Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 6-5 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets which dropped the team’s record to 17-9-7.
On where the game got away from the team:
In the second period, you get multiple two-goal leads and we don’t take care of them.
On whether the team has to close the game out better:
Well, we gave up 21 shots. I don’t know how poor defensively we were, but we made bad mistakes at bad times that you can’t make. That’s where we have to do better.
We played a good hockey game. If you play that game over 100 times, you probably win it 99 times, but you can’t make those types of mistakes with how Samsonov is going through it right now. We can’t make those kinds of mistakes. We have to support him better there.
But we scored five. You should win that game nearly every time.
On starting Ilya Samsonov amid his struggles:
We have an injury in goal right now. In back-to-back situations, you have to use both of your guys. There are times when we are going to need Sammy. In between his starts, he is going to have to continue to work and find himself.
He is a good goaltender. He is a far better goalie than how he has played this season. He has to continue to find himself between now and whenever we get him back in the net.
Sammy is not going to play tomorrow. The guys who were on the ice today are. I am more focused on eliminating the types of mistakes that we are making that are making life harder on our team and our goaltender.
On whether the team is going to consider alternatives during Samsonov’s struggles:
You are already into your third goalie with Marty Jones here. Now you are starting to get into our guys that are developing. You have to think about them and putting them in positions to succeed and not derail their development that is going well.
At the same time, it is the NHL. We need saves. We need points. We need wins. I am sure Tre is going to consider everything.
On why the players are making mistakes uncharacteristic of the team in the recent past:
I have stood here and answered these questions for a while. I have gotten these questions a lot. I would say that we have made these types of mistakes. Some of the mistakes we are making are from guys who have been here.
There is no excuse. We are a team that won a playoff series last year. We should be past some of the types of mistakes we are making.
Again, we played a good hockey game here tonight. The mistakes get magnified when you don’t get saves. But that is focusing on the result. There are little things inside our process where the puck never gets to our net if we manage it better. They don’t shoot the puck on the goal in the third period where they tied the game if we don’t give them the puck in the offensive zone.
Those are just things that when you have leads especially, you have to be absolutely dialed in. We haven’t been that nearly enough.
