Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers which dropped the team’s record to 21-13-8.
On where the game got away from the team:
Once again, you don’t find a way to win when you have the lead. That burns, especially on a night like this where I thought our guys played a real good hockey game. They played real hard.
Ultimately, when you are not scoring like we aren’t scoring in this little stretch, you have to find ways to win 2-1. That is hard to do, especially in this building against this team.
To me, we played a great hockey game. In the first period, we could have had three or four. They had their push, and I thought we managed that well through the first. We came out for the second period and had an abundance of scoring chances. We had three breakaways through the game and had nothing to show for those.
All of a sudden, you have very little breathing room and margin for error. With the way things are going, you get on the wrong side of it, but I am very pleased with the effort of the group tonight. We have to find ways to close these games.
On the level of concern about the lost leads:
What has it been? Eight days? The trend is eight days?
In the week before that, we won four in a row, got leads early, and took care of the game. We played mature games against Anaheim and San Jose. We played a great game against the LA Kings. That is like a week ago.
My concern with this little stretch of four games in seven or eight nights… We would like to be on the right side of it, but we could only control what was in front of us tonight. The guys played a good hockey game.
If we play that game over, we are going to score four or five a lot of nights. They are a great team. They are going to get their two or three. But you win this game… We had three breakaways with nothing to show for it. Bert had a 2-on-0 tap-in with an empty net and didn’t get it. Holmberg got robbed on a one-timer.
Before you know it, we have four, five, or six goals on some other nights. The story will be about us giving up leads, but the story to me is more about the ability to execute on these scoring chances, grow a lead, pull away, and take away the will of the other team.
That, to me, is really (the story) here tonight and even the other night against Detroit as well. We had a chance to score on our power plays and grow the lead, and we just didn’t. That is more of the story to me in these games here.
In the two prior to that, we had multi-goal leads. We scored three — enough to win. That is not the story tonight.
On whether the message is to keep pushing for more offense when in the lead:
Yeah. If we play the way we did here tonight… They have been the best team in the league for the last two months by a mile — not just winning and winning in different ways, but the consistent thing is that they have been dominant in doing so. They are going to have their pushes, but I thought we managed their best people about as well as you are going to manage them in a hockey game.
We had plenty of opportunities to grow our lead and didn’t do it. Credit to their goaltender. He played well. The puck hasn’t been going in for us. All of these things that we are talking about are going to get emphasized even more. My job is to be even-keeled about it, really recognize what is going on, and see where we can continue to grow but continue to show belief in the guys.
As I said, if we play like we did tonight, on a lot of nights, the puck is going to go in a bunch for us and we are going to leave feeling pretty good.
On whether he senses frustration is building within the room:
I don’t. Today, I felt really good about our bench and really good about our team.
Again, you give up the late one, and that one really hurts. That has been a trend, right? We have been in tie games and have given one up late. We iced the puck. We had exhausted people out there. That stings after playing such a hard game.
I don’t sense frustration in particular after this one. The guys knew the challenge we were up against tonight. They know they played a game that very easily could’ve gone the other way.
