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Craig Berube Buries the Maple Leafs With Comments After Elimination By the Panthers

Originally posted on House of Hockey | By Tom Banks | Last updated May 19, 2025 9:07 AM ET

The Toronto Maple Leafs season came to a brutal end on Sunday, and now their Head Coach has revealed what went wrong against the defending Stanley Cup Champs.

Through six games of their second round matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers went to war, with everything coming to a head on Sunday night in a winner-take-all Game 7 between the two bitter Atlantic Division rivals.

Unfortunately for those die hard Maple Leafs fans, the team let them down again with a dreadful performance on home ice, one that saw fans again littering the ice with jerseys in frustration and disappointment.

Following the loss, Head Coach Craig Berube discussed what went wrong for his team, and simply put, he praised the Panthers for being more desperate, aggressive and overall, simply better.

'They were the better team. They were the more desperate team. They were the more aggressive team. That's what I take out of the game. You win a Game 6, that's great. You come home. You have to have a level of desperation, determination. I didn't feel we had it.'

There's no arguing this point from Berube, as the Panthers brought their incredible experience at this level to play, dominating from the outset, and while Toronto showed a little fight, it wasn't enough as they were absolutely outplayed from the opening puck drop to see their Stanley Cup goals fade before their eyes again.

This off-season, there's going to be plenty of changes in Toronto, and while Berube is likely to be back behind the bench in 2025/26, he's going to have a different roster that will again be looking to go deep in the post-season after the ninth straight disappointment for the Maple Leafs.

This article first appeared on House of Hockey and was syndicated with permission.

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