Sheldon Keefe spoke to the media after his team’s 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames that dropped the Leafs’ record to 30-11-3 on the season.
On Nikita Zadorov’s hit that knocked Ondrej Kase out of the game:
It is a violent hit. The puck is gone. Any time you see a guy get hit in the head with the helmet flying and all of that kind of stuff, my opinion is that it should be automatic. It is a violent hit. We are trying to get those hits out of the game that injure players like that.
Those things happen in the game, unfortunately. I thought there should’ve been a call. The ref saw it differently. I thought the guy kept his hands down and all of that kind of stuff. But it is a violent hit. If you are trying to protect players, that is the kind of one you are looking for a call on. But you move on.
On the concern for Kase knowing his injury history:
Whether it is Muzz when he got his hit in the head, Auston the other day, or this one today, they are all tough to see. You are trying to protect players and players’ heads in particular. Kase, with his history, you worry for him.
I don’t have much of an update. It seemed like he was doing okay from some of the word around the group. But I haven’t talked to him myself or to the doctors. You are just hoping he is going to be alright.
On how the game got away from the team:
I liked a lot about our game today. I liked a lot about our second period. We got the goal. We let up for a bit there. We made mistakes — big mistakes.
The mistake on the backcheck on the first goal; the mistake on the faceoff play we talked about before the game on the second goal; a b bit of a lazy play on the third goal that ends up in our net; and a breakdown in the neutral zone coverage on the fourth.
We made mistakes at a time when we were playing a good game. We really were playing a good game. I thought we played a good game in the third period again. If you make those mistakes against a good team, you give them good looks, and the game gets away from you. Their goalie wasn’t giving us much today.
To give those goals to them took away from what I thought was a good game. I thought our guys played hard. I thought we made plays. I thought we controlled the game. When you make those kinds of mistakes, you can’t win.
On how much the physicality of the Flames was a factor in the game:
I thought we controlled the game all the way through. I thought we made plays. I thought we had the puck a lot. We spent a lot of time on their half of the ice. That is how our shots got as high as they did.
It is a factor, but I thought our guys made plays through it. That is what we love to see. Whether it is the response to the Kase hit or the scrums around the net, our guys were in the fight and competing hard today.
I have no issue with how we played. We just have to clean up those mistakes. You are in control of the game, and you let it slip away. It is something for us to talk about as a group again and learn from, but I liked a lot of things about our game today.
On his confidence the team will be able to learn and move on from the loss:
We are moving onto Vancouver here. We will get together for a short practice tomorrow and regroup for that. We will talk about the mistakes we made tonight that ended up allowing the game to get away on us, but I just thought our guys competed hard today and did a lot of really good things. If we do that, a lot of nights, it is going to go our way.
We just have to not let things snowball and just know that you are playing against a team on the other side that is winning a ton, scoring a ton, and isn’t giving up much. You have to be really sharp for 60 minutes. We slipped for a little bit there in that second period.
Going down to 10 forwards was tough for us, but that is no excuse. You have to continue to dig in and find ways. I still thought we had lots of juice and were playing well.
We will get on the plane, get out to Vancouver, and regroup tomorrow. I’ll take away a lot of positives from how our guys competed tonight.
On Jack Campbell’s performance:
The looks and mistakes that we made were big mistakes. We gave them clean looks at the net. We can’t fault him much on those goals tonight. He didn’t get a lot of work. All of a sudden, he went from getting not a lot of work to some really good chances in tight and clean looks at the net. It is a tough game for him to go through.
The goalie on the other side was getting rubber from everywhere. We had a lot of stuff from the perimeter tonight. We did get our looks on the inside as well that he was good on. It was a much different night at the other end. We weren’t getting a whole lot of rubber for Jack to touch the puck, feel the puck, and get into it.
That was a bit of a surprise, frankly. Calgary leads the league in shot attempts. They throw everything at the net from everywhere. It is a sign of how we were controlling the game. We had the puck a lot today. We have to do a better job of not giving those clean looks at Jack.
On Jake Muzzin’s first game back:
I thought he was fine. I’d have to watch the game back. I thought he was fine.
One thing that stands out in the game to me is how great our penalty kill was. Jake helps us a great deal there. We got four minor penalties in the first period, and we found our way through that and still had 18 shots in the period. We had a lot of opportunities to score. Muzz brings a lot to that penalty kill and the depth of our defense.
It is a funny game today because it gets away on us in a very short period of time, but there were a lot of really good things happening for our group tonight.
On whether Wayne Simmonds will rejoin the team:
He won’t be back for practice, but he is flying in tomorrow and will be available for Saturday’s game.
