Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs post gameSheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes which improved the Leafs’ report to 41-18-9.
On the team’s success against a staff that is so onerous to play in opposition to at each nets:
I thought the fellows boxed out well. There had been a couple of suggestions that they received their sticks on for sure and Sammy was actually sturdy on. I thought the fellows defended nicely. We blocked some pictures and discouraged a couple of. We did enough to maintain them away from the web.
They received two objectives off of some breakdowns in our coverage that we need to do a greater job on. For probably the most part, I thought we did a extremely good job defensively.
I thought we moved the puck very well popping out of our finish tonight, which has been an issue for us in recent video games. Tonight, we are playing towards a group that’s maybe the toughest within the league to come back out of the zone in opposition to.
It was certainly an space of focus in yesterday’s apply and coming into today. I thought the D responded very, very nicely with how they moved. I thought they simply got us transferring up the rink very nicely against a group that’s normally quite troublesome to take action against.
On the team responding well regardless of some tough calls from the officials:
The penalty kill responded really, really well. Whether it was popping out to start the second interval or within the third interval, obviously, if the PK doesn’t do a job, it changes the game considerably.
Our power play got one alternative and made good on it. Special groups have been a vital factor in the game tonight. I thought we just played a very good sport against an excellent group.
On the incident that knocked Noel Acciari out of the sport and Acciari’s current standing:
It must be a penalty. It is hard to lose a participant like that on a play like that. The refs noticed it differently.
In terms of an update, he isn’t going to travel with us. He won’t be out there tomorrow. In phrases of what occurs going forward, we must see. He was in the room. He handed off the belt tonight to the other guys — to Reeser.
He looks like he is doing alright, but clearly, he couldn’t come back within the game. That is regarding.
On the bottom six coming through with a few objectives from Zach Aston-Reese:
Huge objectives. That first objective — to begin with, Gustafsson makes a wonderful play to be able to get to a spot and clear the lane to get it there. Reeser gets a stick on it. That is a large aim to get us started.
At a time when they had scored and now the game is in the balance a little bit when it comes to momentum, Lafferty takes a puck, and you’ll see his separation velocity to get into good ice. Reeser actually worked to get to the again submit. Those guys related. It is an enormous aim for us.
Mitch scored an enormous objective on the power play. The goal that Auston will get for us is a big objective. Seeing Morgan shoot it in the internet like that again tonight is really good. Great initiative by him to jump into that good ice and get to that spot.
On Luke Schenn’s reception from the gang after an enormous hit within the third period:
It was great. He hasn’t played, and it’s his first recreation at residence. There is a lot going on for him, right? It was his first recreation at residence, and I am sure there are lots of feelings connected to that as he has spoken about. He made it very clear how a lot it means to him to be back here.
He also hasn’t played. He has had one practice with us. There has been lots going on here. He is going to proceed to get higher.
That was a fantastic moment. He had some good moments in the game. Certainly, to bring the physicality there at an important time with the penalty kill and such… It was great to see the gang react and give him that.
On the lineup choices for tomorrow after finishing the game with just 10 forwards:
As we talked about, we’re going with 12 and 6. We are going to stick with that. Even with dropping Acciari, that’s our plan. We will look and see what we now have for tomorrow, how guys wake up, handle it, and see if we now have to adjust our plan in any respect.
This morning, I advised Holl he was enjoying tomorrow. I advised Simmonds he was playing tomorrow. Those guys are positively getting into. It just so happens we now have an damage. We would’ve introduced Simmer in anyway.
Those guys will be prepared. We will make any adjustments we want to as soon as we see the place we’re at precisely.
On using both goalies down the stretch:
We want two goalies to be ready, push one another, and really feel good. We desire a staff enjoying well in front of them. It is a back-to-back. Our team has accomplished well in back-to-backs this season for probably the most part.
We have a really hungry Ottawa group that gave it to us pretty good in here the last time we saw them. It is going to be a difficult sport tomorrow. Our staff goes to have to be actually good in front of Matt.
It is a good opportunity for Matt to go in and maintain his game going. As I talked about earlier than, I think he has played nicely since coming back. He hasn’t had the results the method in which he would love them to show up on the stat sheet, however I even have appreciated his game and his course of. Tomorrow is one other chance for him to put it on show.
