Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs practice
Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs practice
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After practice on Sunday, Sheldon Keefe discussed Jake Muzzin’s play since returning from injury, his challenge to the Tavares-Nylander line to find another level to their game, and the team giving up goals in transition while largely owning the puck in the last two losses.

Practice Lines – February 13

What have you thought of the Kerfoot – Tavares – Nylander line in the last six or eight games?

Keefe: I have been getting these questions a lot. My response is going to be pretty similar. It hasn’t been to the level that they had established. It starts to snowball a little bit. You start to overthink things a little bit.

My message to that line is to continue to skate, work, and bring the level of intensity every shift. That is going to set you up for success be it with the puck or without the puck — whatever the game is going to call for to do that.

They have been a little bit disconnected in that way. I am not focused necessarily on the production part of it. I don’t know how many breakaways or clear looks Willy has had in the last few games that normally go in for him.

There have been opportunities for goals there, but just looking in terms of controlling play and getting extended shifts on offense, there hasn’t been as many here of late. We would like to get that going.

Obviously, the cap dictates that you can only carry so many players. Would you like to have more competition on the NHL roster in an ideal world?

Keefe: On defense, there are seven and there is that element still at play. Dermott didn’t play last night and won’t play on Monday, but he is still in that mix very much. We are just getting Muzzin back here now. We are getting the pairings back and settled to where they were earlier in the season for us.

In terms of the forwards, there is not a lot there. The competition is internal. The competition is for minutes and roles — all of those kinds of things. We have players that we think could help us that are down with the Marlies. There is a long list of guys who have helped us there. Obviously, Ritchie and Clifford are the guys who have played the most for us there.

There is a lot that goes into having those guys in the mix, but they are not forgotten about. That includes the others that are down there — Anderson, Steeves, Seney, and Nick Robertson is now back in the mix here. We have lots of competition that is happening that I think our guys are conscious of despite the fact that on the daily, the roster is limited in terms of movement.

Ice time and things like that are still up for grabs. Guys are competing for that every day.

You tried Ilya Mikheyev on the Tavares line for some shifts against Vancouver. Is there any temptation to change things up given the way the last couple of games have gone for the second line?

Keefe: A little bit. That is part of why I did it in the game. That said, as you would recall not long ago, I did have Mikheyev playing up with Tavares. I didn’t think it went very well, frankly. That has me a little more hesitant as a result.

I think Mikheyev with Kampf has gone well no matter who the linemate that has been with him, whether it is Kase or Engvall. I don’t want to get away from that too much.

Whether it is Kerfoot, Tavares, or Nylander individually and collectively, those guys have played very good hockey for us most of the season. We want to challenge them to find their way here and get back to playing at a high level.

I think the Matthews line is really thriving. Those guys have played very well for us. We need to get a little more consistency from the groups below them.

How would you assess Jake Muzzin’s pairing alongside Justin Holl since Muzzin has returned to the lineup?

Keefe: I thought that pairing had some tough moments in the game [vs. Vancouver]. The penalty killing has been very good and that is where Muzzin gives us an additional boost back there.

Muzz is starting to get back into it and get comfortable. Any time you are coming off of a head injury, it is going to take a little bit of time before you are really comfortable, especially when a big part of his game is asserting himself physically. It is going to take a little bit of time.

I am confident that Muzz is going to be there for us when it counts, is what I am getting at. We just have to continue to give those guys opportunities and keep them going.

We have to play better as a team, whether it is our defense, or goaltending, or whatever it is. A lot of those issues come up when we are not playing connected and we are not getting help and support from the forward group; when all five guys aren’t playing together.

That, to me, is what my focus is on. Every one of our players will perform better the better we are supporting one another.

After so much offensive-zone time and so many shots on goal in the last few games, is there anything you could identify from the game tape that is leading to those grade-A chances the other way in transition?

Keefe: In both games, we have had the puck a lot. We are shooting a lot. We are getting a lot of scoring chances. We are on offense a lot. In both games, we are chasing the game. We are trailing. You are trying to tie the game.

When that happens, there is a natural tendency to really be asserting yourself offensively. Even when it is time to defend, you are hesitating for just a second because you are hoping that you are going to win the puck back quickly and be able to strike. You want to tie the game.

What we have been talking about as a group is that we just have to stay with it and trust that we will score and we will be able to come back and tie games or win games and not let things compound.

When you look at the Calgary game, we took the lead, they tied the game, and they took the lead on us. We let that snowball versus just staying with what we have been doing, locking it down, and eventually, we will score enough to win the game.

I thought Saturday night was pretty similar. We didn’t end up scoring the goals that we needed, but we need to not expose ourselves on the other end. It is difficult to do because you are really pressing, you have the other team on their heels, and you need to score or you can’t win the game. But we have to trust that when there is time on the clock, we will break through, and we don’t want to allow the opposition to grow their lead.

That is just the commitment defensively. I don’t think it is necessarily what the other team is doing other than transitioning quickly. They are jumping quickly. We are going to continue to see that until we plug those holes.

There is also the matter of not falling behind the eight ball early and trailing in the game.

Keefe: That is a big piece of it. It is way easier to focus in on all of our defensive details when, as a team, you are confident that you don’t necessarily have to score. Our games of late have kind of been bouncing around back and forth.

Our mindset hasn’t been focused. We need to be a team that, whatever the game calls for, if you have the puck on offense and the puck is changing hands, we are back in defensive structure and defensive posture quickly so that we protect our goaltender, protect our net, and get the puck back even faster.

That is when we are at our best: when we are earning the puck back from the oppsition when they are vulnerable and we can strike. That is a big part of it. It is a lot harder to score when you have the puck a lot and the other team is in their structure and you have to play through them to get to the goalie. It is hard to score.

Those plays in transition, when we are at our best, we are taking advantage of them. When we are at our worst, the other team is taking advantage of us.

This was the eighth day in a row for you on the ice — pretty rare for you and pretty rare for anybody in the NHL. What was the logic behind getting out there again on Sunday?

Keefe: There are a couple of things. We are coming out of the All-Star Break. That was one. Where we normally would have taken an off-day after the Carolina game, we didn’t want to do that because we had taken a number of days off.

When we get out on the road here, we probably would have taken Friday off, but we played at four o’clock, so there is no opportunity for a morning skate. You are on the ice again.

Today, it is a six o’clock start — a little bit of a funky start again — so we just wanted to get the guys on the ice. There were some things we wanted to touch on today. That was by design coming in. We decided to stay with it.

I think it is a little bit easier to stay on the ice and stay sharp on the road. Today is Superbowl Sunday, obviously, but otherwise, you are just hanging out in the hotel and what have you. It is a little bit easier for us to do that if we were at home all this time; we definitely would have taken a day off.

Because of the six o’clock start tomorrow, while it is only a one-hour difference, we probably will still bring them in and get a skate on the ice. It is a unique building with the windows and some of the lines in the arena with how the seats are lined up. It is a different feel, which I think is really cool. Getting acclimatized here is not a bad thing just to get comfortable.

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