The Toronto Maple Leafs showed up and dominated on Tuesday night in a 7-4 win over the Nashville Predators. The game featured scoring from all around the lineup, including prospect Easton Cowan’s first NHL point.

While the excitement of picking up his first point, and more importantly, picking up the win, shone brighter than anything else, Tuesday’s game also introduced Cowan to the big leagues in other ways. Specifically, the instance of teams knowing the opponent has a rookie and letting them know they’re not playing junior hockey anymore. In the third period of that game, Cowan took a hit from Predators forward Ozzy Wiesblatt that knocked him into his own net. The hit drew a crowd, but the Leafs remained at a lukewarm temperature and ended up getting a power play out of it.

While some fans want nothing more than for, just once, Auston Matthews to dive into a scrum and fight somebody to defend his rookie, his head coach prefers that the team be the bigger players and try to hurt the opponent where it matters, on the scoreboard. Craig Berube was asked how he wants his team to respond if their rookie takes a bad hit.

“I think they’ll figure it out and handle whatever the situation is,” Berube said. “At the same time, we got a power play on the one, so you can’t react to that. I think it’s important that you’ve got to stay disciplined. All scenarios are different when it comes to that. Our team, I’m not too worried about it. I think our team’s going to stand up for each other and get in there. I know they are, they did it last year, but at the same time, you know, it’s situational for me.”

Berube raises a good point here, even if it plays into the narrative of Maple Leafs stars never dropping the gloves to defend a teammate. His nod to acting appropriately depending on the situation refers to the fact that Cowan wasn’t injured on the play. Had he been lying on the ice in serious pain, it’s more likely somebody fights the perpetrator, but considering the circumstance, Berube wanted them taking the man-advantage instead of risking an instigator penalty.

“We got a power play out of it. The power play’s job is to make them pay.”

The Maple Leafs have a very home-heavy schedule to open the season, with eight games happening in their own barn. Berube said that he wants his team to make Maple Leafs home games a mission for the opposing teams.

“I think you always want to be a good team at home. You always want to make it a tough building to come into for other teams, for sure. So, it’s a good opportunity for us with the amount of home games we have in a row here.”

The Maple Leafs will look to start their first winning streak of the season as they host the Rangers on Thursday night.