Jake McCabe says Leafs will be ‘very fired up’ after Radko Gudas hit on Auston Matthews

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That's the story now, not the last score. Toronto's next test against Radko Gudas and the Ducks is about pushback, bench response, and whether Berube gets the emotional answer he wanted from his room.

McCabe's quote works because he isn't a top-six forward throwing heat from a podium. He's a blue-line regular built for hard minutes, net-front traffic, and the kind of night where every second shift feels like a message.

That changes the frame around this rematch. This isn't just revenge chatter. It's a culture check for a Leafs team that got dragged into a nasty game and now has to show it learned something from it.

Berube's teams are supposed to answer fast. Not with staged nonsense, and not with empty noise after the final horn, but with first-contact hockey, tighter gaps, and immediate bench engagement when a game starts to boil.

McCabe put the pressure right where it belongs. On the room. On the response. On the first ten minutes.

That's where the Leafs can win this rematch before the scoreboard even matters. The smart version of fired up is short shifts, hard walls, cleaner exits, and no free lane to the crease for Anaheim's heavy players.

If Toronto chases hits and loses structure, Gudas wins the night without touching the scoresheet. If the Leafs stay connected and make every puck battle miserable, then McCabe's quote becomes more than a sound bite.

That's the real Berube test. Can Toronto play mean without getting loose?

Because this game is about memory. The Ducks know exactly what kind of temperature they want. The Leafs have to show they can meet it and still control the puck drop-to-horn script.

McCabe already gave the headline. Monday decides whether Toronto can back it up.

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