Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube ‘Despises Each & Every Member Of This Hockey Team’

It’s fairly obvious at this point that Craig Berube‘s days as the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs are coming to an end. This incredibly disappointing 2025-26 season has seen the team playing completely antithetical to the kind of player that Berube himself was, and that he wants his teams to be. That, specifically, was the discussion on TSN’s First Up on Monday, with Aaron Korolnek and former Leaf Carlo Colaiacovo.

I can guarantee you that Craig Berube despises each and every member of this hockey team… He’s obviously fired at the end of the year. And it’s because of them… He hates each and every ounce of these guys on the ice night after night. And I don’t blame him.

Although Colaiacovo didn’t want to put it as harshly and personally as Korolnek does, he admits there’s a big problem within the confines of this Leafs team:

A ‘fracture’ in the Leafs’ locker room

It kind of feels like there is a fracture in this locker room and on this team. Read the messages from the coach and read the messages from the players. It feels like there’s a disconnect. That’s not going to help Craig Berube’s position moving forward with this team.

The body language is certainly obvious. Take a look at Berube’s postgame meeting with the media after his team’s latest listless effort, a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators this past weekend.

“We just don’t have enough guys that push… We don’t respond well enough.” Berube’s demeanor was as downtrodden as it gets. He doesn’t even have the fire anymore to blast them with gusto.

The latest disastrous moment came in the pregame warmup before that Senators loss on Saturday, when William Nylander nailed scheduled starting goalie Anthony Stolarz in the throat with a shot. Stolarz was sent to hospital.

It seems to be a never-ending string of miserable, lamentable moments for this team this season, and it sounds like Berube can’t wait until it’s over.

The Leafs have lost three in a row and have the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference at 29-29-13. Their captain, Auston Matthews, is out for the rest of the season, and they don’t have control of their own first-round pick this June unless they pull a miracle out of a hat and win the lottery. Those odds currently sit at 7.5%.