OverDrive - Berube on the Maple Leafs' season outlook, Matthews' gaining chemistry and Cowan making the roster

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube joined OverDrive to discuss the Maple Leafs season starting, the relationship with his players, Easton Cowan making his mark on the team and if he plays on the roster, Auston Matthews' stature and gaining chemistry on his line, Anthony Stolarz in the crease, Morgan Rielly's role on the group and more.

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Here's the head coach of the Leafs, Craig Barouba. How are you doing, Craig? Good. How are you guys? We're doing well. We're doing well. We're doing well. You plan on watching some hockey tonight? You're going to watch baseball? What's the plan tonight? I'm probably going to watch a lot of them. Both. I mean, I'll definitely be watching the Js and games, hockey games, watch the Jays.

So, yeah, looking forward to it. Chief, did you watch yourself? What's it like being a head coach before we get into this year? Last year, the clips of, you know, the bench and some of your comments. How weird is that for a head coach to kind of see that again and kind of replay it? Do you have some laughs with the guys over that? I actually never watched any of it. And none of the guys have brought it up to me yet, but it's early.

Yeah, the Prime Series, man, it's creating a lot of buzz. Like you and Willie in particular, I know you've been asked a lot about it, But you and Neelander in your relationship, is it, how would you describe it? You know, someone asked you, how would you describe your relationship with William Neelander? Well, I think it's a good relationship. I think it's pretty open, you know, to be honest with you. You know, I think, you know, he's not hesitant to come to me about things and what he's feeling and how I'm using them or, you know, different things that we can do to help the team. and then the other way, you know, I'm open with him too about what I think of his play

and what I demand more of them and, you know, but it's, you know, we get along well, I think. I mean, I think it's a good, healthy relationship because it's open and honest, you know. That's all you can ask for as a player, chief. So we talk about your roster and you talk about your relationship with Nielander. You know, you've got some players here that, you know, you've got some players here that, you know, got almost too many NHL players that Trees had to make some decisions on and you've got to, you know, set your opening

game roster for tomorrow night. What was your toughest situation? You know who your first line center is. You know who your second line center is. Was everything else kind of falling into place as camp was going along? Well, yeah, I think the Lotton injury kind of put a wrinkle in everything.

I had to put Max back in the middle. You know, you've got to make adjustments like that. That stuff happens. So, but it's not anything new for the team or for Max to go back in the middle. He's done it before, and he's capable of doing it again. You know, there's always tough decisions with guys that get put on waivers. We all know that.

It's not easy for anybody, especially the player, and it's not easy for us either. We like all our guys, and we can't keep everybody. And you've got to make decisions, and you make them on what you think is best for the team. So in terms of Easton, and where he factors into all this, you've been very complimentary of him, you know, through a camp. What have you seen out of him this year that maybe you didn't see out of him last year? Or what kind of message did you send to him last year that he got and he applied this year? Well, I think the message was in the summertime of what we wanted him to do in the summer to prepare for camp with his off-season training.

And it's just a mindset coming in the camp. I think he took the same mindset that he did when he tried to make the junior, the London Knights, when he was a young kid. You know, this guy's got a motor on him. He can hound pucks. He's a very good forechecker, and he just works. And that's what he did in cap, and that's what impressed me, because that's what we asked him to do.

And for the most part, that's what he did. He wasn't trying to make all these plays like he did in junior. He played direct, he put bucks deep, he worked, he hounded. And I really like the line of him and Lawton and Morens throughout camp. I thought they were very effective and they look like they had great chemistry together and they look like they really enjoyed each other

out there on a line. Now, things change. Lotton gets hurt and so, but right now, Easton Cowan, you know, who knows he could be on the roster tomorrow. Like, you know, we have options and we've got to just, we'll deal with them when they come. But, you know,

he's done enough to show me that I think he could play in the end. NHL now. But in saying that, who knows, we'll see how it goes. Like, you know, it's a game-by-game situation right now. With Craig Baruba, at least habs tomorrow night. Austin Matthews, he got through camp, played a couple of times. He's healthy, feels good. Obviously, last year, you know, he didn't get through camp healthy, and you said it a couple days ago. Last year, he was hurt. You know, he didn't feel like himself. With that in mind, did you approach his training camp differently? This year, like the approach of getting him to opening night at 100%? Did you treat his build-up

any differently this year than you did last? Well, not necessarily, but he did. You know, like I think he did a great job in our training staff and the people he works with of preparing him, you know, to get through cap and be healthy and to be a healthy player going forward. So, you know, I dealt with him like I would, you know, with any player during camp, I didn't, you know, if he was needed maintenance, I would give him maintenance, but it felt like he came to me and was asking for maintenance all the time. He was out there every day competing in the drills and, you know, I just noticed a different player throughout camp and all the puck battles and how heavy he was out there and how strong he was and how heavy he was on a stick. So I saw a very healthy Matthews. I don't think he's going to necessarily need him to turn into Eric Lindros.

Does he have to do anything different, Chief, as far as no Mitch and the given goes? Because Mitch is a right-handed shot coming out from behind the net. There's a lot of opportunities there because as a left-handed shot, it's kind of a blind play with Mitch being a right-eat. There was a lot of connection there. What does he have to do just as far as five-on-five to create offense or just go out there and do his thing? well he has to just go out there and do his thing and not overthink it but I think there's one area him and Mitch had such good chemistry together with the giving go game as you all know and I don't think that chemistry is going to be there necessarily right away with

you know Machelli or whoever it is on his line and they're not the same player as Mitch so Austin I you know I think he might have to just hang on to puffs a little more himself and create more space for himself you know if you know what I'm talking about. It's not going to be such a giving goal game. You know, he looks like his shot is, you know, really good right now. He's shooting a ton of bucks in practice. I watch him on a D.P. It's a shot first mentality right away, which is great. And I think he doesn't have to change a whole lot. He's got to just be himself out there and play. And again, it's about just fine. It's a chemistry with a new line made more than anything. And I believe he will.

Chief, a little bit more of an adjustment with, you know, Stolar's obviously being available to you, but Joseph Wall not available to the team. So he had one of the best tandums in the league last year. Now you only have a half of it, you know, and Primo's available. But a little bit different mindset to start the season with that? Well, for sure, there is. You know, but the schedule is going to dictate a lot of it, as you guys know. There's a lot of back-to-back games and a lot of three and four.

So you're going to need your backup. You know, I think it's conversations with the Goldie coach and Stoli about how he's feeling where he's at, mentally, physically, how he's feeling. That's going to determine the starts a lot of times and how heavy we give him those starts. But, you know, we're confident. Oh, I think we lost them there. We'll have to get them back. Confident about something.

I was going to say confident. Maybe Stoller was going to win the Vesna this year. His picture was on the screen. I'm like, either he's gone or I've lost everything. I got fearful there. I knew it was, yeah. I was just waiting to see if it was just going to be the quick crackout, you know, because I'm like, is it just a quick blip in the radar or what?

We'll get Craig back in just a moment. I think he was heading to, you know, maybe they've been in touch. I read today and Trey talked about that they've been in touch with Joseph Wall and he seems to be doing well. So maybe it's a situation where they get him back sooner than later. That might be a scenario. Right. And that'll be interesting, like how you build him back up.

He effectively missed camp, right? Like Wall was here for the beginning of it, but has not played. Did he play early in the preseason? No, I don't believe he did. One or two days into camp where he. wasn't available right so you know that would lead me to believe it's likely you know a stint with the marlies maybe for a game until although they're not even really starting for a little while so i'm not sure how you i handle that but yeah yeah that's only in baseball hockey doesn't do that

i know i was just thinking that i'm i'm in baseball mode with that just no matter how good a baseball player you are you're going down to the minors to play for a little bit right doesn't matter barry bonds babe ruth it doesn't matter you're going back uh all right we got craig back Craig Barube, Maple Leafs coach ahead of the game tomorrow night. Yeah, in terms of Stolar's, like, you know, he's obviously got that contract done. He was so good for you guys last year. In terms of, you know, how many games you'd be hopeful he can play. Like, do you think he can get to 40 plus?

Is that a goal for him, a goal for yourself and the staff? Like, where do you stand on the, you know, best case scenario for Stolars this year? Yeah, you know, that's a good question. And I don't know if we all have anybody has the answer to that. Listen, he's going to, you know, right now, he's going to get a bigger workload than he did last year at this point right now. And, but, you know, like I said, we got Primo in here. We got Hildobie, so we added some depth with Primo.

And then a lot of it's going to depend on the schedule, and a lot of it's going to depend on Stolar's how he's feeling where he's at. So that's a hard question to answer how many games do I, I think he's going to get, you know, as going into the season right now, he's probably going to get more starts than he did last year, you know, early on at this point with the way things are. I can't recall the last time a Leaf team went to the playoffs, had six defensemen that played every night,

and then returned all six the next season. I don't recall the last time that's happened, and that's what you have this year. How much of a luxury is that for you, your staff, Craig. You've got six veteran, you know, grizzled defensemen that obviously know each other well and have been through battles and they're all coming in to a new season. They're all healthy and they're familiar with each other. Well, that's huge. And you're right. A lot of times you don't get the, you know, the same D

core back. We've got the exact same D corps back. You know, veteran guys that have been around, they played extremely well last year for us. You know, it's the backbone of our team. And, you know, we just play a good defense, check, be harder on our net. You know, they're simple with the puck. They move it. They get it going. But, you know, they do so much back there for our team. It's really important to have all these guys back and healthy and ready to go.

One of those guys is Riley. Apparently, he's flying out there looking slim and trim, and everybody's in the best shape of their lives, Chief. What's his expectation on the power play? Well, we all were at camp, right? It's amazing. I love it. All these guys, I love the guys that need to add it 12 pounds of muscle or whatever,

and then they get to 30-something, and they need to get rid of it. But just him back on the power play, should he just be comfortable and confident that he's going to be there and not looking over his shoulder if it doesn't go well right off the hub? Well, yeah, for sure, and we talked about it, and, you know, he's ran this power plate here before in the past. We all know that. He's capable of doing it. You know, for him, it's just trusting.

his instincts more than anything like don't second guess yourself like you know shoot the puck when you have opportunities because that's always a good good plan right and you know he has a good shot and he is a good he is a good passer so you know

just do things like you know use your instincts and just be confident and do what you think is right you know um I think more than anything you're right just getting that confidence back that he's done it in the past and he to do it again.

With Craig Baruba, we've been talking the last few days about this Tampa, Florida situation. I'm sure you're aware of it. I'm sure the whole league is aware of it. I'm sure you're getting flashbacks to some of the stuff you were involved in probably back in the 80s and 90s. It's been crazy. That reminded me of the rookie games back when I was in Philly. And we go play Wash or we go play the Rangers and these rookie games and there's nothing to

fight. crazy you know but you know that's just that's that's that's that's that's that's been getting heated up for a while in my opinion going back to playoffs last year between the two teams some of the things that went on between the both of them just you know went overboard this year a little bit but uh that's the way it goes sometimes and uh you got to do what you got to do um you know it's just this division's tough it really is it's a hard division it's a physical division, you know, and there's, you know, everybody's improved, and by opinion, Montreal, Buffalo, Ottawa, you know, so we're in a good division. It's going to be a tough division.

Well, it has been for years, and you guys have consistently found a way to navigate through it. And, like, you're a veteran team and a big team. Like, you've added size. You've got a lot of big boys on your team. And I'm curious, you know, how you feel about team toughness, you know, what that term means to you and how it applies to the Leafs. Yeah. Well, I just think team toughness is, you know, you're always going to get in there for your team in. I thought our team did a real good job of that last year. When things had to be handled, somebody went on to handle it.

And that's the bottom line. You know, there's nobody, you know, we're not going to get pushed around. We never got pushed around last year. We're not going to get pushed around this year. There's no reason to, you know. I don't think you have to have any fear of anything. to be honest with you. You know, so our team understands that.

You want to be a pack of wolves out there, and you want to protect your teammate at all costs when you have to. And we want to initiate the physicality as much as possible. We added Joshua and Roy are pretty big guys, and, you know, they play that hard, heavy style of game, especially Joshua. So he's been a good addition. And, you know, we picked up Sammy playoff waivers.

I had him in St. Louis. and he's a physical player. He hits people and gets in there and a forecheck, so, you know, I think we're fine in that department. I'm not worried about it. With Craig Baruba and, you know, we were mentioned in the Prime series earlier and, you know,

the all-access stuff and obviously they were following you guys throughout the playoffs. And, you know, game seven in particular against Florida was, you know, it was great content, I'll give them that. And, you know, at the time, you were trying to get to your team, you're trying to motivate your team, you're

trying to get them up and going. I'm curious if you have a better idea, you know, today now that the dust is settled, you've gone through the offseason, on what happened there in Game 7? And have a feeling like you've got to figure that out. Your team's figured it out, and you'll be in a better position the next time it comes up. Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, when I look at that game, we get out of the first period, killing that penalty off at 0-0.

And for me, like, we didn't come out and initiate the game. in the second period and we got on the wrong side of things from just not being direct and not just doing the right things at the right time and they capitalized on some goals and we got down and we didn't fight back hard enough

to get back in the game. That's how I look at it. It's all mental for me you know and we've got to get past that. Hopefully we've talked enough about it and I don't want to really talk about it too much anymore. our team understands what we need to do to push forward here that's in the past and we've got to move on from it but we've got to learn from it too hopefully we learn from it i mean uh you know i always talk about you you don't have to make great plays out there

you just got to be good and you've got to be consistent in your game and um you know i think if we were taking that approach in that second period and just dumbed it down and played a direct simple game and just waited for your opportunities but just play the right way we would have been okay but we didn't do that in a second we opened it up got beat on us got gave up some two on ones and some different scenario that cost us a hockey game that we didn't do before you know so that's really what it boils down to chief one last one before we get you out of here i know you talked about your relationship with willie i think he's got a youtube channel and cameras following them around like if you ask you to make a little cameo on it will you

do it or you'd tell them to stuff it. Well, it depends on what kind of mood I meant and what's going on with our team at the time, but, yeah, I might be willing to jump in there with William do a little cameo with him. It might be fun. I like that. He'll probably have his wife beater on at the time. Man, he loves that.

I think he wore it golfing. He loves that thing. He wore it on a TV show in Sweden last year. Remember when you guys went Sweden a couple of years ago? He's quite a character. character, really. He's a great guy to be around, and, you know, I'm fortunate to be able to coach a guy like him with the talent he has and the approach he has towards the game and the team and stuff. So that's been a lot of fun.

All right. Well, look for that, man. That's going to get a lot of clicks, man. YouTube, that's going to get a lot of views. I think we just possibly gave him a great idea. Well, it starts tomorrow night. So good luck tomorrow night. Good luck the rest of the way. and as always we appreciate you finding time for us thank you Craig yeah thanks for having me on guys there he is Craig Barube you too Craig Barouba head coach of the Leafs Unmistakably Canadian it's the music that raised you the artists raising the bar

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