Craig Berube-Jan-18-2026

Craig Berube unloads on referee after win on Saturday night.

The Maple Leafs head coach was furious with the officials.

Jonathan Larivee

Jonathan Larivee


The Toronto Maple Leafs picked up a big victory over a red hot Winnipeg Jets team on Saturday night, gritting out a comeback victory despite giving the Jets an early second period lead, defeating them by a score of 4-3 in overtime.

In spite of the fact that his team had just picked up a character win however, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was still fired up after the game had concluded. As the players headed back into their respective locker rooms, cameras cut to Berube unloading a piece of his mind of one of the National Hockey League officials on the ice. The official in question was out of view of the camera, but there was no question about the fact that Berube was furious about something.

It would be impossible to guess what exactly Berube was unhappy about based on such a short clip, but thankfully the Maple Leafs bench boss provided some insight during his post game comments. When asked about the success of his team's penalty kill on the night, Berube let slip that he had been unhappy with multiple calls made by the on-ice officials for this particular game.

"Excellent," said Berube when asked about his team's performance on the penalty kill. "Especially that kill at the end, that was huge. I wasn't a fan of two of the calls tonight but I thought our PK, like all year, was really strong."

Although Berube didn't come right out and say which of the calls he was upset with, he was noticeably unhappy on the Maple Leafs bench when Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies was called for a high stick on Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi late in the third period.

Although we are left to guess as to what the second penalty may have been, I think it's safe to say that NHL referees Chris Lee and Jake Brenk were made fully aware after Berube's post game outburst.

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