Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 3-2 overtime win over the Dallas Stars that improved the Leafs’ record to 3-2-0.
On the bounce-back win and Nick Robertson’s two-goal season debut:
It is a good team that we played and a tough game. It was good to see our guys find a way to win. It was excellent to see Nick come into our lineup and make a difference.
I loved the first 11 minutes so of both the first and second period. I looked up, and there were about seven or eight minutes left, and we had only given up one or two shots in the first period. The second period was the same thing. I thought we were really rolling in those two periods, and then Dallas had their push after that.
There were chunks of time in each of those periods that weren’t very good for us. That is something we have to clean up and finish the job. I loved how we started the game. I loved how we started the second period after regrouping while we were down 1-0. We got out on the attack. I liked the start of it.
The third period was a little bit of back and forth. There was a lot of special teams time in the game that disrupt the flow. For the most part, I was happy with our team’s game.
On the lack of hesitation in putting Robertson out for 3v3 OT:
He was feeling it. I had to talk myself out of putting him out earlier. I thought he had a good game. With lots of open ice out there, we thought there was a chance he could make a play. He did.
It was a great finish by him, but I loved how the play developed. We had the Rocket Richard Trophy winner down the pipe, and he made the right play. He got all of the attention of the goalie and moved it over to Nick to finish it. I think that is a terrific moment.
On Robertson carrying over his preseason form despite a week away from the team:
He has the ability to finish, right? He showed that tonight. He had two real good looks. He had a couple of other looks, actually, that were close. He has the ability to finish but he also did a lot of other little things really well in the game.
He was on the puck. He checked. He got back on defense. It was a real good performance from him.
On the goaltender interference call for Tyler Seguin’s 2-2 goal being reversed on a review:
It didn’t go the way I was feeling. On our side, we felt pretty strong Mitch was pushed in and the goalie didn’t have a chance to make a save. That one didn’t go our way tonight, but those ones, of all of the goaltender interference situations, are some of the tougher ones to call.
You never know which way it is going to go. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way today. We were able to get it to overtime and found a way to get an extra point.
On his confidence in Ilya Samsonov after three starts:
Right from training camp all the way through… It’s a game today that is somewhat low event, but he needed to make some big saves today. On the second goal, there is not a whole lot he can do there. He is interfered with.
I thought he was strong. The guys feel good when he is in there. You feel like he is going to make the saves and be strong. There were a couple of times that they got in behind us. Once we got past that 12-13 minute mark in the first period, they got a couple of clean looks. He was really, really solid. I thought it gave the team confidence.
On the concerns about the top power-play unit:
We haven’t found our rhythm on it yet. I look at it, and I think it is the Washington game where the first power play of the game was one of the best power plays I have seen this team have. Everything from puck movement, speed, shots, earning the puck back, competing, and ultimately, scoring the goal. We haven’t been able to replicate that all the way through.
And yet we still get two power-play goals in here. I don’t know if the Robertson one ended up registering, but that is our power play still on the ice that had just finished up. It is good to see that unit contributing while our first unit is finding its rhythm. We got two very important goals from that second unit tonight.
We are just off. Passes are off. We are just not sharp and not crisp the way our team will be when we find our rhythm.
On Auston Matthews drawing a couple of penalty calls:
For a guy who has the puck as much and is competing as hard as he is… He hasn’t found his rhythm offensively yet, but he is competing and battling. He is doing the little things for us. We talked about the play in overtime. For a guy who still hasn’t shot one in the net, at a key moment in the game, he passes up the shot to make the appropriate play. He is doing little things that are helping our team. Competing, battling, and earning power plays is one of them.
Each of those are penalties. He took a stick to the face, too, that didn’t get called, so they could’ve called another one. He is in the thick of it, and that is why he is getting those calls.
On Victor Mete’s season debut:
He didn’t play a lot. Special teams get in the way. It is his first game. It is a tight game. Dean doesn’t have him out there as much as we would like to. I look at the first period, and I like a lot of the things that he did.
He really increases the pace of our defense. He is a real nice skater — one of the nicest skaters on the backend in the league. I am trying to encourage him to skate and use that asset that he has.
His minutes didn’t get to where we thought they might in the game, but for him coming into the lineup, I was happy with what he gave us.
On the atmosphere around the team since Monday’s loss to Arizona:
It has been pretty normal. It has been different in [the media room]. It hasn’t been different in there.
