Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins that improved the Leafs’ record to 6-4-2.
On the status of Ilya Samsonov and whether his injury happened on the penalty shot:
No update. He has a knee injury, but we don’t know the extent of it at this point.
Yeah, it [happened on the penalty shot].
On his concerns about the goaltending depth:
Not many teams in the league are going to have three goalies injured in their system. I feel comfortable about that, but it is the reality we have here now.
Lucky for us, Kallgren being the guy that has to come in and clean things up is a position he has been in and a position our team has been in. We are comfortable with that.
On the team’s performance against a top opponent:
We just found another level tonight. We moved the puck better, and we skated harder both ways. We knew that Boston was going to demand our absolute best if we were going to compete with that.
Our guys not only met that, but I thought we established the pace of the game early rather than just sort of feeling our way through it. That first 10 or 12 minutes were definitely the quickest and best we have been all season. That provided the foundation for the win.
Not a whole lot of ice out there for either team and not a whole lot of scoring chances at 5v5 for either team. There was not a lot of scoring chances on special teams for either team. They made good on their power play in that they earned a penalty shot. We got a power play and made good on it.
Obviously, I didn’t love the penalties we took in the third period, but the penalty kill was outstanding. It was one of those games where the guys were absolutely committed and seemed like they weren’t going to be denied tonight.
On Auston Matthews’ scoring heating up after a slow start:
He has just stayed with it. I don’t think there has been anything really different. He is just going to those spots. If you look at where he scored both of his goals tonight, those are areas I don’t think he had gone to enough, and yet he had been getting there and missing some of those — virtual tap-ins that hadn’t fallen for him.
He just continued to go there and continued to work. I thought both sides of the puck… Without the puck, he worked just as hard as he did on offense. I thought all of our guys today had absolute commitment defensively.
In a game like this, offense is hard to come by. You need your big guys to step up. For Auston to get two, and it is a big-time play by Willy, too, on the second goal — let’s not overlook that. That is what you need.
The guys played hard and defended.
On Timothy Liljegren’s season debut:
I thought he looked really good. I’d have to watch the game back just to be certain on all of the detail of his game, but I thought he moved the puck well and defended hard and well. It is not an easy game to come into for your first game.
Lily didn’t play in the preseason and hadn’t played in any NHL games yet. He is coming from the AHL. This is a different level of NHL than what we had been playing in. This was a different league tonight than we have played in during the previous 11 games — both in how we played and how the opponent played.
It was the type of game you get in the latter part of the season. For Timothy to step in and look good is a really good sign.
On losing Nicolas Aube-Kubel to a waiver claim and why it didn’t work out in Toronto:
Hard to put a finger on it. He is a guy we really believe in. He has a lot of really good assets. He came in and did a good job for us physically. Just in terms of the fit with him on that line with Kampf and Aston-Reese, it never seemed to click. Frankly, that line — since we made the switch — has gotten a lot better. It just didn’t quite work for him.
From early in camp, I thought he was struggling in camp. That could maybe be attributed to a shorter offseason than a lot of other guys, and we were trying to talk him through that and help him through that.
With the combination of the fact that things weren’t going well for us as a team — we wanted to switch things up — and the role that we had carved out for him, it didn’t quite take off. You are just kind of stuck in a situation where you need to do something with the player.
We wish him well. I think he did a really good job when he was picked up by Colorado last year. I am sure he will do a good job in Washington. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for him here.
On the challenge of the back-to-back in Carolina:
The back-to-back is a challenge as it is, but we are going to try to talk about it as little as possible. The opponent itself is challenging enough. We just have to focus on that.
Competing how we did today is a really good sample of what is going to be required. Let’s kind of trap that in our minds and try to do it again out on the road.
