Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 7-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.
On the team’s bounce-back effort in Game 2:
It was a big response. We couldn’t have asked for a better start. Obviously, we earned the power play to begin with. To shoot it in the net right away like that…
I thought just our overall focus and execution were really sharp tonight in that first period. We scored a power-play goal, killed two penalties, and scored a goal in a 6-on-5 situation. We scored a goal off of a faceoff.
The players were really good today in all of those situations I just described. It’s Spencer Carbery, Dean Chynoweth, and Manny Malhotra getting the team prepared in all of those areas, and the players executed.
From there, I thought we took care of the game well and got better in the second period even.
On the big response from the team’s core players:
Right from the start, Mitch draws a penalty and shoots it into the net. He takes charge of the game for us right away. That is the type of performance you are looking for from those guys.
We needed a response tonight in a big way. They took it to us pretty good the other night. We needed to have a good day today. We did.
Now we have a series. We will get out on the road and have to play even better than we did tonight.
On the ROR line with Matthew Knies and how Knies handled his first NHL playoff game:
I thought the line was terrific. We will watch it all back and everything, but it felt to me like they were in the offensive zone — or at least out of trouble — a lot.
Matt, in particular, took a penalty in the first period, but I thought he skated well. He was hard on the puck. He made a couple of great offensive plays. It was a real good performance from him.
O’Reilly and Acciari were real pros tonight just with how they took care of him and took care of the game when they were out there.
On whether it’s possible to carry over the momentum and good vibes into Game 3:
I don’t know if you necessarily can. What is important for us is to understand today is now over. It took us a little while to get over Game 1, but it was over by the time we had our meeting the next day. Now you have to press on.
It is no different here now. Tampa will be doing the same thing. They are going to go back home. I am sure they are going to get some guys back in the lineup, and they are going to play better.
We are going to have to play better. That is just going to be it. That will be our focus now.
We will finally stay off the ice tomorrow. It has been a lot of days on the ice for the guys. We will travel out to Tampa. It will be on us to regroup and have the mindset that we have to play better and not get too excited about this one.
The series now is really, truly beginning.
On Morgan Rielly’s four-point performance:
He had four assists tonight, so he is obviously contributing greatly.
The play that he made on Tavares’ goal in the second period that goes from 3-1 to 4-1 — he jumped up the weak side and joined the rush. He gave Willy another option. To me, that is Morgan at his best offensively — when he is jumping up like that.
That is a big-time play with that initiative there, and it ultimately leads to a goal which is a game-changing goal. It takes it from 3-1 to 4-1. It is a big moment in the game for us.
Defensively, I thought he and Schenn were really good. They had tight gaps today and killed plays quickly. They helped us break the puck out.
It was a good effort again by him. Again, he is another one of those key guys for us that needed to have a big response game. He certainly did.
On how the team channeled their emotions effectively while controlling them at the same time:
I thought our guys didn’t get too carried away, but I think that is just the level of respect we have for the opponent and the challenge that is to win games in the playoffs.
The guys were excited about getting the lead and being in a good spot, but it is a lot of hockey to play. There are lots of reasons for our guys to stay composed and stay with it.
We took a penalty after the whistle in the first period today. We can’t have that. There are still moments in the game where we need to be better.
We will feel good that we got a response tonight, but we have to play better than we did today.
On Ilya Samsonov’s bounce-back effort after a tough Game 1:
First of all, as I said yesterday, I was really excited about how Sammy handled himself.
He acknowledged he wasn’t good enough. That is one thing. Nobody wants to see a guy come in and be moping around or feeling sorry for himself. He was the opposite. He was in and he was all smiles. He had energy. He wanted to get work in on the ice.
He did a terrific job. He competed and battled on the ice. He wasn’t letting anything get by him in practice. That sends a strong message to your team. That is what you are looking for.
He followed that up today. The guys took care of him tonight both in getting a lead for him and in how we defended. On the two goals that we gave up, there are some breakdowns there that we don’t love, but for the most part, we really took care of him in terms of the chances and the quality of the chances we gave up. There wasn’t a lot there.
Even though we scored early, Tampa has some flurries there. They are throwing stuff at the net. I think the shots ended up being 6-1 or 7-1 to start the game. There wasn’t a whole lot of quality to it, but he was busy nonetheless. He has to keep it out for us, and he did that.
It was a good response from him, and it’s something to build on.
On the team’s ability to establish and forecheck, wear on the Tampa D, and spend a lot of time in the offensive zone:
That was better tonight — maybe not as much in the first period. Tampa is a good team. At five-on-five, I thought the game was pretty even in that first period.
In the second, certainly, it is what we think we are capable of doing in terms of increasing the pace of play and making it hard on the opponent. We were able to do that for good stretches.
Vasilevskiy made some unbelievable saves in there where he kept the game close. We couldn’t quite pull away. We make a mistake and it is 3-1, but we pushed back again.
I did like the pressure and the pace of play we had here tonight. That is what was required for sure.
On how the losses of Erik Cernak and Victor Hedman on Tampa’s blue line might have opened things up for the Leafs offensively:
We scored pretty much right away, so we took control of the game before they even had a chance to get through their rotations.
Those guys are really important players for them. They are great defenders and big parts of their team. It was important for us to capitalize on them not being in.
At the same time, they are who they are as a team because they have dealt with all sorts of adversity along the way. They won a Cup at one point basically playing without their captain. Those types of things don’t faze that team.
At the same time, it wasn’t anything that we were taking lightly in terms of how it was going to affect the game. We still respected them, but we knew we had to try to get on top of them for sure.
The way we took hold of the game right away set us up for success no matter who was in, but we expect to see those guys back in the series here. It is another reason why this is not going to get any easier.
