Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 6-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres which dropped the team’s record to 5-4-2.
On the team continuously conceding quickly after scoring throughout the game:
There are two different stories in the game.
In the first and second periods, we made mistakes that they countered on, which is what they do probably better than anybody in the NHL. If you make mistakes, they counter on you and score on the rush and breakaways just as they did tonight.
In the third period, partially because of the way the game was going to this point, it was the most exhausted I’ve seen a core of defensemen in my time in this league. We really just couldn’t get going. Couldn’t skate. Couldn’t make a pass. It was just too much for our D tonight.
On his level of concern about the lack of scoring from the bottom six:
I am concerned for sure.
Knies is new to the league and hasn’t found his stride offensively.
Kampfer is a guy who is going to give you everything that he has, but it is not his primary thing.
Domi is a guy we expected more out of it and some contribution offensively. I keep going back to that Tampa game, and he makes two game-breaking plays that get us the win there and allow us to get two points. That is the kind of contribution you need from him and Knies.
It is a lot of heavy lifting for our top guys right now for sure.
On leaning so hard on his top four defensemen in the game:
It was a rotation of five tonight, for the most part right? You have to use a sixth guy more for sure, except it is hard to do that when you put him on the ice and you give up a breakaway. The coach is running the bench, and you have to earn trust when you come up, right? That is part of it.
The other part is that we have run through five defensemen at times out of necessity, and we have handled it pretty well. Tonight, it may have caught up to us.
On the fourth line conceding too many goals of late:
If you were to break it down and watch all of the goals individually, there is some happenstance in there.
The two tonight… It is a sequence that starts when Knies turns the puck over in the neutral zone. We can’t get a full line change. Knies himself can’t get off the ice and is caught out there tired. Now, we ice the puck and they get the matchup they want coming over. They shoot the puck, and it goes in off a guy in front of the net.
The breakaway I referenced before… We are on the attack, deep in their zone, and one of their most dangerous scorers is hanging out in behind us. To me, that is not on the forwards in that case or the fourth line.
To me, it is more about the territory and time spent in the offensive zone, which therefore can reduce the chance something can go badly like that. But I thought that group, whether I used Holmberg or Kampf with them — and I moved them around a little bit tonight — did a really great job for us in the early going. They had some positive momentum. It was good to see.
Unfortunately, it just seems that the puck is going in on them when they are out there. It is on me to continue to build their confidence, not get them down on themselves because of this happenstance stuff, and continue to work through their process.
On the level of concern in the team’s overall performance so far this season:
If you look at the game in Boston the other night, I thought we did a lot of really good things against a really good team. Today, we did a number of good things but made bad mistakes. Our power play in the first period could’ve broken the game open with the types of chances that we had.
These kinds of things snowball, and you make mistakes against a counterpunching team. If you give them those chances, they hang around and get leads. Now, you are playing from behind. It is a dangerous game to play when you are doing that.
In terms of where our team game is at, to me, we have a bunch of guys that we need to get playing better.
On Jake McCabe’s status:
He is possible for practice tomorrow.
