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PRAGUE — The official news of Craig Berube’s hiring didn’t reach Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares until he woke up here on Saturday morning.
Tavares has referred to his NHL team’s latest first-round playoff exit as an “open wound” while competing for Canada at the IIHF World Hockey Championship and still felt some mixed emotions upon learning that Berube was replacing the fired Sheldon Keefe behind the Leafs bench.
“Obviously very difficult to see ‘Keefer’ go, but it’s part of the game at times,” Tavares said. “As players, it’s on us to do a better job. With Craig coming in, he’s going to help us with that. I’m excited to work with him. He’s got a tremendous pedigree.”
The veteran center doesn’t have any history with Berube, but they have connected via text message. Tavares also heard from Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving “about the excitement of bringing him in and how he can help our group,” he said.
Berube is the third different coach Tavares will work under with the Leafs, following Mike Babcock for a little more than a season and Keefe for most of the past five years.
Toronto managed to advance beyond the first round just once during that stretch — on the strength of a series-clinching overtime goal by Tavares against the Tampa Bay Lightning last spring — prompting management to turn to the no-nonsense Berube in an effort to help push the group further up the mountain.
That’s what he did after taking over the St. Louis Blues on an interim basis partway through the 2018-19 season and helping lead them from the bottom of the NHL standings to an improbable Stanley Cup.
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Two members of that Blues team are now competing for world championship gold with Tavares here in Prague, and both Colton Parayko and Jordan Binnington put in a good word with him about their time spent around Berube.
“Great presence and a great person and a guy who cares,” Binnington said after Saturday’s 5-3 Canadian win over Finland. “They should be excited. We all love him and it was tough to see him go at the time. Things work out in their own way. We wish each other all the best, for sure.”
“From a technical standpoint, like X’s and O’s, we didn’t really change a whole lot,” said Parayko of Berube’s impact on the Blues. “He just came in and made sure that we put in the work and worked together as a team. He got everybody to buy into their roles.”
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The Leafs are opting for a change after compiling the NHL’s fourth-best points percentage across the past five regular seasons, while enjoying less playoff success than any team they’ve kept company with in that category.
Tavares is currently wearing the captain’s “C” for Team Canada and has been one of its strongest performers while opening the World Championship with five straight wins.
Of course, he’d much rather still be competing for the Stanley Cup back home instead.
The Leafs fired Keefe earlier this month following a Game 7 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins. It happened not long before Tavares was boarding a flight to Europe to join Team Canada and he sent off a long note to Keefe from the plane thanking him for their time together.
“It’s still really difficult, I think,” said Tavares. “He’d been around five years with the team. Everything we’ve been through and certainly from a personal note I think how he’s helped my game grow and how he’s challenged me. I think back and forth you develop a lot of trust and respect. As a player, you wear that, you feel that. That’s a wound that you take (forward).”
The urgency is high around the Leafs to take a big step forward and we’ve entered an especially critical window for Tavares, who will turn 34 before the start of next season — the final one remaining on the seven-year contract he signed with his hometown team in 2018.
Building a relationship with Berube will become a priority once the World Championship wraps up next Sunday.
“That process obviously has already begun and we’re looking forward to having him with us,” Tavares said. “As time goes on and Craig comes in, the page turns, and we’re looking forward to what he brings and how he can help us get to where we want to get to and that’s obviously reaching our ultimate goal.
“It’s what our expectations are and how we want to deliver.”
(Photo: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)
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Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5503329/2024/05/18/john-tavares-leafs-craig-berube/