Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders which dropped the team’s record to 21-10-8.
On the team’s adjustment to more difficult competition:
I thought it took us a little bit. In the back half of the first period, I thought we were pretty good there.
At five-on-five, we were pretty good in the game — not perfect, but pretty good, and we had a pretty significant advantage in the scoring chances at five-on-five.
Special teams were rotten tonight. Power play, penalty kill, overtime… That costs you games.
On the issues on special teams tonight:
The power play had one chance and did nothing with it. It was as bad as we have looked in any power play. On the penalty kill, it is in our net before we can even blink to start the game.
In the second period, we first took a penalty with the careless high stick while we had control of the game. Those are the kinds of mistakes that cost you games and cost you points.
When we take the penalty, we have full control and don’t get it down the ice. You are just inviting problems. That is what costs you games in those situations.
Once again, we played a good game, but we made mistakes that you can’t make when you are trying to win.
On Tyler Bertuzzi’s play and that of his line tonight:
I thought he was on the hunt. I thought those guys were on it.
This team is going to make it hard on you in the offensive zone. You have to really earn your chances. If you look at Matthews’ two goals that he scored, the first one comes off of a forecheck off of the opening faceoff of the period. We pinned them down and finally won the puck back. You get a chance to score.
On the second goal, Holmberg — even though he is tired late in his shift — stays on it and gets a turnover. That is where a lot of your best chances are going to come from against this group with them playing as they were tonight.
Bert and those guys worked. They grinded. There was a lot of pace to the game tonight, too. I didn’t think that line managed that nearly as well.
On whether the bottom six is earning more of his trust of late:
No doubt. The Kampf line again tonight was really good. It is a tough night for that group.
For them and Domi, the matchups are going to be tough. They matched their fourth line against Matthews the entire night. That is going to create some tough matchups for the rest of our lineup when our best people are going up against other lines.
I really trusted those guys today. I gave them the opportunity to meet the challenge. The Kampf line was really good. The Domi line also gave us good minutes.
On the growth in Bobby McMann’s game:
I think he just looks more comfortable with what the expectations are of him. He is an older guy who hasn’t played a lot of pro hockey. When he did play in the AHL, he succeeded pretty quickly and played high in the lineup.
I don’t know if he has ever really been a checker and a grinder. He is learning how to do these kinds of things and simplify his game a little bit more but still use his size and strength to get to good areas and get off shots.
He has been physical and is skating and working. With as big and strong as he is and the quickness that he has, when he is really focused on playing a role, simplifying things, and being hard to play against, you can trust a guy like that.
Gregor is very similar — and Kampf, as we know. Having those three guys together playing the way that they are gives you an opportunity to trust them.
Clearly, the opposition tonight really trusts their fourth line. Matthews is a top center in the league, and they are going head-to-head against him. When you can have that within your team, it allows you to really get some mismatches through the rest of your lineup. It is an important development for us.
