Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was happy with how his team played with a convincing win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

After a porous defensive effort against the lowly Nashville Predators on Saturday, Berube stopped the first drill of what turned out to be an intense practice on Monday because he felt his players were making sloppy passes. It was his way of getting the players to regain their focus and raise their intensity as they let a prime opportunity to gain some separation in the Atlantic Division race slip away.

Needless to say, his players responded with a dominant effort from start to finish and got themselves ahead of the Florida Panthers based on tiebreakers.

“It was a good response,” Berube said to reporters after the game. “A good bounce-back game right from the get-go. We played a good hockey game overall through three periods.

From the start of the game, the Leafs were the better team and gave the Flyers no chance to assert themselves in the offensive zone. Philadelphia may have opened the scoring in this one, but six straight goals from the Leafs put the game well out of reach before the game was 40 minutes old.

A big part of what led to their success was the strong showing of the second line, with William Nylander, John Tavares, and Bobby McMann combining for ten points on the night and nine at even strength.

“Since putting Bobby on there, it just adds so much speed and strength to the line,” Berube said, describing what has made the line click recently. “He is a big, strong guy who can skate. He seems like he is always on the puck. He creates battles for those guys. When they get the puck, they can obviously make plays; Johnny can score. They have been effective for us since we put them together. I have been happy with them.”

When describing each player individually on the second, Berube kept using the phrase ‘consistent’ in terms of how they play and what they bring on a nightly basis. This is what the head coach wants to see out of his players: to do what makes them successful as frequently as possible while bringing that intensity in a north-south system.

Berube was certainly impressed with the entire line’s impressive showing, but he was especially pleased with what Nylander was able to do on a night he reached the 40-goal plateau for a third consecutive campaign.

“Tonight, the goals are one thing, but for me, he checked really well. He was on top of things,” he said. “He backchecked, broke plays up, and then transitioned from defence to offence. He is so quick with his agility and his speed that he creates going the other way right away. He was solid tonight all around.”

Another player he singled out was Scott Laughton, who once again did his part despite going scoreless for a ninth straight game since joining his hometown team. It has certainly not been an easy transition for the 30-year-old, who admitted that he was emotional when he was told that the Flyers would trade him to the Leafs. Berube was impressed with how the trade deadline addition looked alongside Max Domi and Nick Robertson as well as playing to their identity.

“Laughton was physical. I thought they were good tonight, that line,” he said. “The way I envisioned that line is tenacity. They can all skate, get on top of people, and make it difficult for the other team by disrupting the other team as much as they can.”

Berube and the Leafs will look to continue to build off this dominant win when they take on the San Jose Sharks to begin the California road trip on Thursday. The puck drop is scheduled for 10:30 p.m.