Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in the second game of the exhibition season.
On the result and the team’s play:
It is a tough game to evaluate just given how much special teams were a factor. Obviously, our penalty kill gave up three today — a couple off of the rush, and different types of goals. Between the penalty kill not getting the kills and it affecting the scoreboard and just the number of power plays both ways, it impacted the bench and the flow of the game. Tough game that way.
I thought, at 5-on-5, we actually played a pretty good game. There was not a lot of offense. We didn’t finish the opportunities that we had. We probably didn’t generate as many as we would like or needed to. I thought we carried play pretty well at times. I think there are a lot of positives in there that we will find as we are watching the video. But special teams were clearly a factor.
On Nick Ritchie’s showing on Mitch Marner’s line:
Having four penalty kills in the first period there and then two power plays that he is not a part of… In the first 24 minutes, there are six penalties in the game. He was in the box there for five minutes, plus he was not on the penalty kill. It is a tough way to get going and get involved in the game.
Obviously, there is a physical factor there. You see that he brings that. He had a couple of chances to score himself. I thought he made a couple of good passes as well and showed the good hands that he has. You are not going to read too much into one game here –especially a game like this where the first half especially was riddled with penalties.
On David Kampf and Ondrej Kase’s play together:
I liked those guys for sure. I thought Kampf was very good for us on the penalty kill and very good in the faceoff circle. I thought that line was good. They had some good chemistry together.
With Kase, it is very clear, not that it is a surprise… We have a number of guys here trying to figure out who they are in the NHL, but Kase is one of the guys where it is very evident when you watch him that he is an NHL player.
On Kampf’s versatility:
We will see how all it all solidifes itself, but I just know we have a good player there — a very versatile player who is going to help us a lot. He is a guy who knows exactly what he is and what he needs to do. He is willing to take on defensive responsibilities and knows that it’s what he does to help the team.
With him and Kase both, you have two guys who are really versatile and can do different things for us. Kase we know is a good finisher around the net as well. As we saw here today, he has scored in the league.
Those are two good players for us. I am going to enjoy getting to know them better as players and people as we move along here. Today, it was a good first step in that process.
On Petr Mrazek’s performance:
He didn’t have a great deal of work. He obviously let one in early there. He showed he is an athletic guy and is going to make saves.
I thought all of our new guys showed well here. Kampf, Kase, Mrazek. It was a tough day for Campbell having to face so many penalty kills. The power play of Montreal was feeling it today. It was a tough day that way.
We will pull the positives out of this here. It was the first day for pretty much every guy save for a couple. It is a step in the process for us.
On whether the Morgan Rielly cross-checking penalty is an example of the crackdown on cross-checking by NHL officials:
I think it’s fair to say that. Given the memo that has gone out and the way they are wanting to call it this season, I think it was an appropriate call. Players are going to have to adjust to it.
