After Friday’s follow, head coach Craig Berube mentioned Anthony Stolarz’s standing, Max Pacioretty’s buy-in, the keys to improved offensive manufacturing, and Bobby McMann’s imminent return to the lineup.
Follow Strains – December 13
#Leafs in follow:
Knies-Matthews-Marner
Pacioretty-Tavares-Nylander
McMann-Minten-Domi
Holmberg-Dewar-Lorentz
McCabe-Tanev
Rielly—Ekman-Larsson
Benoit-Timmins
Woll
Hildeby
— Terry Koshan 🇺🇦 (@koshtorontosun) December 13, 2024
What’s Anthony Stolarz’s standing?
Berube: He’s good. I believed we acquired excellent news on him. He didn’t go on the ice at present, however we are going to see tomorrow if he can get again out right here.
Do you count on Stolarz again subsequent week?
Berube: I do. In saying that, he has to get on the ice, but it surely was excellent news total. Let’s simply depart it at that. Proper now, it’s day-to-day.
The place is your confidence degree in Dennis Hildeby because the backup?
Berube: He got here in and performed that nice sport in New Jersey for us. We’ve confidence in him. He has loads of potential and is clearly a giant man. If we’ve got to make use of him, I’ve confidence in him for positive.
What’s your religion in Joseph Woll’s potential to make a run of begins if he must?
Berube: He has performed rather well for us this 12 months and has been a extremely good goalie for us, so I’ve loads of religion in him. I believed he did a superb job stepping in final evening. It’s powerful to do. He made some actually good saves for us.
We gave up some possibilities in that sport. I believed he was actually robust for us. The one within the third interval was a extremely good save — a game-saver.
What’s the likelihood that Bobby McMann will play on Saturday? What do you want about having him again?
Berube: Excellent [chance).
His speed and his size give us another power forward in our lineup. If you look at our left side with Knies, Pacioretty, and McMann, I love the size and the power-forward type of player up and down the wing, banging bodies and going to the net.
Is someone like Max Pacioretty a role model for Matthew Knies and McMann?
Berube: He has played that way for a long time and scored a lot of goals playing that way. He is a physical player who is hard to play against, so yeah.
What does it say about Pacioretty’s resilience for him to come back with the type of performance he put on against Anaheim?
Berube: He is a quick healer.
I give him a lot of credit for what he went through in the last few years. Being a player of his age who has accomplished what he has accomplished, he still wants to play. He has been a great teammate, for sure.
Great work ethic to go through that kind of stuff with the injuries and fight his way back. Other things happen, and he fights his way back again. He is a fighter. It is great to see.
Pacioretty mentioned that after scoring a few goals, his head got ahead of him and back to where it used to be, but then he remembered that he needed to play in straight lines. When you hear that, does it make you think your system is getting through to the players?
Berube: I think it is for sure. You will have times throughout the season when you get off-page, and you need to get them back on-page — everybody, not just one or two guys. It is just constant coaching, whether through film or practice.
He is a veteran guy who has been around. He understands who he is and what he has to do for the team to be successful, which is great to hear.
The offense flowed a little more for you against Anaheim. How do you reach that level of production more consistently?
Berube: Staying with the program of what we want to do. Shot attempts are huge in this league. You have to get pucks to the net, and you have to get people to the net. We scored goals that way last night.
We’re practicing it, and we’ll keep working on it. We’ll stay focused on it more than anything. We have to keep the shot attempts up.
That is important: Our D shooting pucks as they did last night with the on-and-off shooting, not just dusting it off when there is no lane. Our D did a good job last off on-and-off shooting.
What led to the return to the more traditional power-play setup with the four forwards and one defenseman on the top unit?
Berube: The five forwards worked for a bit and looked good at times, but in the last couple of games, I have not liked it. I switched it up.
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