The Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves this season in the same spot the Vancouver Canucks were last year.
At the end of last season, the Canucks had fallen flat. While they had a 90-point season, missing the playoffs, the controversy they faced throughout the season led to the departure of Rick Tocchet as head coach.
The playoff miss and the frustration of then-captain Quinn Hughes boiled over. The Canucks needed a reset, and figured letting Tocchet go and bringing in a new coach would solve matters.
The Canucks went through the process of finding their new bench boss, with Adam Foote beating out Manny Malhotra. Behind the scenes, the chatter was that Foote was Hughes’ preferred candidate.
So, Vancouver hired Foote to appease Hughes and hopefully assuage Hughes into signing an extension. Instead, things went south for the Canucks, and the team traded Hughes this season.
That’s the situation the Maple Leafs are in. It’s clear the Craig Berube experiment hasn’t worked. The club needs a new coach, and, well, the new bench boss will have to be someone who can mesh with Auston Matthews.
Otherwise, the Leafs will have to do the same thing the Canucks did and trade their captain.
This situation doesn’t mean that Matthews should hand-pick his ideal coach. But what it does mean is that the Leafs must be wary of attempting to appease their captain more than they should.
In the Canucks’ case, they didn’t necessarily pick the best candidate. They passed on the Calder Cup-winning coach in favor of an assistant. That’s not necessarily bad. But it wasn’t the best choice.
If the Maple Leafs are truly going to sack Berube, the search process should focus on someone who’s equally effective and can get along with everyone on the team, not just Matthews.
Now might be the best time for Maple Leafs to fire Berube
While the ship has certainly sailed on this season, the Maple Leafs would do well to fire Berube now. Keeping him on is like a referee failing to stop a fight when one of the combatants is getting pummeled.
Think of a boxer on the ropes just absorbing hits, desperately trying to keep his guard up, just hoping to survive the current round.
That’s the sense the Maple Leafs are sending fans. The team isn’t competing to win. It’s just hanging on the ropes, praying the bell will ring.
If the ref isn’t going to stop the fight, someone has to throw in the towel.
Firing Berube won’t solve anything. But it might at least spur more of an effort from the team. Yes, the Leafs are just running out the schedule now. But you have to think that a stronger effort from the team might be in order.
Letting Berube go and letting Derek Lalonde take over for the rest of the season wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.
The worst idea would be keeping Berube on board, hoping that something will magically happen. Perhaps the Leafs will go on a 15-game winning streak and storm through the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup, riding on an unbelievable ride.
That’s the stuff Hollywood movies are made of, not real life.