Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues which improved the team’s record to 27-16-8.
On the team rallying around the absences of Morgan Rielly, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner:
The guys played well. We played a pretty simple game, which is what was required, especially once we got the lead. We needed guys to step up in different ways. I thought we got a lot of great efforts tonight.
Bobby, of course, scored two huge goals for us and a cool empty-netter to finish it off. Terrific end to kind of a strange day for us, quite honestly, with a lot of lineup uncertainty and stuff like that.
Bobby himself didn’t know he was going to play until he got to the rink today. Steeves was a very last-minute arrival and lineup change.
A lot was happening there, and there was some other stuff behind the scenes with other guys sick. We were trying to get them ready, and the guys were battling through that.
With all of that considered, it was a really good effort.
On what this hat trick could do for Bobby McMann going forward:
If you look at his goals, he wins a battle and attacks the net. Great finish. On the second one, he is competing at the net front, turns, and fires it at the net.
You hope that helps with confidence and makes you feel like you belong in the league. For a guy like Bobby, you want efforts like this and you want the goals to go in, but he is trying to learn to grab onto a role in the league, right?
He can score. He has done that at the AHL level, but it has been a challenge in the NHL. If you are not going to score — and you are not going to get a hat trick every night — you have to work on all of the other things and do the other things really well. Be physical. Be defensively responsible. Be trusted. Be able to kill penalties. All of those things can help keep you in the league.
Different players figure it out at different times. He is 27 or 28 years old and is in his first year in the NHL. He is trying to find his way within a role here. Today is a great night to give him some confidence and life and to stay in the fight for one of those jobs.
On the illnesses to John Tavares and Mitch Marner and if they’re related to Conor Timmins’ mono:
We don’t think it is related. It is entirely different. This is more flu-like stuff.
John did not come to the rink this morning. Through the night last night, he was not doing well. He was trying to give us an update every four or five hours or so on how he was doing. He was hopeful he could push through it. He wanted to push through it to be able to play.
We kept him available, which is why Bobby McMann was told this morning to be ready. We may need him, but we didn’t commit to him playing because we were hopeful that John was going to settle down a little bit. It was around four o’clock that it was clear John wasn’t going to be able to play. When Bobby arrived, we let him know he was going to be in.
Mitch was really unexpected. He got here, and I did not find out about Mitch until 4:30. When he got here, he started to not feel great. A lot of his situation played out here (at the rink). It was probably close to five o’clock that Steeves was told to find his way here. That was just in case Mitch couldn’t go. It was very clear shortly afterward that Mitch was not going to be able to play, so Steeves was in.
We had a couple of other guys where it was either play them or play short. They kind of battled through it. They were not [as sick] as the others to the same degree. They were able to get through the game.
On the performances of Max Domi and Nick Robertson:
You are leaving out Bert, who I thought was also excellent on that line.
Certainly, Max and Roby were asked to move up and handle more responsibility and tougher matchups. Those guys were really good. I thought Max really took charge of the line. The line was really good tonight.
We did not get St. Louis’ best today. That team has won seven of their last eight games. They have been kind of rolling through the NHL here. I didn’t think we got their best, but from our perspective, as a team, there were certain parts in the game I would like us to do a better job with, but overall, it was a pretty good effort all the way through our lineup.
Those guys stepped up to play tougher minutes and tougher matchups and did a really good job.
On limiting the Blues to 15 shots on goal:
Morgan coming out was one thing, and then you lose John and Mitch. You are moving things around a little bit there.
The team looks different. You have to play a little bit different. Some of the mindset is different through it. We got a lead early, so there were a lot of reasons for us to just take care of the game.
It was a really good job. We defended well. Their team is really dangerous off the rush and in transition, but I thought we did a good job of limiting their best people, especially, who are normally quite dangerous offensively.
As I said, I don’t think they would say they had their best tonight, but I thought we did a good job of not allowing them to get going in the game.
On the announcement of Morgan Rielly’s five-game suspension:
You are able to move on. You kind of get a sense of where it is at and just move on. More importantly, we played a game tonight, so with that in and of itself, you are focused on the game and you are moving on. All of that other stuff is playing out behind the scenes.
I think Tre will address the media tomorrow and talk about it a little bit more. From my perspective, I just focus on the hockey team.
