TEARS FLOWS: Entire Toronto Maples and the ice Hockey Community are Mourning the Loss of Craig Berube As Passes Away At……..Skip to main content
New Maple Leafs coach Berube in tough to overturn the weight of history
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New Maple Leafs coach Berube in tough to overturn the weight of history
Cathal Kelly
Cathal Kelly
Published May 21, 2024
This article was published more than 6 months ago. Some information may no longer be current.
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Toronto Maple Leafs new head coach Craig Berube speaks during an introductory media conference at in Toronto, on May 21.
Dan Hamilton/Reuters
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The most important thing about becoming an NHL head coach is looking like one.
Craig Berube looks like the coach who killed all the other coaches in a coaching Battle Royale. He’s an Easter Island statue wedged into a 48 regular suit.
If you thought Mike Babcock and Sheldon Keefe were hilarious, Berube, 58, makes the two of them seem like Key & Peele.
During Tuesday’s introductory press conference, the new Toronto boss smiled once. That was when club president Brendan Shanahan was telling a story about the time Berube beat the crap out of him.
Berube spent the rest of the presser either staring vacantly into the middle distance or rhyming off every conceivable cliche about styles of play (“fast,” “heavy,” “strong on pucks,” “structure in all three zones”).
Berube said only one important thing right at the beginning. It was when he was asked his impressions of the beaten-down roster of misfiring stars he is inheriting.
“The core player group is great here …” Berube said.
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That’s when you knew where this is all headed. Back around for one more spin.
You really thought they would do it differently this time, didn’t you? You sucker. They got you again.
Ten years into the current regime, the Leafs have become the Justin
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