Leafs Craig Berube's firey timeout rant goes viral: we now know what he said

The Leafs were having a very good game against the Kings last night, up 5-0, until they started to fall apart. Craig Berube stepped in and unleashed his terror.

The Toronto Maple Leafs came out flying in their matchup with the Los Angeles Kings, taking a commanding 5-0 lead after two periods of dominance. Their lead and energy were short-lived, though, as the Kings refused to go quietly and began their comeback early in the third period. Los Angeles found the back of the net less than three minutes into the final frame, and just before the halfway mark of the period had another to cut the deficit to 5-2.

As the momentum began shifting, head coach Craig Berube called for a timeout to galvanize his team. In that break, according to media reports, the fiery speech was full of expletives as he urged the Leafs to simplify their game and regain the reins. His intense approach seemed to resonate as the Leafs regained composure in a relatively quick fashion after the timeout.

After the game, Berube wasn't willing to get into specifics about what he said during the timeout but wasn't pleased with the Leafs' third-period effort. He felt like the team was sloppier than they needed to be, although they did firm up and prevent the Kings from creating any sort of legitimate attack over the final 10 minutes. A late power-play marker from John Tavares padded the final score to 6-2.

Perhaps the most telling part of this game was the Leafs' response to the timeout taken by Berube, as that seemed like something that rarely transpired with the former head coach Sheldon Keefe. Under Keefe, timeouts rarely generated much end result of momentum; teams seemed to continue applying pressure right after a timeout and often scored shortly thereafter. The Leafs have seemed to have problems closing games for years, and often, even with multi-goal leads, the fans are on the edge of their seats.

By contrast, the no-nonsense style Craig Berube brings in seems to be precisely what the Leafs need in order to prevent late-game collapses. His focus on a more direct, physical style of play might just be how the Leafs protect leads better and bring consistency into their game.

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