Craig Berube Breaks Silence on the Decision to Scratch Max Pacioretty vs. Kings
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When Max Pacioretty failed to show up for warm-ups prior to Wednesday's match against Los Angeles, head coach Craig Berube gave an explanation of why.
Max Pacioretty impressed enough to sign a full contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the start of the season after being signed to a PTO earlier this offseason. General manager Brad Treliving trusted Pacioretty to add more leadership and a veteran scoring touch to his team, but there were concerns about his injury history and his ability to play through an 82-game schedule.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs decided not to use the veteran in their fourth game of the season on Wednesday, Max Pacioretty was a healthy scratch for the first time, possibly in his career. Pacioretty acknowledged in the past few days that his 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins was not his best performance of the year.
"I like my first game. (The) second game was pretty good. Didn't like my last game. So I want to start trending in the right direction and try and build some games together," Pacioretty said on Wednesday. But at the same time, I've mentioned before that's going to be different, I guess, some different roles and whatnot and different ways to try and help the team win. And I'm excited about doing that.
His absence during the pre-game warmup was somewhat worrisome. However, Berube gave an explanation for Pacioretty's benching after Wednesday's 6-2 thrashing of the Kings. The most important lesson learned was that the veteran winger was not being sent any kind of message by the move.
"It's just a decision I made. That's it," Berube said.
"There's no message. We have guys, we have extra players, and not everybody can play every night, that's the bottom line. He's been fine when he's played, but I gotta make decisions as a coach, and I'm gonna make those decisions what I think is best for the team."
"There's no message. We have guys, we have extra players, and not everybody can play every night, that's the bottom line. He's been fine when he's played, but I gotta make decisions as a coach, and I'm gonna make those decisions what I think is best for the team."
In a 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on October 9, Pacioretty scored the first goal of the season for the Leafs. The 35-year-old agreed to a one-year contract worth $873,770 with the Leafs, which includes performance bonuses that, depending on game-played thresholds, could increase his pay to $1.5 million. He has been trying to return to his pre-injury level of play after suffering two Achilles injuries.
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