The NHL doesn’t have an award for Coach of the Half Year.
If so, consider this season has Spencer Carbery keeping the surprise Washington Capitals atop the Metro Division, followed closely by Sheldon Keefe’s New Jersey Devils and perennial contender, Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina.
Meanwhile, a great underdog story is in the script stage as Travis Green has the Ottawa Senators back in the Eastern wild-card picture.
Out West, new boss Scott Arniel’s Jets are tied with Vegas leading the entire league as of Friday. If you’ve been staying up late, watch Jim Hiller, in his first full season behind the Los Angeles bench, keep his Kings nipping at the heels of the Golden Knights in the Pacific, while John Hynes put the Wild back in playoff contention in the Central.
Coaches of teams blessed with all-star offence, that routinely rack up 100-point seasons by April, are usually not in the running for the Jack Adams Award. But, as mid-season arrives, Toronto’s Craig Berube would be very much in the conversation for any 41-game partial prize.
He took the keys to a Leafs house, with its fancy front window and lawn yet doomed each spring by a dysfunctional kitchen, and installed a new floor with heavy appliances.
Whereas Keefe had the same improvement in mind his last year or two before being fired, Berube came as advertised — out with the cute, in the brutes, supplied by general manager Brad Treliving.
Goals against are down, 5-on-5 is a current conference-best 62 against, near the league lead, while scoring survived the loss of half a dozen forwards at one stage and the ongoing absence of Rocket Richard Trophy winner Auston Matthews for 38% of games to date.
And look who leads the team in points, Mitch Marner, whom Berube was supposedly going to browbeat out of town once the winger got a taste of the coach’s old-school style. Whether it has been tough love or a personal reckoning on Marner’s part, he’s pulling on the same rope as those who’ve bought in on ‘Chief.’
Toronto’s past two wins — grind-a-thons against the New York Islanders without even-strength goals from Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, Matthew Knies and Max Pacioretty — are right out of the Berube trench playbook.
Four straight road wins have the Leafs above .500 off Bay Street and that’s without the safety valve of a second goalie behind Joseph Woll. Anthony Stolarz required minor knee surgery last month at the very time he led the league with a .927 save percentage.
During Berube’s short, succinct news conferences, he has little time for fawning over his team’s recent accomplishments. Not with a game just about every other day this month, including back-to-back at home this weekend against Boston and Philadelphia.
The day off Friday did provide a clear view from the top of the Atlantic Division, the 2-1 win on the Island coinciding with all four teams below the Leafs losing the night before. Berube became the third coach this year to reach at least 50 points in 39 games with Arniel and Keefe, and according to NHL Stats, just the 24th since the shootout era began in 2004.
By the same token, he knows this project is not even half-finished. The Leafs still needed Woll and Stolarz to rescue them on nights that things don’t go according to plan or the glut of games causes inevitable injuries or fatigue.
Stolarz is a way off from returning, Matthews has given ominous warnings he might labour through his suspected back injury for weeks to come, while the Leafs have yet to make challenging trips to Western Canada, the desert and California that their four Atlantic pursuers have just about wrapped.
The trade deadline is still more than two months away, with help at third-line centre and fourth-line wing required.
The Leafs and their following know too well that a good first half doesn’t guarantee the great playoff thirst will be quenched, but give Berube some props for getting the glass half full.
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