Berube’s Fiery Rant: Nylander Exposes Coach’s Intense Timeout Message

The Toronto Maple Leafs struggled in the second half of their back-to-back against the New York Islanders, dropping a 6-3 loss in a rare effort in which they didn’t get star goaltending. The team didn’t do much to help their netminder either, and it was evident that it was going to be one of those games early on.

The Maple Leafs surrendered the first goal to Islanders forward Maxim Tsyplakov less than two minutes into the game and allowed their second goal to Bo Horvat less than five minutes in. The second goal was an indicator of the Maple Leafs’ lack of response to the slow start, so head coach Craig Berube felt it was necessary to call a timeout only five minutes into the game in an effort to light a fire underneath his team.

The camera caught Berube mid-message to his team after allowing those two quick goals, but according to William Nylander, the message was a little more aggressive than simply ‘play the right way’.

If nothing else, Berube’s message seemed to get through to Nylander, who scored two of the Maple Leafs’ three goals, but it was a pretty sad showing from the rest of the players. The Leafs kept things at bay with the Islanders for the first 40 minutes, heading into the third period only down 3-2, but Isaiah George’s first NHL goal widened the deficit in a game where the Islanders would have had to completely fumble the bag themselves for the Maple Leafs to have any chance at a comeback. It was just one of those nights.

The Maple Leafs will look to rebound from the loss when they play host to the Winnipeg Jets for the second and final time of the season on Monday afternoon. The Leafs tend to succeed in both day games and games against Winnipeg, so their final game before the holiday break could set them up for a happy ending before that, but they’ll need to come out of the gates with a better effort if they want to go into Christmas with two points.

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