The Maple Leafs, who swear by the merits of ‘north’ style hockey were headed in that direction again Monday — on a bus.
But is this annual three-day getaway, this time to Bracebridge, truly valuable as a “bonding trip” as the hoary hockey bromide goes, to draw the team closer or is it just extra pucks and yucks for a main body that already has skated together all summer?
They’ll have just one practice in three days, sandwiched by golf and other Muskoka pleasures.
Craig Berube, who has been on such trips as a player and now the Leafs coach, is all-in.
“It’s not always hockey,” he insisted before they departed the Ford Performance Centre. “I like to know what’s going on in their lives, if they’re willing to talk to me about it. Maybe they’re not.
“But I want to know what’s happening wit