Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube is not happy with his team.
The Maple Leafs suffered a 4-3 OT loss to the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. In the loss, Kraken forward Mason Marchment crashed the net and ran into goalie Anthony Stolarz. Stolarz tried to take matters into his own hnds and go out Marchment, but Berube wasn’t happy with his team not protecting their goalie.
“No, I’ve talked about it before. Not good enough,” Berube said postgame on Saturday. “That play there happens at times. In general, I’ve said it: We are not clearing out the crease enough. We are not doing a good enough job there.”
Berube said he’s fine if someone takes a penalty for protecting their goalie, as he believes the team needs to send a statement to teams that they will pay if they run the goalie.
“Yeah, we have to protect our goalie,” Berube added. “We have to be harder around our net. I am not preaching to go and take guys’ heads off, but enough is enough.”
The Maple Leafs coach believes Toronto did a good job last season clearing the net, so he isn’t sure why it’s been so bad this season.
Anthony Stolatz Was Frustarted After Getting Run Into
Following the game, Stolarz made his feeling clear on being run into.
The Maple Leafs goalie was not happy that he continues to get run into, and wants more protection from him team.
“I’m not happy,” Stolarz said. “You know, guys are gonna run me, and I’m gonna try to stand up for myself. I heard the ref say, we got a power-play, and it’s really not much I can do to him on the ground. But kudos to the guys who were there and got down with him.
“But like I said, I think we gotta start going in the cage a little harder, make it harder for their goalies. You know, it’s not fun. I don’t like having 225-pound guys laying on me. So, you know, hopefully we learn a lesson here.”
Stolarz did go at Marchment after he ran into him, but the goalie is tired of the team not keeping players away from him.
Maple Leafs Coach Frustrated With OT Play
Toronto suffered an OT loss on Saturday and Berube wasn’t pleased with his team’s play.
William Nylander got beat in OT and allowed a breakway which Seattle scored on. It was a frustarting play and Berube knows the team has to be better.
“We didn’t do what we should’ve done to start with,” Berube said. “We want to be in more of a wedge. So we don’t get beat by speed like that. We were too spread out in man-on-man. It is a difficult play for Willy, but he has to have that guy if he wants to man up like that. The guy skated by him, but that is not what we are supposed to do in overtime in that situation.”
The Maple Leafs fell to 3-2-1 and will return to the ice on Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils.
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