Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after the Maple Leafs’ 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres which improved the team’s record to 36-18-8.
On Ilya Samsonov’s confident performance:
Yeah, the overtime saves, and the saves late in the last minute of regulation… It was a tough game. Not a lot of offense. There were not a lot of pucks coming to him. There were 15 minutes into the first period, he still hadn’t got his first shot. It is a tough game mentally to stay in and stay engaged. He was excellent.
On the team staying patient despite the lack of offense:
Obviously, we weren’t great tonight. We didn’t move the puck very well. As a result, we didn’t generate much. When we did have opportunities to generate, I thought we overcooked it a little bit. We tried to overpass it and didn’t shoot enough.
In the last game we played these guys, we gave up nine. You can understand why the guys are a little gun-shy tonight and were being a little more careful. I think that hurt us a bit offensively.
To your point, you are playing a tight game. The next mistake could be the difference. I liked how we stayed with it. I thought our third period was our best period. To that end, on a night like tonight, we stayed patient and stayed committed to it. We did not get frustrated, deviate, or beat ourselves. It wasn’t perfect. We don’t want to give up those chances that we did in the last minute there.
Overall, on a night when we weren’t at our best, we didn’t beat ourselves. We have lost a lot of these types of games. Tonight, we didn’t do that.
On the consistently strong play of the McMann-Tavares-Jarnkrok line:
As we have talked about, I think there are good elements on the line. Those are three guys who are going to work. They hound the puck. They shoot the puck. They generate some life. They had a really good shift in the third period where they almost won the game for us.
John has gone onto the line with a really good mindset. He is playing with patience and is playing well defensively. I had him against Thompson’s line a lot tonight. Those guys did a good job.
It is good. Obviously, Jarnkrok coming back into the lineup gives the whole group a different element of experience and all of those kinds of things. I have been really happy with that line. Their confidence as a trio is growing.
On a tight-checking game after two high-scoring battles to start the season series:
It probably shouldn’t be unexpected in the sense that these things usually correct themselves. Whether there is a luck factor to it or if it is the teams themselves, you want the game to be in order. That is what I think was at play tonight.
I am hoping some of the reason why we weren’t great is that we were maybe saving some in the tank for tomorrow night, which we were trying to fight and not do. Coming off of the game on [Monday], you can understand why we were looking ahead a little bit. I am glad we stuck with it.
We kept talking about it. “We are 10 minutes from points,” “we’re five minutes from points,” or “we are right there, so stay with it.” We got our point, and we got the second in overtime. To that end, it is a good night and a successful night. We will get to Boston as quickly as we can and be ready for tomorrow.
On Jake McCabe’s status for Thursday’s game in Boston:
We hope so. I haven’t talked to our medical team. The plan was to hope to get him through the evening so he could fly with us tonight. I don’t know where that is at. He wasn’t available today. We didn’t see him at all today. He wasn’t here this morning, either.
