Craig Berube Rips Into Captain Auston Matthews and the First Line for Costly Defensive Zone Mistake

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had an up-and-down start to the NHL season. Tonight the Maple Leafs have once again dropped the ball with a poor effort against the St. Louis Blues falling behind 4-1.

The lack of attention to defensive details is now becoming somewhat of a trend under new head coach Craig Berube. Berube was hired on the premise of making the Maple Leafs tougher to play against and more attentive to small details which he has begun to institute particularly in practice.Of course, the Maple Leafs standard in several games is unacceptable so far for the heights the Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to reach. Tonight after giving up a goal Craig Berube decided to make an example out of his captain Auston Matthews and ripped into him for poor defensive effort.

This is not the first time Craig Berube has gotten heated during a game already this season. Against the Los Angeles Kings Berube went off on his team for their lack of energy. Under previous head coach Sheldon Keefe this is something that almost was never seen on the Toronto Maple Leafs bench. Star players were not berated and usually were left to police themselves and make up for their own mistakes. Under Craig Berube, this has all changed as no one is above being scolded for bad plays or lack of effort.

To this point, this method has been praised by fans but the results have yet to follow. The Toronto Maple Leafs will likely fall to four and four on the season if the result holds against the St. Louis Blues. This would leave them on the fringes of the playoffs early in the NHL season.

Now of course it is still very early in the NHL season. The Toronto Maple Leafs have struggled with injuries to starting goaltender Joseph Woll. After being out all season so far Woll finally made his debut tonight against the Blues. The Maple Leafs stars in particular Morgan Rielly have struggled to produce at the levels everyone knows they are capable of. If the Toronto Maple Leafs can get these issues fixed and continue to shore up their defensive game it could all work out.

Either way, the Toronto Maple Leafs decided to go down the defensively responsible gritty hockey path when hiring Craig Berube. It is good to see that Craig Berube has not backed down from this strategy and continues to hold every player on the ice accountable despite the mixed results so far.

As the season continues it will be interesting to see how long it takes the Toronto Maple Leafs to truly embrace their new style of hockey. It will be even more interesting to see if the wins start to stack up once they do.