Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens to kick off the exhibition season.
On his biggest takeaway from the first game of preseason:
It’s really nice to be back playing in front of fnas. It was pretty special. It has been so long. You get comfortable playing in front of no fans and all of that, but you quickly realized, even in a preaseason game and even with just 10,000, it was just different — way different.
It’s the reactions to the little nuances that happen in the game, the reactions to passes, chances, hits, goals — all of these kinds of things. I think early in the game, I may have watched the fans more than I watched the game. It was really nice to have them back.
Thanks to everybody who came out here today, and thanks to everybody across the province that has done the right things and taken care of themselves for us to get to this point. It was really nice to be able to play in front of them again.
On Kurtis Gabriel’s energetic performance and goal:
Lots of energy. That is what he does. He is a physical guy. He is a vocal guy. He is engaged in the game even when he is not playing. He is engaged in the game and is on his teammates to do that.
I was joking that I was glad he scored a goal because now he will start to come out of his shell a little bit. He is a vocal guy for sure. There was good energy today. He and Clune brought a lot in that sense today.
It was a good night for us all the way around.
On the team’s performance:
In the second half of the game, we got a little sloppy and carried away at times. Montreal had a little push there for sure. I did like a lot of things about it.
Our goaltending was good — even though we didn’t face a lot of shots, especially in that second period, we gave up some really good chances that didn’t register as shots. I was monitoring Hutch and his workload because he wasn’t getting a whole lot of actual shots but there was enough activity there where he was engaged and having to move, track pucks — those kinds of things. That was a little sloppy for us.
I thought we had some really good things happen for us in the first half of the game, both off the puck with how we worked, and with the puck and making plays and generating some opportunities to score that way. We didn’t have a tremendous amount of real good scoring chances, but we made good on the ones we did.
Penalty killing — early in the game, we took two penalties. We hadn’t had much time to work on it. This morning, it was 10 minutes or so of working on it while working on the power play. It is a tricky thing. The guys did a nice job.
Hutch was really strong early in the game when they certainly had chances to score. He kept them off the scoreboard. Our guys settled in a little bit. The power play scored quickly. We had some luck in the shootout. Good day.
On Ian Scott’s status after leaving the game:
Unfortunately, it looks like he is going to miss some time here. He has injured his groin again. It is a tough situation for him. Obviously, he has worked his way back here. Coming off of a strong rookie tournament, he was feeling good and certainly good enough to play here today.
He made a tremendous save to start that third period. The guys kind of jumped out of their seats a little bit at how good that save was on an elite player. Shortly thereafter, he injured himself. Tough news for him and tough news for us. He has done nothing but continue to work hard. You feel for him in this situation, but he’ll get back to work and work his way back.
On John Tavares’ journey back to full health:
If I just focus on the day one of camp until now, it is three very tough days. I fought whether or not to play him today. The first two days of camp have been pretty difficult. To come in and having a morning skate today, then play tonight — that is three tough days. You would never have a stretch like that in the regular season in terms of the demand we put on them in practice and then going into a game.
I talked to him a lot. He really wanted to play. He wanted to get his one on the books. I thought he looked strong, confident. He talked to me and said it seemed the first two days helped with his legs and he felt a lot better than he expected.
He was happy to get that one. He looked really good. It is nice to have him around the team and with the guys. He was another guy who was very vocal for us throughout the game. He scored a goal on the power play. Lots of good things.
On Josh Ho-Sang’s game:
I thought he did well. I thought he had good jump to him. I thought he generated some chances for others and had some chances himself. He looked comfortable on the power play when we used him there. He has worked hard. He has kept a really good attitude and approach to it.
It is his first game today. There are some things to clean up for sure for him and for some others, but I think, for the first game as a local guy here playing for the Leafs in the first game in front of fans… Bunting is pretty similar in that sense, and it was big days for them. They did a good job.
On how Bunting complements Tavares:
I just think they play off of each other well. That was my thought going in. I know Bunting has a lot of jump. He is another guy who has a lot of energy, too — on the bench, on the ice. Bunts is another guy who likes to talk and is engaged in the game.
He is hungry around the puck and hungry around the net for sure. The goal he scored today is the kind of goal that he scores. He gets to the scoring area and makes himself available, whether it’s a tip or a redirect into the net or finding rebounds. That is how he scores. Those are important guys to have.
John is like that as well. Whether [Bunting] is the guy in that space or whether he is bringing pucks there, I just thought it would be a good fit with the energy and life that he has.
At the same time, you can’t overlook the fact that your captain is helping bring a young guy along who is finding his way and getting comfortable.
