After practice on Wednesday, head coach Sheldon Keefe discussed his team’s lack of a 5-on-5 offense so far, the status of injured players Kyle Clifford, Jake Muzzin and Matt Murray, and his news line combinations in practice.
Practice Lines – October 26
Leaf rows in training
Kerfoot–Matthews–Marner
Robertson–Tavares–Nylander
Sparrow – Jarnkrok – Malgin
Aston-Reese–Kampf–Engvall
Simmonds, Dawn-KubelRielly–Brodie
Sandin Holl
Giordano–Mete
kralSamsonov
Kallgren @TSN_Edge– Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 26, 2022
Was there any clarification or timeline on Jake Muzzin?
Keefe: No clarity or chronology. Switching from regular IR to LTI really isn’t a factor in anything. Nothing has changed. It’s the same situation. It’s just more of a type of list management. I don’t even know what’s going on there.
I know he didn’t get the follow up he was supposed to. Nothing has changed on that side.
Is there an update on Matt Murray?
Keefe: Nothing but it continues to progress without setbacks. Obviously he’s not traveling with us here, but I spoke to him before we left. Reports are that he was progressing well.
What happened with Kyle Clifford?
Keefe: Cliff has a shoulder injury. He had an MRI here this morning. We have not yet received the results on this subject. He’s going to run out of time, of course. The magnitude of it, we are not entirely sure. It doesn’t seem like anything too serious at this point. He will be away for a while.
Do you plan to include Filip Král in the program for this trip?
Keefe: We’ll see. Obviously it was important for us to have an extra defender here so that we have the possibility to make this change if we want to. Král is a guy we like. He had a good camp for us. It’s been two years in a row that he’s had a good camp for us. He was never admitted last season.
Due to the injuries we have in defense at the moment, it gave him more opportunities to come here and experience it. We have a busy schedule in California, so there might be an opportunity for him. We’ll just take it one day at a time and see how our team performs.
What is the thinking behind the line changes we saw today?
Keefe: We haven’t scored, and in addition to scoring, we control the play we want – especially our last six. We’re looking to achieve a bit of a different look and balance there. Bunting’s presence on this line gives us additional opportunities on offense, especially if you put Malgin there as well. We’re looking to get a little more out of this group that way.
At the same time, I wanted to give Kerfoot a look on the wing. He’s accomplished a bit of both and keeps the Tavares line intact. I also wanted to recover Engvall with Kampf. I really seek to accomplish these things. I think it’s a good balance for us.
Is there a reason why David Kampf and Pierre Engvall worked so well together last year?
Keefe: I think both have the ability to skate the puck on the ice and also to follow and be good on defense. We want this to continue. With Pierre, we are trying to go a little more offensively this season with this line and Jarnkork. He didn’t really connect for us that way. We return to this look.
These guys played good minutes together and tough minutes for us at key times last season. We have to get the best out of Pierre. His return to training the other night didn’t go as I expected. He must find another level here. At the same time, I have to help him find that rhythm.
Why do you think it’s been difficult to generate offense? Is it bad luck?
Keefe: This is part of it. If you go back to each of the games, I think there are a number of opportunities. Normally these pucks would go in, especially with the caliber of players shooting them. He did not enter. That said, I think we can still generate more as a group.
Part of that too could be as simple as the fact that we really have two lines that gave us chances. We need to get a little more from rows three and four in terms of controlling the game, generating their own chances and stressing the opposition a little more. That’s part of it – we want to see if we can do a better job and if that can impact the team as a whole.
Matthews’ line and Tavares’ line did a good job of generating enough scoring chances. We think they can be even more dominant, but they did a good job. We need to be more consistent throughout the training.
How can the Matthews line be more dominant?
Keefe: I think it’s just constantly, changing shifts, having the attacking mindset – not being comfortable with the puck but just really going on defense and challenging. I think there are team effects in there that could benefit them if we can get a little more traction line after line.
This is how our team envisioned this year. It hasn’t come together that way yet here. If we get there, I think there are benefits across the board that the best guys can get out of it.
Other than that, stick with it, stay positive, and stay hungry. No worries on that side.
With the fourth line, do you expect to keep more extra players involved?
Keefe: This is part of it. We talked about having the flexibility to maintain competition. As we speak here, I don’t think anyone has really grasped it here yet.
Simmonds and Clifford had a good presence that they brought to the Winnipeg game, but it wasn’t the same in Vegas. That in itself allows us to change some things. We are always looking for things to really fall into place. It hasn’t happened here yet.
When you talk about players taking chances, does Nick Robertson seem to have done that for you?
Keefe: Yes, he did. Which is really encouraging: Offensively, he’s playing the first game, he’s scoring two goals, and there’s a lot of hype around that — rightly so — but the attack hasn’t been there in the games we’ve got. played since. He always does a lot of little things well around the rink. This is what is important.
As we see even with some of our best players, when you’re not scoring you always have to be a productive player having a positive impact on the game. He does that.
#Sheldon #Keefe #Maple #Leafs #struggle #create #5on5 #offense #games #lines #chances…We #lines