Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube looks on during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

OTTAWA - David Perron is having a cringe-inducing case of déjà vu.

The Ottawa Senators winger won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues back in 2019 when head coach Craig Berube was calling the shots.

A hard-nosed, north-south, competitive-at-all-times approach helped that group overcome a disastrous start to the season and eventually hoist hockey's holy grail.

Berube has looked leave a similar mark on the Toronto Maple Leafs across his first season in charge of a talented roster with plenty of playoff scars from failures past.

The Senators have quickly found out this iteration of their provincial rival is different — and Perron sees Berube's fingerprints everywhere.

Toronto has a 3-0 stranglehold on Ottawa in the teams' best-of-seven first-round playoff series. The Battle of Ontario started with a 6-2 opening-night blowout before a pair of 3-2 overtime decisions with razor-thin margins.

"I see a lot of similarities," Perron said Friday morning at Canadian Tire Centre of the Blues and Leafs. "At times they have a shooting lane and they just drive the puck a little deeper. They delay, they hang onto it."

That level of composure is another area Berube, who was fired in St. Louis last season and hired by Toronto in May, has preached since arriving in town.

"The game may not be going your way all the time," Berube said. "You may not think you have the puck enough. But we stay patient, we keep doing our job defensively and checking … then it finally comes around a little bit and you get your opportunities."

It's a big reason why Toronto holds a 3-0 series lead for the first time since 2001 and is a combined 16-2-1 over its past 19 regular-season and playoff games.

"There's going to be breakdowns," Berube continued. "The extra effort that's needed — the second and third effort you need — I think we've got a lot of that going on."

A major issue in past playoff setbacks, the Leafs' power play has gone 5-for-9 this spring, while the penalty kill has been steady and goaltender Anthony Stolarz owns a .926 save percentage.

"So fun to be a part of this group," said Toronto defenceman Brandon Carlo, acquired from the Boston Bruins ahead of the NHL trade deadline. "When we do make mistakes, everybody else is going to pick it up. Everybody's working together. The process has been really great. The camaraderie has been awesome. 

"This group is special."

Teams up 3-0 in best-of-seven NHL playoff series own a 207-4 all-time record, but Senators forward Claude Giroux was part of a Philadelphia Flyers outfit that dug out of that hole to beat Boston in seven games in 2010.

"What's the history saying?" Perron asked with a little grin. "Not great, but we're going to try and turn that one day at a time. That's the only way we can focus."

The Leafs certainly don't want to give the Senators any life. Toronto blew a 3-1 lead to the Montreal Canadiens in a devastating first-round loss in 2021, and understands the energy a group can get from a couple wins after forcing Game 7 against the Bruins last spring after trailing 3-1.

"It's always a work in progress," Leafs blueliner Morgan Rielly said. "We're not getting carried away with anything."

The longest-tenured member of the roster added the style Berube installed in training hasn't changed much since the calendar flipped to the playoffs.

"We're trying to build our game," Rielly said. "We have areas that we try to focus on. Guys feel pretty comfortable, so we're just chipping away."

That's by design.

"It's the mentality that you need to build throughout the season to get to this level," Berube said. "If you don't do it during the regular season, it's hard to turn the switch on. I wanted to really get that identity across to our team right away."

He was asked about Perron comparing the Blues of six years ago to the current Leafs. The teams have different skill sets — St. Louis grinded opponents into submission, Toronto has more high-end talent — but he agreed there are parallels.

"It's all about the players buying into what you want to do," Berube said. "Our players have done a good job of buying into that. But there are similarities in the style of play, for sure, that we played in St Louis."

Perron experienced it first-hand. Now he's witnessing Berube's influence from a different vantage point — and not enjoying the view.

"I do see some stuff that pops in my head," he said. "And I know where it comes from."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025