Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 7-3 rout over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night, improving the Leafs’ record to 8-2-1 on the season.
On Travis Dermott’s status:
It looks like it is pretty minor. It is just a charley horse. He just kept waiting and waiting to see if it was going to go away — trying to get it moving — but it didn’t settle down enough for tonight. We are not expecting it to be anything too major. We will see how it is at practice tomorrow and make a plan from there.
On the team’s fourth line with Nic Petan, Travis Boyd, and Jason Spezza:
I thought those guys had a lot of jump today. They had the puck a lot. They made good plays with it — Petan, in particular, seemed really confident for a guy who hasn’t played a game in a really long time. I thought he looked really comfortable and brought a lot to the group.
Boyd and Spezza were good, obviously. Spezz had a terrific night here tonight. We are happy for him. I thought the line was really good.
On what Jason Spezza means to the team:
We have talked about it a lot. On a night like this, it is a good opportunity to revisit it. With his experience and his voice and his personality, he brings a lot to our room. We feel we have added a lot to that department.
We feel like having Spezz last season showed us how valuable that is. We felt we could add to that. I think we did. The work he has put in all throughout the offseason to get himself ready to play and push others to be ready and help our younger guys…
Another example, at his age and with where we are at in the season: He comes in and skates on a lot of our skill development days. This week, instead of taking the off day — which, even though he hasn’t played a great deal, no one would have blamed him for taking — he came in and worked with the skills coaches. Some of the guys were giving it to him a little bit and thought the hat trick goal looked a lot like some of the drills he was doing with the skills development staff and the player development staff this week.
It was great to see him get rewarded for that. The guys were really happy for him.
On whether he saw more offensive pace from the team:
I did. It was the best we looked in that regard just in terms of how we left our zone, how we got through the neutral zone, how quickly we moved the puck — all of those types of things. I thought it was really good for all four lines.
Our defense, even after going down to five D pretty much the whole game, I thought those guys did a really good job of moving the puck up very quickly to the forwards and getting involved in the offense themselves.
I thought Rielly and Brodie were outstanding with how they moved the puck out here today and launched our offense. That was really good to see. That is what we wanted today: improvement in that area.
When you take a break as we had and you reflect and regroup, as a team you practice, and you’re expecting to see progress. I was happy that the guys came out and executed here today.
What I will say is that I think an effort in a game like today, while you never know how the game or the score is going to go… We are a rested team playing against a very tired team that has had a very tough schedule. Frankly speaking, I expected us to be really good here today and make it hard on Vancouver.
The challenge here now, of course, is to regroup and do it again.
On the vibe around the team:
We have been having success as a team, so the guys are feeling good. We have lots of reasons to be positive, whether it is the success of our team that we have had to date here and the wins we have been putting together, or just the fact that we get to play hockey. We are coming together as a group and we are grateful for that opportunity.
The guys love being at the rink and love being around each other. Right from day one of camp, there has been a real good vibe around our club. That continues to grow. A night like this just adds to that.
We have to get a sleep in here today and come to the rink tomorrow and do it again — come with great spirit, put our work in on the ice, and the games won’t stop here. They come quickly, and we have to continue to build upon it and not look back.
On now having beaten all six opponents in the division:
We have been able to get good results to this point. We have seen everybody. The greatest challenge throughout this entire schedule is to beat the same team in back-to-back games. We are going to play Vancouver three times. We get the edge here today. They are going to regroup, make adjustments, and we are going to have to do the same and continue to get better.
That is the greatest challenge. We were able to do that against Calgary. We weren’t able to do it either time against Edmonton. We have got to find a way to bounce back and build upon this. The reason why it is so difficult is that the other team doesn’t feel good about what happened in the first game and seems to get better.
It is important for us not to take the foot off the gas. It starts in practice tomorrow.
