Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs post game
Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs post game
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Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the penultimate game of the preseason.


On the team’s effort against a Red Wings lineup with far more NHL regulars:

I thought they did great. I obviously loved the way they started. Lots of the second period was very good for us. It was good. In the end, it is probably a little bit too much to play a full 60 minutes against a group like that.

The guys did what we asked of them today. They gave us everything they had. I thought, all things considered, it was a really nice showing by them.

On Rasmus Sandin’s preseason debut:

I thought he looked good. He played as he does: head up, made plays, and moved the puck. From my perspective at least, you could see some fatigue in the latter half of the game. That is to be expected when you miss the time that he has and you’re kind of dropped right in and have to take on this load here today — both in ice time and in the challenge of what is on the other side. That is to be expected.

I thought it was important for us to have him in the game and have that workload here. He has to make up for lost time.

On Ilya Samsonov’s preseason to date and performance tonight:

I think he has been excellent. This is a tough task for him today. One of the things that I found in this game today where it was hard on ourselves is that we had some issues breaking out. Because of that, you are giving the opposition second, third, and fourth opportunities to get the puck back and play on offense.

Certainly, on at least two of the goals that we gave up, all five players on the ice were exhausted because we couldn’t get out of our end. That is the kind of thing that happens in a game like this. You don’t really see it as much because of the nature of the position, but that is hard on the goalie, too. He doesn’t get a breather. He doesn’t get time to recover. I think that affects some of the goals that go in.

At the same time, I thought he made some huge saves for us and gave the group confidence. It was a very inexperienced group in front of him tonight. He gave us confidence there. There was a lot of chatter on the bench about some of the saves and the confidence he was giving the group.

I think he has had a great camp right from the time he has come through our doors in our facility even before camp began. The work he has put in to get himself ready for the season has shown. I think it is all we could really ask for. We are really happy with what we have gotten out of him.

On the performance of the Robertson – Holmberg – Malgin line:

I liked them. I thought those guys were good. Again, it is a tough task with the matchup they were given. They were playing against Larkin’s line pretty much all night along with Chiarot and Seider on defense. It is a tough ask for them.

We sort of did that by design with the lineup we put in. We knew Detroit was going to have a very good lineup. Derek [Lalonde] and I had discussed that well in advance of the game here tonight. Both coaches knew what to expect from the game. I was excited to see that.

I thought those guys did a really good job all throughout. There were no easy matchups tonight for any of our lines or any of our defense pairs. We have 88 games of NHL experience on the backend tonight, and they’re all coming from Rasmus. And he was playing his first game of the preseason.

It was a tall order for the crew, but I thought all the way through the lineup, the guys did a good job. That includes the Holmberg line, who had the greatest challenge, and of course, they are the guys we are really looking at.

On the status of Victor Mete:

His X-rays came back negative. It was more just a matter of bringing him here. We were hopeful he would be able to play. I think he was hopeful as well. Ultimately, he just couldn’t. We decided we couldn’t get him out there.

We are just going to monitor him. I would just call him day-to-day at this point. It is more of a bruise, contusion, or something like that. We will assess him tomorrow to see if he is able to skate or play tomorrow.