Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 3-0 loss to the Calgary Flames on Monday night, dropping the Leafs’ record to 14-4-2 on the season.
On the team’s desperation level vs. Calgary’s:
I thought it was clear that their team had a little more urgency tonight for sure. I thought our team played like one that was expecting things to go bad and not go our way today rather than making it go our way. I didn’t like our mindset in that sense.
On Frederik Andersen’s status:
He is day to day. That is all I’ve got for you. I don’t know what is going to happen from here.
On whether this game worries him or if it’s just an off night to bounce back from:
I think this is our 20th game of the season. I think we have shown this is not us.
On Alex Barabanov’s performance:
I thought he had good jump. From the early going of the game, he was on the puck. A strength of his game is when he gets to play in the offensive zone. I thought Willy had really great legs today and really got the puck there for that line. He did some good things.
His game got stalled a bit just because there were so many penalties. He had to sit for long periods of time, but I thought he had some good looks today. He hit the post or crossbar there in the third. That was positive.
On Travis Dermott’s performance on the pairing with Justin Holl:
I thought he was fine. I would have to watch the video back for more specifics related to his game. Nothing jumped out as any issue. I would say it was a fine game for him.
On the 0 for 7 night on the power play:
I thought it was real slow. If we get one in the first there with the chances we had — Mo smashes it off the cross bar, John gets a rebound, they pull it right off the goal line — that is essentially the difference in the first period. They had one get behind our goalie and squeak through and they put it in. We had one behind their goalie and he pulls it off the line. That is essentially the difference in the score in the first period. Maybe if it goes in it is a different game for us.
Clearly, special teams were the difference here today. Just because there were so many power plays both ways, there was no real flow to the game at all at five on five. They got two power-play goals, and we get nothing to show for ours. They get the squeaker to start the game. That is the game.
On loading up the top line with Tavares – Matthews – Marner:
I just thought about a couple of things. Our depth has taken a significant hit here in the last little bit, with Hyman and Thornton in particular, and you add Simmonds to that even. Matthews and Marner had been going so well. I wanted not to disrupt that line too much. I didn’t love a lot of the options there to provide the types of things that Joe has brought to the line. I thought putting John there might give us a chance to give us one line that could really go tonight, and I thought we just had to sort of get good shifts and stay even on the rest.
Obviously, it didn’t play out that way. None of those guys had strong games, but I also think the power play being what it was took the wind out of a lot of the things at five on five.
