Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 7-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens which improved the Leafs’ record to 47-21-11.
On the team’s performance:
I just thought we were really connected. I thought we played a really smart game. We were in control of the game, and we didn’t really do anything to jeopardize that. They scored to make it 2-1, and we come right back, get our lead back, and build on it.
The feeling of our group, how they were talking to one another, and how focused they were on playing the way that we need to play — I really liked that. It was a real good feeling behind the bench in terms of how the players themselves… We set a plan. We talked about what the expectation was going into the game. They went out, executed, and made it happen.
There was lots of positivity. Everybody was on board with what we needed to do. When you do that, you give yourself a chance to win the game. You give yourself a chance to control the game. When you are doing that, you don’t often give control back.
On when he decided to put EBUG Jett Alexander into the game:
It was not my decision. Word came down to me about 30 seconds before the whistle came. We made it happen.
On whose decision it was to put Alexander into the game:
It is not important.
On Ilya Samsonov showing signs of pain in the second period:
I didn’t see exactly what happened. I just saw the way he was responding or reacting. It looked like he was uncomfortable there.
There was a little bit of uncertainty there for a bit. There was a whistle shortly after. The guys went out and talked to him. The ref talked to him. He didn’t motion toward the bench or anything.
He has done that a couple of times. Something gets a little uncomfortable, and it takes a little bit to shake it off. Of course, we were concerned and cautious at that point.
The players talked to him. He had no interest in coming out or talking to the trainer. They followed up with him in the TV timeouts. They checked again at the intermission. He was good.
He went back out and was fine.
On whether Mitch Marner reaching 100 points would be a good way to cap off his season:
It felt like he could’ve gotten to 105 tonight with the number of plays he was making and the stuff he was doing out there. He was excellent.
I thought we had a lot of great nights from guys tonight. That is what we were hoping for. We wanted to play a really sound, structured, and smart game. But you wanted guys to be really feeling good in terms of their offensive production.
We made lots of plays. We had lots of chances to score even more than we did. To that end, it was good.
On Erik Gustafsson’s return from his personal absence and contributions on the power play:
He is a very confident guy. He has a high skill level. He is very smart. He has good sense.
He has missed significant time, so you don’t know how that is going to affect a guy — especially a guy who is new to our team. But it definitely was important for us to get him in here tonight.
As it turned out, he got a lot of touches. I thought he did a good job at both five-on-five and on the power play.
On Mark Giordano’s consistent presence throughout the season:
We made a number of additions this season that sort of fit the mold of high character and highly-competitive people. You kind of lose sight or forget that we added a guy like Giordano last year at the trade deadline who is very similar. He is just another guy who lays it all out there.
He was competing, blocking shots, and giving everything he has to this game tonight. That kind of stuff is contagious. No matter where you are at in the schedule or standings, to see that, it is hard not to go out and duplicate it. That is the standard.
For as long as he has been in the league, Gio has been out there doing that. It sends a pretty strong message to the rest of the group about what is expected.
On Wayne Simmonds’ recent performances when he’s been in the lineup:
Simmer has been excellent. I don’t know how many games he has played in the last two months, but in each of the games that he has played, he has come in and given us really good minutes. He has been great on the bench. He is playing very smart.
Today, he draws a couple of penalties. He is giving us really good efforts and good minutes.
