So Craig Berube, eh? I hear he's a tough guy. He's tough on players. He talks tough, he is tough. He's tough.

So this is either an ad for a new super-strength garbage bag, or it's that age old game of trying to turn hockey into a competition of affect.

No one seems to want to o-pine on what Berube's thoughts are on a zone exit strategy, or what he'd like to do to make the Leafs more capable against hard checking positional teams that stymie them in the neutral zone. No, it's all about acting tough. Because if you act tough, no one will notice your weaknesses, they'll be so afraid of you... Or maybe decades of NHL hockey have disproven that?

I like that Auston Matthews laughs at guys trying to wind him up. I like that William Nylander doesn't even notice them. I like that Nick Robertson goes for them like they insulted his brother. I like that Pontus Holmberg is already planning how to outplay them the next shift but is absolutely going to fight along the boards in this one, and I like that Joel Edmundson knows how to pop them one without taking a penalty. I like all these guys for who they are.

They don't need to act tough, they need the right mix of the right kinds of players.

This weekend is a bit of a tough time for people who want hockey to be for all types of players and for fun and exciting games to be the usual run of things. Minnesota beat Toronto in the PWHL first round by playing boring hockey. Yeah, that old thing happened to Toronto again. To be fair to Minnesota, they have elite talent too. But they gambled on a goalie who would stop everything and then laid back and didn't try all that hard to get goals.

This technique can work. And it's boring. Anything the NHL can do to get rid of this kind of play would be good, because I thought a couple of those Leafs vs Bruins games were the dullest things I'd ever seen, but I go schooled. It can be worse than that.

I'm not sitting here with the answers on this sunny Monday. But the game needs to find one.

The PWHL final started Sunday night, however, and suddenly the goals came out of hiding. Courtney Kessel and Boston had the answer for the Minnesota bore-a-thon that Toronto never did. They also got a shocking number of pucks past Maddie Rooney in the highest-scoring game of the playoffs.

Boston won it 4-3. What I saw was a team that played as a group – aware of their teammates, and in the offensive zone, they fairly easily got deep against Minnesota. Toronto would send in one lone forward who got pushed to the outside.

Jayna Hefford penned an earnest letter that went out on social media and via email. She's been through this fight for a league for decades, so I guess she's entitled.

A Letter From Jayna Hefford, PWHL SVP, Hockey Operations
Professional Women's Hockey Leaguepkrotz

For me, this PWHL season has been glorious. I'm proud of the teams, the coaches, every player, every person who worked to make it happen. It's a real league. The real thing. I was even fed up with the play-by-play by the middle of the first playoff series and gave the mute button a workout. You did it, everyone. I wasn't always sure this would happen, but it's real now.

The draft is next month, and it will be amazing. So many good players will be joining the league. It will be a whole new entity, with a different balance of power.

Thanks to everyone who followed Toronto with us, it was a blast to see history made.

In IIHF action, Canada beat both of their serious contenders in their group and look to be destined for a medal game against Sweden. Pontus Holmberg vs John Tavares. The meaningful games at this (way too) long event are later this week.

Also coming up this week on Friday is the start of the Memorial Cup in Saginaw, Michigan. More on that closer to the start, and I'll see if I can dig up a list of draft-eligible prospects to watch as well as the Easton Cowan show.

In NHL playoff action, Colorado is out, Boston is out, so the Rangers play the Panthers in the east, and Dallas awaits the winner of the Oilers/Canucks who play game seven tonight at 9 pm eastern. Conference finals start Wednesday.

In a format I don't quite grasp, the NHL is announcing award winners on random days, do Sasha Barkov got the Selke. Good for him.

Holidays are over tomorrow, and the real world intrudes. For Leafs fans that's going to involve a month plus of o-pining about who has the right emotions in the right way at the right time, and not much of use involving who will even be on this team next year and how they might play. The trade rumours are starting already, though. Fun times are ahead.

There will likely be some hiring of coaching assistants and other people in hockey operations roles, but nothing much is going to go down until the week before the draft.

Our focus is going to be on Cowan and the Memorial Cup as well as the draft. So get ready for prospect talk!

From The Branches