Craig Berube ridicules the Florida Panthers on Sunday.

This should probably come as no surprise but Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube does not appear to be the slightest bit intimidated by the rough and tough reputation of the Florida Panthers as his team prepares to begin the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Panthers have earned a well deserved reputation for bullying and steamrolling over their opponents in recent years and on Sunday Berube was asked if the "mean" streak of the Panthers was a source of concern. Berube's response, one that wasn't intended to mock the Panthers, could not have been more savage.

"Are they mean?" asked a genuinely puzzled Berube as he scanned the room.

As if dismissing the notion that the Panthers have a mean streak at all wasn't enough, Berube cracked a rare smile and a laugh when no response from the gaggle of reporters was forthcoming.

"They play a hard game I agree," said Berube. "They forecheck hard and they are physical and in your face the whole game... I don't necessarily think it's mean."

Berube was an extremely tough customer during one of the toughest eras of the National Hockey League, once accumulating a staggering 305 penalty minutes in a single season. Over his 1054 game career Berube would collect a jaw dropping 3149 penalty minutes, so it comes as no surprise that what he sees from the Panthers seems like nothing when compared to his own time as a player in the NHL.

Much like Berube was a physical presence on the ice during his career, he made it clear that his team intends to send a similar message early on in this series.

"We're a physical team too," said Berube. "We gotta go out and be physical ourselves and we gotta initiate as much as possible."

Berube expects the Panthers will employ a similar gameplan to the one the Ottawa Senators employed in Round 1 and believes his team is ready for it.

"I thought Ottawa did the same thing to us... and I thought we handled it well," said Berube in conclusion.