Sheldon Keefe spoke to the media after his team’s 6-4 loss to the Vancouver Canucks that dropped the Leafs’ record to 35-16-4 on the season.
On whether he is frustrated by the result:
I am not frustrated.
On why he is not frustrated by the result:
I thought we played a good game today. In comparison to our game the other night, it is not even close. I thought our guys played hard today. I didn’t think we gave up very much.
We absolutely have to do a better job in our own end dealing with pucks coming to our net. That was really the source of their offense tonight. They just got the puck to the top and threw it at the net. Normally, when that is the case, it is hard for the other team to score. We didn’t do a good enough job of tying up sticks, clearing out lanes, and letting the goalie see those pucks.
I thought we defended well to just limit them to those types of looks. That is what we have been asking our team to do. We have to do a better job of blocking more shots, tying up sticks, and pushing people out of the way. Those are things we need to do better.
That is an area where I think we are really missing Muzz. He is the best guy we have in that area of the game. The guys that we have in have to do a better job of that.
Aside from that, I liked a lot about our game today. We went down 3-1, pushed back, and got control of the game. It was a pretty dominant second period for us. Obviously, I don’t like giving the lead up, and I’d like to see us find a way to tie it up again in the third.
A lot of the things we are asking our guys to do, they executed for us today.
On what happened after the team was up 4-3 going into the third:
We let them get a stick on one again at the net to tie one early. That has been a problem for us here of late. Since we have done a better job of defending the rush — which we have, and we did a better job of that tonight — some of those issues around our net have come up here. They got a stick on another one. We have to do a better job there.
On the fifth goal, there are a few different breakdowns there in how we left our zone with the exit. We sent a really long pass from our end to the far blue line when we have all of our support numbers in our own end. In doing so, we leave our guy on an island, we stretch the zone for them and make it nice and big, and they can get going quick. It comes back at us with a ton of speed, Mitch loses his stick, and you are kind of scrambling from there.
Two pretty isolated plays that happened fairly quickly in the period. Obviously, that was tough.
On Jack Campbell’s performance after the week off:
Some of the times where we did have some breakdowns early in the first period, I thought he looked strong and made some saves for us.
On the first and fifth goals, I don’t think there is a whole lot he can do there. We have to do a better job in front of him in those instances. There were three that were tips right around the crease. We need him to try to find one or two of those for us.
I thought he looked comfortable in the net, but we have to do a better job of not letting those pucks hang around on those tips and stuff like that. The first and fifth goals get by him pretty clean; those, to me, are on our team and how we played in front of him. On the others, they didn’t even shoot them in the net; they’re just kind of squeaking through.
On how to keep Campbell’s confidence in a good place even as the results go against him:
It is really hard. It is not something I think we can do for him at this point other than play better in front of him, have the team prepared, and have the team ready to go. He is going to go through his process to get ready. We fully expect that he will get there.
Our focus has to remain on helping both him and Petr out as best we can.
On Auston Matthews’ game:
He was outstanding. I thought we had a lot of guys [going]. Auston stands out with two great goals he got for us. Both goals, though, are the result of some relentless efforts from our guys. We had Vancouver on the ropes. I thought we were overwhelming them for a good period of time. Pucks popped loose, and we finally got our goal.
That is the kind of sequence you need to score against this team. Their goaltender does such a good job. I thought, in the second period, we had success because I looked down and their goaltender looked tired to me. I thought we were really wearing on him and spending a lot of time down there.
We had 30 shot attempts in the second period. We had a lot happening there. We couldn’t get that same thing going in the third. That was disappointing — save for the 6-on-5; I thought we got some good looks there. The second period should’ve been enough for us to win the game, and we just didn’t do a good enough job.
On Matthews looping out of the zone and gaining a head of steam for the one-timer for his 4-3 goal:
That is him. That is him using his instinct. I think he had a pretty good sense that their team was pretty exhausted. It got to the point where it was pretty much like a power play for us out there. The goaltender didn’t have his stick for a good period of time there, too.
That is just a good play by a good player.
On John Tavares ending his 14-game goal drought:
He looked relieved. The bench was real happy for him; happy he held onto that one and shot it in himself. It is great initiative by him. It is the kind of spot where you get in and start to overthink it. He just shot it in the net and beat a good goaltender.
We had been talking about it for a while now. There has been a lot of focus on the fact that he hadn’t scored, but I think he’s done a lot of good things. It was just a matter of time. His line got another goal for us at five-on-five.
A lot of good things there. There were a lot of good things to take out of this game for us today, but we have to find ways to get wins. That is the bottom line.
On Nick Robertson’s game on the Tavares line:
I liked him a lot. I knew going in that I wasn’t going to let his minds climb up too high today. We really like Kerfoot and how he has played for us and what he has done for us. We didn’t want the minutes to get too out of whack there. At the same time, anytime I did make a change, it was a d-zone faceoff or late in a period. Otherwise, when I had him out there, I thought Robby did a great job.
Great goal for him. I thought he made some really nice plays in the first period especially. It was a real good game for him. He had pace. He had energy. His legs were moving. He played with confidence when he had the puck and had time. He got his head up, found a play, and got things moving.
Great speed to get up the ice. Will finds him, and he finishes a chance. I thought he did a really nice job with those guys tonight. I was really happy with him.
