumption was that Berube was going to fix everything that wasn&#8217;t liked about Sheldon Keefe and what happened on his watch, that was certainly unrealistic and even if it is going to happen, to have it all fixed in the first ten games seems like the bar was set too high. There also needs to be some consideration for the fact that Berube&#8217;s results came with a team that was constructed very differently than the current Maple Leafs, and his best season required a goaltender with a .930 save percentage to get them there. The Leafs don&#8217;t have a Norris-calibre defenceman like prime Alex Pietrangelo (a new coach brings a firm reminder of what Morgan Rielly is and isn&#8217;t) and while Anthony Stolarz is doing a pretty good impression of 2018-19 Jordan Binnington in net, the rest of the team needs to catch up.
Establishing that it is unreasonable to fix everything all at once, ten games isn&#8217;t a lot of time, and coaching only matters so much and it is what the players do with that instruction that matters, it seems like it is time for an early review of what has gone right and what has gone wrong so far for Berube this season.
Gone Right: Anthony Stolarz
I don&#8217;t know how much of Stolarz can be credited to Craig Berube, but a lot of goaltending success relies on the team in front of them. Stolarz has looked good so to some extent the Leafs are doing what they need to do for Stolarz to be at his best. Some of that is going to fall on Berube and if you want to credit Binnington&#8217;s run for being part of what gave Berube his kickstart in St. Louis, having Stolarz do the same is encouraging.
The fact that Berube has gone to Stolarz often is both a tad out of necessity, due to Joseph Woll&#8217;s injury but has also been an opportunity to test Stolarz&#8217;s ability to handle a starter&#8217;s workload and he&#8217;s stepped up early. There&#8217;s also something to say for the fact that Berube was comfortable going with Dennis Hildeby when he needed to, that&#8217;s not something that was guaranteed to happen under Sheldon Keefe.
Gone Wrong: The Power Play
Game 10 finally brought about an honest-to-goodness shift in the personnel on the power play, but it is likely just the beginning of the work that needs to be done.
Standstill zone entries, excessive passing, and a top loaded first unit that doesn&#8217;t necessarily complement each other&#8217;s abilities the way they need to are some of the key issues. Marc Savard&#8217;s time in charge looks like a continuation of Guy Boucher&#8217;s struggle to make sense of the group he&#8217;s working with, thus far.
While Savard gets the bulk of the criticism here, the buck stops with Berube at the end of the day and if he needs to step in to fix things or take over the powerplay to right the ship, stepping up and putting some urgency on this issue seems necessary.
Gone Right: Steven Lorentz
It seems that every coach has a fourth liner who just somehow clicks for them and good or bad they&#8217;ll be in the lineup. Sheldon Keefe had David Kampf, it was surprising that Mike Babcock never brought in Luke Glendening from his Detroit days, and the Brad May/Jay McClement/Mike Brown types of the long ago certainly pile up too.
Much like the early versions of Glendening/McClement/Kampf, things are going very right for Steven Lorentz at the moment, and his simple no nonsense approach of executing his coach&#8217;s asks has worked out so far.
Of course, Berube liking Lorentz is good, but hopefully Brad Treliving won&#8217;t fall into the trap that often occurs when a coach likes a player and Lorentz receives too much term or money. He&#8217;s great as a hard working guy looking to stay in the league. Don&#8217;t ruin him with job security or starting to ask of more from him.
Gone Wrong: The William Nylander at Centre Experiment
On paper, there is a ton of appeal of putting William Nylander at centre. He checks a lot of the boxes not only statistically, but his puck carrying ability and creative offence make him an ideal candidate for playing centre.
There are frustrations that come with watching Nylander as well, and at times watching him in the neutral zone when the Leafs don&#8217;t have the puck or his own end can be a bit of a chore. Berube got wise to this in the preseason, but not before burning through a significant amount of time to explore other options.
There&#8217;s an argument to make for Nylander not being set up for success, putting Max Domi on his wing created a defensive blackhole and even now with the roles reversed with Domi at centre with Nylander on the wing, those still exist, but the difference is that Nylander is back where he is comfortable and that makes a world of difference in his game and undoes some of those shortcomings.
Bobby McMann coming into the mix has also helped too, but while Berube is doing well with the best he has, this seems like a problem that Brad Treliving will eventually have to fix by bringing in a better centre.
Gone Right: The Third Pairing
Berube has done the Leafs a solid by putting together a sheltered third pairing that can comfortably play against the bottom six of their opponents in a way that can engage them physically and move the puck up ice to create opportunities.
Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins seems like the 7th and 8th defencemen on the depth chart proving a point together, and while Benoit isn&#8217;t capable of bigger assignments, and Timmins isn&#8217;t someone you want making defensive decisions too often, the idea that the Leafs can have a functioning bottom pairing for less than the cost of Timothy Liljegren on his own is encouraging. Having Philippe Myers and Jani Hakanpaa as options for the future is encouraging too and kudos to Craig Berube for having the guts to ride this one out.
Gone Wrong: Timothy Liljegren
Maybe this is a hill to die on, but Timothy Liljegren is still a more talented defenceman than at least the two in the Leafs bottom pairing and even if he&#8217;s not at his best right now, he&#8217;s worth the trouble of seeing if he can play his way out of it.
While I can appreciate the premise that Benoit and Timmins playing together regularly allows them to build a better pairing over time, Liljegren is the most capable player of the trio and needs to find his way into the Leafs lineup to make his case.
Gone Right: Matthew Knies
Berube took his time with Matthew Knies in the preseason and got a good look at him in a number of situations. He ultimately decided to use him exactly the way that Sheldon Keefe did after the Tyler Bertuzzi on the top line experiment failed.
What is different about this year is that Knies is now coming at things with a year of experience in the NHL and instead of learning what he needs to do to be an NHLer he&#8217;s having the opportunity to learn things that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner won&#8217;t do and take the opportunity to step in to do them.
He&#8217;s less tentative and looks a lot better under Berube, whether that comes from him having a more defined role or if that is the natural progression of things, it looks like it has worked out for both of them and at the very least Berube deserves credit for putting Knies back in this position.
Gone Wrong: Ryan Reaves
Ryan Reaves is still playing too much. This might result in Reaves calling me a basement dweller, but the reality is Reaves dressing in eight of 10 games doesn&#8217;t make a ton of sense when players like Max Pacioretty, Bobby McMann, and Nick Robertson have sat in his place.
If the argument is about having size in the lineup, there&#8217;s a case to be made that Nikita Grebenkin might be the better option as the Leafs need to have some upside and some potential for the fourth line to achieve something and with Lorentz-Kampf-Reaves, not a lot will benefit the Leafs.
The possibility of Connor Dewar returning is nearing. Dewar doesn&#8217;t add size but does have plenty of energy which could finally force Berube to cut Reaves loose.
Gone Right: John Tavares
Heading into the tenth game of the season, the Tavares line wasn&#8217;t a success story at all. It just kind of existed hoping that one day it will be useful. Being reunited with William Nylander certainly got the ball rolling for Tavares against Winnipeg, and the centre is now at a point per game pace this year.
While it is comforting to see Tavares and Nylander click, hopefully Tavares clicking with Pacioretty is the bigger takeaway and will allow for Berube to continue to chase the idea of the Leafs having three lines of offence and allowing for Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Tavares to be spread across three lines. The fact that Pacioretty, Knies, Domi, and McMann are all showing off their offensive abilities too early in the year, there will eventually be a balance that gets the most out of everyone.
Gone Right: Saying the Right Things
Berube&#8217;s immediate focus on battle drills in training camp, his calling out of his team in game against the Kings as things started slipping away from them in the third period, and his acknowledgement that the Leafs try to be too cute with the puck are all things that offer a lot of hope that things will continue to improve under Berube, and while he hasn&#8217;t been able to just slap a bandage on the Leafs issues and declare them fixed, it seems like he&#8217;s started on a path to progress and is quickly learning some of the lessons through trial and error.
While there are somethings that Berube is doing that mirror the actions of Sheldon Keefe, the fact that he has moved on from some of those issues quickly might just be a matter of him having to see things for himself.
Gone Wrong: The Leafs No Show Efforts
The Leafs absolutely no showed against the Blue Jackets and the Blues. Whether it&#8217;s a lack of effort or being non-responsive when teams aggressively defend against them, those games are reminders of player traits that the coach still needs to work on.
Similarly, the Leafs&#8217; third period efforts against the Kings and Jets when they&#8217;ve established a lead shows that they are not a team capable of sitting back and protecting a lead and running out the clock. There is a need to find a way to keep Toronto engaged throughout the game.
The good news is that there are still 72 games for Berube to improve on his work he&#8217;s done so far. Work that is encouraging, but still shows signs of plenty that can be improved on. That&#8217;s not a criticism of Berube, but a mere acknowledgement that it takes time to turn a tanker around.
Berube may not be a Jack Adams candidate out the gate, but the lack of the new coach bump narrative doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that he isn&#8217;t the right person for the job.
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Monday marked the first ten games of the Craig Berube era. In this small sample size, the Toronto Maple Leafs have maintained their status quo of lacklustre starts to the season. You have to return to the COVID-era North Division season in 2020-21 to have the Leafs picking up more than five wins in their first ten games. In short, this group hasn't been coming out the gate strong, which has been one of the many things that haven't changed under Berube.
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There is certainly a narrative around the bump a team gets from a new coach, one that Berube rode pretty well during his first year in St. Louis. But even if the said bump was real, you could argue the narrative applies more to in-season coaching changes as that's when you've seen the Berube or Kris Knoblauch Cup runs, and when the Leafs have had the full summer to communicate with Berube, go through a full training camp with him, and bring in seven or eight newcomers into the lineup, that narrative isn't going to apply as much anyway. The sense of urgency of having to get better is reduced when the front office seems committed to running back the group that was part of what got the last coach fired.

There's also something to be said about the expectations for Berube. If the assumption was that Berube was going to fix everything that wasn't liked about Sheldon Keefe and what happened on his watch, that was certainly unrealistic and even if it is going to happen, to have it all fixed in the first ten games seems like the bar was set too high. There also needs to be some consideration for the fact that Berube's results came with a team that was constructed very differently than the current Maple Leafs, and his best season required a goaltender with a .930 save percentage to get them there. The Leafs don't have a Norris-calibre defenceman like prime Alex Pietrangelo (a new coach brings a firm reminder of what Morgan Rielly is and isn't) and while Anthony Stolarz is doing a pretty good impression of 2018-19 Jordan Binnington in net, the rest of the team needs to catch up.

Establishing that it is unreasonable to fix everything all at once, ten games isn't a lot of time, and coaching only matters so much and it is what the players do with that instruction that matters, it seems like it is time for an early review of what has gone right and what has gone wrong so far for Berube this season.

Gone Right: Anthony Stolarz

I don't know how much of Stolarz can be credited to Craig Berube, but a lot of goaltending success relies on the team in front of them. Stolarz has looked good so to some extent the Leafs are doing what they need to do for Stolarz to be at his best. Some of that is going to fall on Berube and if you want to credit Binnington's run for being part of what gave Berube his kickstart in St. Louis, having Stolarz do the same is encouraging.

The fact that Berube has gone to Stolarz often is both a tad out of necessity, due to Joseph Woll's injury but has also been an opportunity to test Stolarz's ability to handle a starter's workload and he's stepped up early. There's also something to say for the fact that Berube was comfortable going with Dennis Hildeby when he needed to, that's not something that was guaranteed to happen under Sheldon Keefe.

Gone Wrong: The Power Play

Game 10 finally brought about an honest-to-goodness shift in the personnel on the power play, but it is likely just the beginning of the work that needs to be done.

Standstill zone entries, excessive passing, and a top loaded first unit that doesn't necessarily complement each other's abilities the way they need to are some of the key issues. Marc Savard's time in charge looks like a continuation of Guy Boucher's struggle to make sense of the group he's working with, thus far.

While Savard gets the bulk of the criticism here, the buck stops with Berube at the end of the day and if he needs to step in to fix things or take over the powerplay to right the ship, stepping up and putting some urgency on this issue seems necessary.

Gone Right: Steven Lorentz

It seems that every coach has a fourth liner who just somehow clicks for them and good or bad they'll be in the lineup. Sheldon Keefe had David Kampf, it was surprising that Mike Babcock never brought in Luke Glendening from his Detroit days, and the Brad May/Jay McClement/Mike Brown types of the long ago certainly pile up too.

Much like the early versions of Glendening/McClement/Kampf, things are going very right for Steven Lorentz at the moment, and his simple no nonsense approach of executing his coach's asks has worked out so far.

Of course, Berube liking Lorentz is good, but hopefully Brad Treliving won't fall into the trap that often occurs when a coach likes a player and Lorentz receives too much term or money. He's great as a hard working guy looking to stay in the league. Don't ruin him with job security or starting to ask of more from him.

Gone Wrong: The William Nylander at Centre Experiment

On paper, there is a ton of appeal of putting William Nylander at centre. He checks a lot of the boxes not only statistically, but his puck carrying ability and creative offence make him an ideal candidate for playing centre.

There are frustrations that come with watching Nylander as well, and at times watching him in the neutral zone when the Leafs don't have the puck or his own end can be a bit of a chore. Berube got wise to this in the preseason, but not before burning through a significant amount of time to explore other options.

There's an argument to make for Nylander not being set up for success, putting Max Domi on his wing created a defensive blackhole and even now with the roles reversed with Domi at centre with Nylander on the wing, those still exist, but the difference is that Nylander is back where he is comfortable and that makes a world of difference in his game and undoes some of those shortcomings.

Bobby McMann coming into the mix has also helped too, but while Berube is doing well with the best he has, this seems like a problem that Brad Treliving will eventually have to fix by bringing in a better centre.

Gone Right: The Third Pairing

Berube has done the Leafs a solid by putting together a sheltered third pairing that can comfortably play against the bottom six of their opponents in a way that can engage them physically and move the puck up ice to create opportunities.

Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins seems like the 7th and 8th defencemen on the depth chart proving a point together, and while Benoit isn't capable of bigger assignments, and Timmins isn't someone you want making defensive decisions too often, the idea that the Leafs can have a functioning bottom pairing for less than the cost of Timothy Liljegren on his own is encouraging. Having Philippe Myers and Jani Hakanpaa as options for the future is encouraging too and kudos to Craig Berube for having the guts to ride this one out.

Gone Wrong: Timothy Liljegren

Maybe this is a hill to die on, but Timothy Liljegren is still a more talented defenceman than at least the two in the Leafs bottom pairing and even if he's not at his best right now, he's worth the trouble of seeing if he can play his way out of it.

While I can appreciate the premise that Benoit and Timmins playing together regularly allows them to build a better pairing over time, Liljegren is the most capable player of the trio and needs to find his way into the Leafs lineup to make his case.

Gone Right: Matthew Knies

Berube took his time with Matthew Knies in the preseason and got a good look at him in a number of situations. He ultimately decided to use him exactly the way that Sheldon Keefe did after the Tyler Bertuzzi on the top line experiment failed.

What is different about this year is that Knies is now coming at things with a year of experience in the NHL and instead of learning what he needs to do to be an NHLer he's having the opportunity to learn things that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner won't do and take the opportunity to step in to do them.

He's less tentative and looks a lot better under Berube, whether that comes from him having a more defined role or if that is the natural progression of things, it looks like it has worked out for both of them and at the very least Berube deserves credit for putting Knies back in this position.

Gone Wrong: Ryan Reaves

Ryan Reaves is still playing too much. This might result in Reaves calling me a basement dweller, but the reality is Reaves dressing in eight of 10 games doesn't make a ton of sense when players like Max Pacioretty, Bobby McMann, and Nick Robertson have sat in his place.

If the argument is about having size in the lineup, there's a case to be made that Nikita Grebenkin might be the better option as the Leafs need to have some upside and some potential for the fourth line to achieve something and with Lorentz-Kampf-Reaves, not a lot will benefit the Leafs.

The possibility of Connor Dewar returning is nearing. Dewar doesn't add size but does have plenty of energy which could finally force Berube to cut Reaves loose.

Gone Right: John Tavares

Heading into the tenth game of the season, the Tavares line wasn't a success story at all. It just kind of existed hoping that one day it will be useful. Being reunited with William Nylander certainly got the ball rolling for Tavares against Winnipeg, and the centre is now at a point per game pace this year.

While it is comforting to see Tavares and Nylander click, hopefully Tavares clicking with Pacioretty is the bigger takeaway and will allow for Berube to continue to chase the idea of the Leafs having three lines of offence and allowing for Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Tavares to be spread across three lines. The fact that Pacioretty, Knies, Domi, and McMann are all showing off their offensive abilities too early in the year, there will eventually be a balance that gets the most out of everyone.

Gone Right: Saying the Right Things

Berube's immediate focus on battle drills in training camp, his calling out of his team in game against the Kings as things started slipping away from them in the third period, and his acknowledgement that the Leafs try to be too cute with the puck are all things that offer a lot of hope that things will continue to improve under Berube, and while he hasn't been able to just slap a bandage on the Leafs issues and declare them fixed, it seems like he's started on a path to progress and is quickly learning some of the lessons through trial and error.

While there are somethings that Berube is doing that mirror the actions of Sheldon Keefe, the fact that he has moved on from some of those issues quickly might just be a matter of him having to see things for himself.

Gone Wrong: The Leafs No Show Efforts

The Leafs absolutely no showed against the Blue Jackets and the Blues. Whether it's a lack of effort or being non-responsive when teams aggressively defend against them, those games are reminders of player traits that the coach still needs to work on.

Similarly, the Leafs' third period efforts against the Kings and Jets when they've established a lead shows that they are not a team capable of sitting back and protecting a lead and running out the clock. There is a need to find a way to keep Toronto engaged throughout the game.

The good news is that there are still 72 games for Berube to improve on his work he's done so far. Work that is encouraging, but still shows signs of plenty that can be improved on. That's not a criticism of Berube, but a mere acknowledgement that it takes time to turn a tanker around.

Berube may not be a Jack Adams candidate out the gate, but the lack of the new coach bump narrative doesn't necessarily mean that he isn't the right person for the job.
<h3>Sponsored by bet365</h3>
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Maple Leafs’ first 10 games under Craig Berube show promise and room for improvement

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