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The new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs

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here's Craig Barube. How you doing Craig? Good

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guys. How you guys doing? We're doing well.

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Congratulations. Is everything kind of sunk in for

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you? Yeah, it's all good. You

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know Again, just

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excited to be here. You know,

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it's a first-class organization I've

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been here for a couple days and you know

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really looking forward to Getting

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going here down the road. But like

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I said, you know just excited and

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great people working with great people here

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and Obviously

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can't wait to work with the team Greg

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how secretive were like it seems like

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every time there's a coach hired There's

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like videos of them at the airport

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like how button-down was this? Did you

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have to get to Toronto on the

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down low or how secretive was the

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whole process? Not

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really any I mean I you know

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jumped on a flight and cruised in here with my tracksuit

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on and then I

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Want a year man. Yeah, that is good

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because yeah, it does it does seem that

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there's always like up here in Toronto People

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are tracking flights. There's some wild stuff going

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on. Maybe that's actually the answer Just jump

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on a regular plane and get in the

1:14

car and drive down the tracksuit Yeah, people

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will ultimately leave you alone and

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You know you obviously you've you you were

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a hot commodity so to speak It's

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our understanding you you interviewed with other teams

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was this Toronto job always the one that

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you had your eye on and the one

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you wanted Well,

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like I said, you know, you don't know what

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you're gonna get, you know, they're obviously there's jobs

1:37

out there Yeah, it'd be a great job. And

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this is obviously one of them. I

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mean again to work For

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Toronto make beliefs, you know just

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the history of the original six

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and working in You

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know up in Canada and this environment

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is very appealing and like I

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said, you know, I really believe that Talk

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about with Brad and Brendan Shanahan and

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we're all on the same page on

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what we believe in and

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then I look at the roster and I'm like, this

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is a very good hockey team. So I'm

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excited. I'm ready to get

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going. So have you

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had extensive conversations with Tree as far as

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how the roster is going to be constructed?

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I mean, a lot of times the coach

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and the manager work together as far as

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some of the things that you do like

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on your teams. Is that something that you've

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had those conversations with Tree about? Well,

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about a ton. We've kind of just

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taken it step by step here, guys.

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It's kind of like two

2:39

days on of the job here. So a

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lot of stuff we are taking care of

2:43

and we're working towards that. But we're definitely

2:45

going to have conversation chair coming up about

2:48

it. With Craig

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Verubay, the new head coach of

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the Maple Leafs, and we were

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referencing your press conference today and

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you spoke about your relationship with

2:58

the players and the word

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accountability comes up all the time and

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it's just natural. Every new coach gets it

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in every sport. But in terms

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of what you're going to ask of your

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players, can you detail that for us? What's

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the day one conversation, Craig Verubay, to his

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players, this is what I'm looking for and

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this is what I expect the players to

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bring to the table. Yeah,

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I talked about it today. It's team

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first here. What's

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the most important thing is the

3:28

team and what's best for the

3:30

team? Obviously, we expect our players

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to do their job. Really,

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what's your job? Do your job. That's

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what we expect and you've got to

3:40

make sacrifices for the team. That's obviously

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very important because if you want to

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be a team first mindset,

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you've got to make sacrifices at times.

3:52

But again, like I

3:54

talked about today, everybody's important.

3:58

Everybody's going to have a role in a team.

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Team and average gonna be used

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for use the term partnership and

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any just details your side of

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the partnership. I'm curious enough you

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have examples in the past or

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expectations in the future of how

4:12

that partnership in go the other

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way to in order to to

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maybe keep you accountable to to

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challenge you in certain ways is

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that. That. How you define a

4:22

partnership or to a shepherd two way

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street from space. But like my doors

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open all the flyers and they're going

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to know that some and I that

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players in the past come and talk

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to me both situations things that could

4:35

be to be numerous things are not

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going to bring them up. Ah but.

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In all like a said you know

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we worked together. That's that's really a

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my opinion, that's how it. Works

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best. Ah, you know. As

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a coach I want to be challenged

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and my players of things to challenge

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me about says they said. Craig

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when you talk about relationships as you mention

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you know a couple days on the job

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see probably gonna have to take a breath

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and and just an acetylene like ill or

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you are the type of coach metal get

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on a plane and go visit some your

5:09

top players just can s tried foster that

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relationship may be out away from the ranks

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so that you can settle in and get

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to know them personally before you have to

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work with them. Yeah let's

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see our stuff. weird good question. as soft

5:21

as as it all I wanna do. So

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i was trying to your rain from time

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to go see some players and of meet

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with them and talk to one that's of

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guys here today which is great. For.

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All birds are always wanted

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to know in person conversations

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and face to face conversations.

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Are like I said I read so

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to a lot of these guys on

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the phone are ready and through taxes

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and like that but you know will

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live down the road you want to

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just together. See to mention North South

5:53

today and this team has been a

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possession team for number of years here

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so how does that change? I

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know every coach, regardless of what your philosophy and

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hockey is, wants to get the puck, wants to

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keep the pockets, but just north South is

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that just more of a direct route to the

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park. And keep it once you get it. Was.

6:12

One hundred percent I have like when

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I thought to herself but you know

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it's a talk about predictable. Hockey is

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starting your own song was break goes

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where people are a position he have

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oh to make the boy let's go

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north of that area Place. Listen,

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you know in St. Louis Theroux on

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the highest puck possession teams in the

6:30

league were great for checking team and

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yeah you don't have to possess the

6:34

puck in different ways. you can a

6:37

channel be off the rush you know?

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if you watch the playoffs here you

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know how tight as is. No room,

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you gotta put bucks keeping Geico. get

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up there you go for chair. couldn't

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get the fuck back as fuck. With

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Craig Berube of a new Head

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coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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So you know this: This. Team's history.

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The plows well documented. We had you

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on during the plows to to chat

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about it. How

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do you approach the history? The players who are

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going to stick around is always change with the

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players that standards that are sticking around and are

7:10

going to be here that have been here for

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quite some time that have the playoff history that

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they how's. How. Do you? How

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do you approach sad sad topic

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And and. I. Guess prepare for the

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next time you're in the playoffs. He I don't

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think we will look back on that. You don't

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have the honor severe that was in the past.

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I was of here. And on

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a minimum know my players on the

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folks on the process of getting there

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are not starts in the summertime obviously

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to caps and ever get going on

7:38

a regular season are going to hear

7:40

a lot lot for me about the

7:42

process. As the same with

7:44

the process of focusing on that

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and yelled. While

7:49

come around with them will deal with

7:51

class. but you it's it's it's a

7:53

lawyer Guys use lot of work to

7:55

put as little as you know. We.

7:58

Wanted a judge else? it

8:00

again, just focus on the process. Craig,

8:03

St. Louis, you had success. You came in there,

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obviously you won. I played there. It's

8:08

a different

8:10

animal than coaching in

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Toronto. Have you prepared yourself or

8:15

have you at least thought about

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and had conversations about how big

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of an adjustment it will be

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for you personally as far as

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talking every day? I can't

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imagine what the responsibilities were in

8:28

Toronto with the scribes there but

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it's a lot different here. You're going to

8:33

be front and center, a lot of people

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asking you questions daily, sometimes two and three

8:37

times you're getting interviewed. Is that something that

8:39

you've thought about? Oh,

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definitely. It's a huge market.

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It's a huge media market and

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I knew that coming in here. Again,

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that's part of the job and

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that's part of my job. It's

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just another thing that I've got

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to work and do. I

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don't think there's any preparation to be honest

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with you. Again, it's

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just me doing my job. With

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Craig Barube, in terms of your staff, Craig,

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do you start immediately trying to fill that

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out? What's the plan? Yeah,

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Brad and I are going to sit down and

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we're going to talk about all this stuff going

9:21

forward here. It's definitely high

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on the list. We've got to get

9:25

that situated and get the

9:28

right people in here. Whether

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it's people that are here already, we're not sure.

9:33

We've got a process that we've

9:35

got to go through and make

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sure we get it right. Greg,

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the game's changed a lot but

9:43

you mentioned accountability, some toughness. Are

9:45

you seeing some of the things

9:47

happening in the playoffs? How is

9:49

that balance or how are you going to talk to

9:51

your team about the balance as far as competing? You

9:54

do have some guys that aren't shy to drop the gloves or

9:56

at least will be not

9:58

shy to mix it up in scrums. You

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feel there's a fine line. Obviously it's

10:03

not when we played where 8-10 guys

10:05

were dropping the gloves, but the game

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has changed, but you still really

10:10

expect them to compete nightly. Well,

10:13

100% competing and playing hard

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is a must. That's

10:18

a non-negotiable. Toughness

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is not the fighting side of things. Toughness

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is taking hits to make plays, putting

10:31

yourself in block and shots, all that

10:33

type of stuff. Yeah, sometimes guys

10:35

drop the gloves, but that's part of the game still. We

10:37

all know that. It's not as much

10:39

anymore, but I want my team

10:41

to be tough in those

10:44

other areas. Also,

10:46

mental toughness and things like

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that, those are all important

10:50

things that good teams have

10:52

all those things. So, that's what we want to

10:54

get to. Craig Barube, have

10:56

you ever had a press conference where there's

10:58

another guy up there that you work with

11:00

that you fought multiple times in your career,

11:03

like today with Shanahan? I

11:06

think that might have been the first one. I'm not

11:08

sure. That

11:10

must have been gratifying hearing him say, maybe

11:12

I shouldn't have taken that challenge on, but

11:14

you guys had a bunch of battles, didn't

11:16

you, throughout your career? Yeah, the

11:19

Devils and us back in the day, the Flyers,

11:21

there was a lot of battles. Both

11:26

teams were physical and tough. Lesson,

11:33

boys, I would change places with as

11:35

many goals as many times as he

11:37

scored. Yeah, that's a good point. He

11:40

did it all, that's for sure. Well,

11:42

welcome aboard officially. We've obviously had

11:44

you on a bunch in the past. We look forward to having

11:46

you on more in the future. Good

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luck settling in back in Toronto. As you said today, you

11:50

were here for a brief time back in the early 90s,

11:52

and we're looking forward to

11:55

seeing what you do with the job. So thank you for

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joining us today, Craig. You got it,

11:59

guys. off you got it there's a

12:01

craig barube