Sheldon Keefe spoke to the media after his team’s 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets lifted the Leafs’ record to 4-2-0.
On the team’s performance:
I really liked that we scored a big goal in the second half to go up 2-1. It got a little hairy for a while. I loved how we responded and handled this. We came out of one of those incidents with a power play, and when you get a power play at that point with the temperature of the game rising, you want your best players to succeed. They did a great job of giving us a two-goal lead early in the third period.
It was the first time that we found ourselves in this situation at the start of the third period. It wasn’t perfect, but with the combination of our guys playing hard and defending our net well and Samsonov being really strong for us, it was a good win for us to start this journey.
On Morgan Rielly’s response to Nick Robertson’s hit:
Our sport demands different things at different times. Sometimes you need players to step out of character a bit. Rielly’s moment was that he had to step in for a teammate and fix this. David Kampf, Simmonds and Clifford scored the winning goal. That’s how sport is: you need different people to step in at different times.
It was a really positive thing to take from the game today: everyone contributed in different ways, and in some cases not in the way you would expect.
On Wayne Simmonds and Kyle Clifford’s first game of the season:
They had fresh legs and lots of energy. They were really motivated to come here. That’s part of the reason why you change the group a bit. You go out on the road and try to continue to build our team and get traction on the season.
They are two important people for us in our organization. For me, I kind of had my fingers crossed that the two would go through the waivers – selfishly, for me, they give us extra depth and the ability to change the look of our lineup at any time you choose now that we have the space cap.
These guys are always important to us. It was good to see them come today and contribute.
On the pass between Simmonds’ legs for the winning goal:
Wayne is a guy who has made a lot of plays in this league. From time to time he takes it out. It was good to see. And David Kampf continues to do his thing.
On John Tavares’ good start:
This offseason has done him good. He was healthy all along. He could really push and challenge and look to add and improve his game. Of course, he had a setback in camp that blocked him. He didn’t have the same momentum at the start of the season that others might have had. It doesn’t seem to have affected him. On the contrary, perhaps this free time has given him a little more juice.
He looks really good. Two very important goals for us tonight. More important than that, I think he’s been really good in every game. At five against five, he was really good. His line – whether it’s Malgin or Robertson there now – has always been good for us.
On the team winning four of six even without hitting their top gear offensively:
We can be better for sure. We can be better in our structure. I think there were a lot of good times. Everything we gave up tonight, for the most part, came at the end of our offense where the puck changed hands and they went the other way. In terms of structure, or when we were in our structure, we didn’t give up a lot.
The goal we gave up – I didn’t like the way we handled that. But there were some good things there. The power play gets two very important goals for us tonight, but the power play can still be better. Not all of our guys are really clicking offensively yet – for Auston and Mitch and Bunts it was maybe their best game tonight. Auston had 13 shot attempts or something crazy tonight. You can tell it’s right there and ready to burst.
All of these things are very good signs for our team. We’re still picking up points. On a night like tonight, it’s the special teams and the goalkeepers. We come out of the third period clean and head to Vegas now.
On his concern for Mitch Marner when he was hit from behind in the boards:
I didn’t see it initially. He came to the bench, and his face was a mess. I didn’t really know what had happened. I asked them to find it for me so I could figure out what happened there. I wasn’t worried because he looked fine, but he doesn’t quite look the same right now. But he will heal.
On Auston Matthews appearing to heal a pain in his back:
I think there were a few times he seemed to draw attention to it, but when he comes back to the bench he doesn’t say anything about it. He just plays hockey. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, but whenever it’s a guy like that who’s as important as him and plays as much as him, you’re going to continue to be aware of what’s going on holidays and others.
#Sheldon #Keefe #Morgan #Rielly #fighting #Winnipegs #Josh #Morrissey #Rielly #stepped #teammate #moment