Craig Berube Halts Maple Leafs Practice For One Major Reason Ahead Of Anticipated Rangers Showdown

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Tom Banks
October 19, 2024 (1:45 PM)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have a huge showdown with the New York Rangers on Saturday night, and Head Coach Craig Berube is making sure they're ready to execute.

After a 3-1-0 start to the 2024/25 season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking fantastic, but given their lofty goals this year, there's still a long way to go before the pressure ramps up for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. On Saturday night, they face their biggest test of the year at home against the 3-0-1, star studded New York Rangers, and it's clear that Head Coach Craig Berube knows what a big game this is early in the season.

According to reports, Berube was frustrated with how the team was practicing ahead of the big showdown, with the Stanley Cup winning coach stopping practice several times. After practice, Berube explained why he did that, revealing he didn't want his team to become complacent as they did once they shot out to a 5-0 lead against the Los Angeles Kings.

We don't want to get complacent, right? That's the biggest thing. Staying sharp," Berube explained. "I stopped it a couple of times. Just execution for me, you know, being sharp and executing.

"It sort of goes back to the last game and 5-0," he continued. "You take your foot off the gas a little bit. That's where we got to get. We don't want to do that."

Berube's constant attention to detail and his ability to pull the team into line at any moment is in stark contract to what we saw from Sheldon Keefe during his tenure from 2019-2024, and it may just be what helps this team over the edge. Now, they face their toughest test of the season with a red-hot Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers, and while early season games don't mean as much, a big win could potentially give the team the confidence they need to finally overcome their Stanley Cup Playoffs issues.