After Friday’s practice, head coach Craig Berube discussed the decision to make the practice an optional skate (with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner absent), load management down the stretch, the play of the Simon Benoit-OEL pairing, and OEL’s play on his offside.
What led to the optional skate at practice?
Berube: There were a lot of minutes played by some of our guys with the OT and the end of the game there as we were trying to tie it up. The minutes got a little high. We just made it an optional.
Would you like the minutes to be lower?
Berube: Yeah, with the state of the game and where we were at… Max (Domi) was in the box, too, and wasn’t available. I played our skilled guys…