Sheldon Keefe spoke to the media after his team’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets that dropped the Leafs’ record to 32-14-4 on the season.
On his takeaways from the team’s performance:
I thought our effort structurally was entirely better than it was last night. I was happy with that.
Columbus certainly won the territorial game in the first period. Our guys were recalibrating a little bit in terms of how we were asking them to play. You could see they were really focused on it. It took away from some of our offensive play and our puck play.
I liked how we defended in that period. Despite losing the territorial game, we didn’t give up a whole lot in terms of quality looks. That was good.
We built on that into the second period, which I thought was an excellent period. With the exception of the Laine goal, it is as perfect of a period as it can probably be in terms of our structure and carrying play.
We took that penalty late at the end of the second; that is the one there that we can’t take. We have to manage the game better in that situation. We didn’t. We opened the door for them to get a power-play opportunity to open the third. I thought that was the difference in terms of that.
I thought our guys competed hard today and played with structure. We easily could have had two points here today. The fact that you get the game even and get out of here with a point and lose the extra one in overtime — we don’t like that, but there were a lot of positive things here today.
That is a good team over there. They are feeling it. They are playing well. That is eight wins in the last 11 games for them. They played hard against us. It wasn’t an easy night for us. I liked a lot of things about how we played.
On Jack Campbell’s performance:
It was another one of those funny games where didn’t have to count on him a whole lot today. I thought we protected the middle of the ice really well as a group. In that first period, there was a lot of activity and they were throwing pucks from everywhere.
In the second and third, there is not much activity at all for him. All of a sudden, Patrik Laine is coming down on you. Those are some tough spots. That Laine goal is a tough moment in the game for us. We were on an odd-man rush one way and it turned into a two-on-one with their best player the other way.
The power-play goal at the start of the third period is the one we need to get a save on from Soup. Aside from that, the breakaway that we gave up was a tough-luck bounce for Lyubushkin.
It is a tough day for the goalie when you don’t get much activity and then you are facing that quality of shot.
On the video review of Jason Spezza’s late tying goal:
We never quite know with those. We did feel quite confident on that one that there is no real kicking motion there. He is driving the net and his foot is planted. That is generally how it is called.
We felt pretty good about it that it was a direction and not a kick. The guys were pretty confident. Until Toronto makes the call and they announce it, you are not really sure.
On the performance of the Tavares line:
I thought they were better today. My focus with them is how they play defensively. The offensive stuff is going to come. My focus was on how they defended. I thought they did a good job today as a line in that sense.
That was the big thing for me: I wanted all four lines to play hard and defend well today so we could use the bench. I thought that would be important here on the back-to-back.
It is not an easy game to play today. They play hard and with lots of pace. It is a loud building with lots of energy in the game. I was happy with how that line did that.
They had looks. They had opportunities. Maybe not as much as they or I would like, but those are going to come for them as long as they continue to have a good process to how they play.
On Ilya Lyubushkin’s first game:
There are a few things that stood out to me. In the first period especially, there were times that he had to defend and he showed that when you come into his space, generally, he gets the play stopped. He either forces you to move it or takes it right from you. That is a really good quality and one that we need in our defensemen.
He battled. He competed really hard. He had a lot of guys on the other side trying to fight him throughout the game. That is a good sign that you are in the game, competing, and making it known you’re there. I really liked that piece of it.
He came in and fit in well with the group. The guys were happy to have him and were cheering him on on the bench and all of that. It was a tough bounce on that third goal for sure.
He showed some really positive signs of doing what we thought he could do in terms of his defending and the competitive piece.
Some of Lyubushkin's work in the first period #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/XryM0r3Nao
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) February 23, 2022
