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Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe spoke with the media after the team’s practice following a 5-3 loss to the Panthers on Monday night.


An update on Andersen’s injury:

At this point, they’re diagnosing him with a neck injury. At this stage, we’d say day-to-day — we don’t really know.

Will Hutchinson start tomorrow?

Yes.

On if he sees a difference in Michael Hutchinson’s game when he knows he’s the starting goalie:

Yeah, certainly. I think his numbers would speak to that as well — he’s been outstanding as a starting goalie and he’ll get that opportunity here now.

On how his familiarity with Hutchinson and Kaskisuo helps:

I think we’re moving past that here now. All the different relationships and experiences you have with guys make a difference, but we’re into the meat of it here now. No matter who we have, I’m comfortable with them.

On the effect Andersen’s injury had on the team and their confidence in Hutchinson:

When you’re in the moment, it’s hard to lose him like that but these things happen — they’ve happened before for this team. As we’ve just said here, we’ve developed some real confidence in Hutch when he’s gone in as a starting goaltender. In fact, some of the best starts we’ve had from our goaltenders have come with Hutch in the net here in the last little while, so we’ve just got to keep this moving along.

He’s just showing that he’s getting some traction and things are going his way. Of course, the way things finished yesterday, there’s increased attention [on him]. If it weren’t for that little piece last night, you’re focusing on that fact that he’s 4-0 and had like a .940 over that time. He’s got a chance to be there for us.

On what Kasimir Kaskisuo can bring to the team:

What I’ve come to know about Kas that he’s a guy that enjoys big moments, enjoys challenges. Last season, he was really up and down with the Marlies. Down the stretch and into the playoffs, he was outstanding and was a massive reason why we were able to sweep a very good Rochester team in the first round of the playoff last year. He’s got a little bit of experience now here at the NHL level — I’m sure, if called upon, he’d make the most of his opportunity.

On Cody Ceci’s play alongside Rasmus Sandin:

Overall, he’s been consistent night in and night out. I know there’s a lot of attention on last night. I know there were a few plays there he would want to have back. We just find he’s a guy that’s very consistent for us in terms of the way he competes in his own end, kills penalties. Some guys are going to have bad nights here and there, but more often than not, he’s been consistent for us. As we’ve changed his role and his partners a bit, he’s done quite well.

On the three unanswered goals allowed versus the Panthers:

When I look at the goals, and two of them originate from point shots where we’re in pretty good spots and our structure is fairly good. One is a rebound where we don’t have good coverage and one goes off a skate from below the goal-line. Hockey’s a really funny game, the bounces go one way or the other, and you tend to overanalyze things. That’s what we’re trying not to do here. If we find our way through that, maybe at 3-3 Matthews, instead of hitting the post, goes post and in and you win the game — we’d be sitting here talking about how good of a defensive game it was all the way through and how we gave up zero shots at 5-on-5 from inside our own zone in the second period. We’ve got to continue to teach and coach the process here and not get too wrapped up in the bounces and the results, as important as we know those results are.

I just look back here now — we’re six out of eight points since we’ve come out of the break at a time when we need to respond and I think we have. The two points we didn’t get may have been the best game we played out of the four so we just have to keep pushing here.

On how much injuries change the team’s expectations:

I don’t spend any time at all focusing on that. Every team in the league is dealing with injuries — we played a team last night that was without their best player. Every team is going through it across the league, so that’s not something I spend any time on. We just coach the guys that we have that’s what we’ll continue to do here.

On the team’s mood coming off a tough loss:

I loved the energy today. I had seen a few of them sprinkle in here and there, walking in for our meeting, and I spent a minute or two looking around and taking in the energy, and I was really happy with it. I think that transferred onto the ice — we had a short skate today, but we got it out of our system. Now we’ll get on the plane and get out to New York. We’ve been really good on the road and we’re going to need that to continue.

On the team needing to step up in Andersen’s absence:

That’s been our message since we’ve come back from the break — that everybody here has got more to give and we need to do that. Regardless of who’s in or out, we have more to give as a team and we need to build. I think we’ve been building on some really good efforts and, whether it’s Morgan Rielly or Jake Muzzin out, we’ll keep building.