Craig Berube Makes Major Roster Changes Ahead of Bruins Clash Following Back-to-Back Embarrassing Losses
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube appears to be sticking with Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the top pair after a rough loss to his former club on Thursday.
Berube and the Leafs were facing off against his former team, the St. Louis Blues, for the first time since he left the team to take over in Toronto. As such, this one certainly meant a little bit more to him. Unfortunately, his players could not perform for them and they lost 5-1. During the game, Berube expressed his frustration with Auston Matthews and the rest of the top players in no uncertain terms. Of course, all of this was captured on camera so it became a topic of discussion after the game. Auston Matthews later said that the confrontation was strictly professional and deserved, taking accountability for the error.
There was one piece of good news for Toronto though. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored his first goal with the team on a feed from Morgan Rielly. This is a notable change as Rielly was previously playing with Chris Tanev.
Berube made the switch during this game, and it immediately paid of for him with the goal. In fact, based on practice yesterday, it appears as though Ekman-Larsson and Reilly will remain together for at least the near future. In the meantime, Tanev is playing with Jake McCabe.
It makes sense that Berube would want to mess around with his defense pairings early in the season considering the fact that both Ekman-Larsson and Tanev are newcomers in free agency. It will take a little bit of time for both of them to settle into the system and likewise it will take time to build chemistry with their new teammates. Berube appears to be happy with what he is seeing from OEL though as this is the second promotion he's had this year, as he also replaced Morgan Rielly on the top powerplay. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how the team responds today against the Boston Bruins, another team that historically gives them a hard time. Will the new defense pairings remain together for the entire game? We will just have to find out.
