Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins that extended the Leafs’ winning streak to five and improved their record to 7-4-1 on the season.
On the team’s stars coming to life offensively:
We need those guys to produce, and they have been. Here now, there is obviously no coincidence that we have started to roll as a team since that happened. But I really thought it was a really great team effort tonight all the way through. I thought we just had terrific efforts from each line, our defense, goaltending, special teams…
I loved how our penalty kill responded tonight after getting scored on quickly. When we really needed it late in the game there, it was outstanding. And the power play stepped up and were really good. They didn’t score on the first two, but in the first period, we had good chances. In the second period, we were on it and stayed with it. Two huge goals for us to give us a chance to win the game.
It was just a great team effort all the way through. Our guys that we need to score and count on to score did, but there were a lot of really good things happening all through the lineup. I thought the Spezza line gave us some great shifts. I thought Kampf and Kase… Kase was outstanding tonight. This guy competed at a very high level in all areas of the game. We had a lot of guys who were good tonight.
On what the team has shown during the five-game winning streak:
The biggest thing is that we have shown belief to just stay with it. We have been talking about it for a long time. I think every team talks about how important it is to keep the belief in the room and block out the noise. In five games in a row, we have gotten points. For me, we have won three of them outright, and in two of them, we have tied and won the overtime. I look at it a little bit differently.
I take it back to Carolina. I talked about it at the time that even though the game didn’t go the way we wanted it to, I felt coming out of the game that the experience there [was positive]. I felt we played well. We just played against a really good team that made it real hard on us. I thought our team would grow through that experience.
It has been incremental. It took time in Chicago for things to start to really turn. Since then, there has been incremental growth in our team. Things have started to fall into place. This is a big win tonight. Obviously, just like we needed to block out the noise when things weren’t going as well, it is equally important that we do it now and come back to the rink tomorrow, have a good practice, and get ready for LA.
On the net coming off on both a penalty and a goal:
It was interesting how they both played out. I wasn’t very happy with the first call and how it played out. The ref explained it to me and what he had seen. For it to come back the other way and impact the goal, the officials were pretty adamant that they had seen it similarly to the first one. If the goal was going to come back, they said there would be a penalty on the play.
I learned a little bit about how the rule works when the net comes off. I was a little unsure about that. You don’t see those types of plays happen very often. Obviously, it was great that it worked out for us.
On Timothy Liljegren’s performances this season since entering the lineup:
He has just been consistent. It is so important for a young player. Can you go out every shift, and when the puck comes to you, make a play and advance the puck? When it is time to defend, can you do that, close plays, and get things stopped?
Tonight, he played some shifts against one of the best lines in hockey in the Bergeron line. He did a great job. He just looked confident. He did a good job on the penalty kill. We have seen a good stretch of play from him.
We have believed in him for a long time. It has taken a little bit for us to get him this opportunity, but he has earned that. The door opened for him with our defense. They hadn’t played well early on, and we made a change with Justin Holl. It has opened the door, and that is what you are looking for: Guys to step through that door and take advantage of it.
On John Tavares taking on the Bergeron matchup:
Any time that we have put him in that position, I think he has done a really good job. Obviously, I have a great deal of belief and trust in Kerfoot and Marner and how those guys play defensively. Both those guys have done a really good job of helping to keep the puck out of our net at 5-on-5 this season no matter who they have played with.
John has played very well defensively, too. Also, if there are going to be any opportunities that go the other way, I like the ability to counter that. I really liked that matchup. We felt good about it. We feel confident with Matthews just the same, but with Kerfoot and Marner’s presence there, we felt that John could counter Bergeron well. We decided to give that one a go tonight, and those guys did a really good job.
On Nick Ritchie’s recent performances:
He has done little things really well. In fact, I started to give him a little more ice tonight. I thought that I didn’t like some of the things about Engvall’s first period. That opened the door a little bit to change things. In the last few games, I have liked some of the things that Ritchie has done.
He is a guy that we think has more to offer our team. It hasn’t happened for him quite yet him both offensively and him impacting the play shift to shift, but I loved his attitude and how he has approached it here. He hasn’t sulked or anything like that by playing less and moving down the lineup. He has been a good teammate. He has continued to work.
In the shifts he has gotten, I think he’s done a nice job with them. Today, he did some good things. He is yet to get rewarded for it. Obviously, we are hopeful it can come together for him, but I think he has done a nice job.
I do agree that the Spezza, Simmonds, and Ritchie line has done a really nice job for us the last few games. I changed it up a little bit here tonight at different times, but Simmonds, to me, has played really well. Spezz we know has become reliable for us.
Really good team effort today all the way through. Our guys who scored — those guys are executing at a high level, and that is important for us, but we need everybody. I thought we just got tremendous efforts throughout our lineup.
On whether it was the best performance from the team this season:
I’d say so. I was thinking about it. Obviously, we felt good about the Vegas game, but it is a different type of game. Really, from the beginning, you are in control of the game. This one here tonight, it is tough.
You have to find a way. You get down in the game. You’ve got to even score. You’ve got some really elite players on the other side. You have to kill penalties. The power play comes through for us. We have to defend the lead. You have to deal with the fact that we gave one up and not give them a second one in the third.
There are a lot of things you’re having to deal with in this game here today that are different from the Vegas game. For me, this was as good and as complete as we have been throughout our lineup.
