Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames which improved the team’s record to 22-13-8.
On the team finally closing out a win:
I loved that in the third period, we just played hockey. Guys didn’t panic. Guys weren’t tight. They were loose. They were loose in terms of how they played. I think we out-chanced them pretty dramatically despite having the lead and could’ve grown our lead significantly. That would’ve been too easy.
The way it is supposed to be on a night like tonight: It’s supposed to be hard. We’re supposed to find our way through it. As much as I would’ve loved to have more goals and breathing room, we needed this tonight.
I thought the guys handled it very well. It was one of the best third periods we’ve played maybe all season with the lead. Really proud of the guys tonight.
On the importance of Auston Matthews’ 2-1 goal late in the first:
It is huge. We didn’t play well in the first period. We looked really tight and tentative in that first period. We didn’t have it.
Even the goal itself is kind of a broken play. It lands on Auston’s stick, thankfully, and he makes no mistake. It is a big goal for sure.
Getting out of that period gave us a chance to kind of regroup, relax, get out and play. I thought we were excellent from there.
On whether big performances from Matthews shift the mood around the team:
I wouldn’t say that. When he is scoring, obviously, the team can relax. Now you are scoring goals. You are feeling good. In this case, tonight, we are coming back and building a lead.
It helps everybody relax. That is what elite players do. We are very fortunate to have him as part of our group.
He scored big goals tonight, but he also defended extremely hard. Once we got the lead, we needed him to defend, compete, and lead the way that way. I thought he was great in that regard. I thought Marner was great in that regard and Wly, JT. Those guys really led the way for us up front.
I thought Jarnkrok was unbelievable tonight in terms of how he played and managed the game. We got good efforts from the rest of the group. Bert was really dialed in and competing today. Matthew Knies seemed to be coming back for us. He had a great play where he shot the puck with authority which lead to Auston’s third goal.
Through the lineup, I was really pleased with a lot of guys. We scored a goal 6-on-5 on the delayed penalty. We scored a goal on the power play at a key time. The penalty kill was excellent. When we had to defend with the goalie out, we were excellent.
A lot of really positive things for us to take out of this game.
On a big night for the Leafs‘ special teams:
The 6-on-5 is not your traditional 6-on-5 when you focus on the end of the game, but it is still an important time. You get your goalie out. You get your guys out there. You get Willy on the ice. The guys relaxed. They took their time. They got organized. We liked that.
Guy Boucher had a meeting with the guys this morning and covered 6-on-5. It came in handy there. That was good.
On the 4-on-3 power play, again, it is not a situation you practice a whole lot, but we were fortunate to have a TV timeout right at that time. The guys got organized and executed.
That is what I really liked tonight. We just came through in big moments — whether it was Auston scoring a big goal to give us a bit of life going into the intermission or the way our special teams executed in that second period. In the third period, we played hard, played on the attack, and played smart.
Even if we didn’t get the challenge, we were 10 minutes into the period, and that was their second shot. We gave up five shots in the third period with very few scoring chances.
I just liked the attitude and competitiveness of our team in the third.
On the importance of video coaches Jordan Bean and Sam Kim:
They’re vital. You guys get to see it when we have these challenges and key moments. They’re so dialed in. But I see it every day just because they allow this whole thing to run.
There is so much that goes on with the coaching staff, how we communicate with the players, and how we prepare the team. You get to see it on display with the challenges, but those guys are MVPs on our staff every day.
On whether he initially noticed the hand pass on the Flames’ 4-4 goal that was called back:
In real-time, I didn’t see it, but pretty much immediately, I was told we needed a second and it might be a hand pass. You are trying to buy time. The refs are trying to keep things moving. I don’t think they had any sense that there was anything. They didn’t know why we were stalling.
I was getting pushed to decide by the officials. Jordan knew it touched their hand, but there was some uncertainty about whether their player touched it before John (Tavares) did. We needed some more time to get some clarity on that.
I called the timeout and allowed those guys to get some more time. Once a few replays came in, they were quite confident.
