New Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube makes major change to team practices
Craig Berube, who took over at Maple Leafs head coach this summer, just revealed his first major change he is making to team practices.
As it turns out, it has been tradition under Sheldon Keefe for the team to play music during organized practices. While this may not seem like a big deal, it certainly creates a different kind of atmosphere and environment during the work day. Now, Berube will not be allowing this to continue. In fact, he has already implemented this change as the Leafs begin their training camp.
This revelation is actually fairly significant for the Maple Leafs. After all, the team has been criticized for showing a lack of compete, especially during the playoffs. Remember how much flack Mitch Marner took after David Pastrnak scored the series-clinching goal last season? That moment certainly looked like Marner was not competing to 100% of his capabilities, and it was not an isolated incident.
Perhaps the casual environment during team practices last season helped create this attitude on the team. Perhaps with a lack of music this year, all the players on the team will start to take their jobs a little bit more seriously. That could be the difference between playoff failure and success. With that being said, many Leafs fans seem to be excited about this change and are hopeful that it will result in better performances from the team throughout the season.
Additionally, Leafs players have reported that Berube has increased the intensity level at camp already. In fact, Ryan Reaves called it the most intense first day of training camp in his career, and he has been to more than his fair share of training camps to this point in his career.
As such, it appears as though Berube is making a real effort to shake things up in Toronto. Hopefully this will result in a playoff series victory at the very least, if not two or three.
| POLL | ||
21 SEPTEMBRE | 173 ANSWERS New Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube makes major change to team practices Do you think Craig Berube removing music from the Leafs' practices will result in better on-ice performances? | ||
| Yes | 127 | 73.4 % |
| No | 46 | 26.6 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
