Sheldon Keefe stood in front of the assembled reporters near the visitors’ dressing room in the KeyBank Center and spoke slowly with a clear intention.
The Maple Leafs put forth a brutal effort in a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, that much was obvious.
But the loss was part of a larger, more concerning stretch:
The Leafs have just one regulation win in their last nine games, and that was against the lowly Ottawa Senators.
And the Leafs’ head coach didn’t try to sugarcoat matters.
“This is the worst we have been in a very long time,” said Keefe. He ain't lying.
There was no feeling of resolve, or the “just keep grinding” ethos of his predecessor.
Just exasperation.
“We weren’t good at all,” said Keefe, “but I was impressed with Buffalo today.”
It was a change of pace from the normally thoughtful coach, who often chooses his words carefully in postgame news conferences.
Not long after Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams” blared postgame in a clever bit of irony from the KeyBank Center DJ, Keefe didn’t try to detail what might come next in the search for a rebound performance.
Instead, he was blunt. I wouldn't have been blunt, but brutally honest comes to mind.
“It just seemed like we played, and defended, tired for most of the game,” said Keefe.
And he looked for answers.
“It is tough to put a finger on it other than to say that we have to be better,” said Keefe. “We have to deal with the adversity, the things we’re going through, a little bit better. We need to find more solutions to our depth. Injuries and things that we’ve had, we’re fighting some challenges on our third and fourth lines and on our defence. In the back-to-back, the schedule the way it’s been, it really revealed itself today against a team as deep as Buffalo is.”
After a decent start, the Leafs ended up allowing 16 shots in the first period.
Frederik Andersen largely looked sharp, covering for continued defensive miscues.
“Probably the one positive I’ll take from the game is that Fred was able to get a lot of work today,” said Keefe.
In a search for positives, that Andersen had to face 36 shots sets a pretty low bar. But such was the state of affairs after the loss.
“This one, it’s still not a one-off because we haven’t really put our game together for quite some time, but this one was different today because, for most of the game, it didn’t feel like we were in the building at all,” said Keefe.
There have been understandable reasons for the Leafs’ struggles at times this season. Injuries to key players, including Morgan Rielly, have played a factor, as has poor goaltending.
But on Sunday, Keefe sounded like he had a lot to unpack over their recent stretch.
“We haven’t been able to get the results that we are capable of getting, but it seems like each game has been a little bit different in terms of what the issues are,” said Keefe.
Beyond the exasperation, is there a common thread? Why has a team that won 15 of its first 20 games under Keefe not looked nearly as dominant this month?
Captain John Tavares had some thoughts.
“We just haven’t been able to put a full 60 together,” he said. “I think at times, we haven’t held leads very well. And then tonight’s a night where we just didn’t play very good overall, which we, I don’t think, we’ve really had. But considering the sense of urgency we need to have and the points, how crucial they are, it’s disappointing especially once we got ourselves an opportunity in the third to win it, to not find a way and raise our game at that point.”
Though it was the Leafs’ third game in four nights, no one was biting on the idea that scheduling was the reason they looked sluggish and did not defend well.
“That’s the nature of our league, especially January, February and March,” said Tavares. “The schedule is backloaded that way and every team faces those challenges.”
“Everybody plays 82 games. Three in four doesn’t matter,” said Zach Hyman.
Asked for a common thread through the Leafs’ uneven performances in February, Hyman answered quickly, echoing his coach’s sense of frustration.
“Well it’s hard to win hockey games, clearly,” said Hyman. “Teams are good and we have to be better, clearly. We’re not proud of that, obviously, and all these games matter. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, if you’re playing Buffalo, you’re playing Tampa, you’re playing Florida. It doesn’t matter. You’ve got to come to the rink prepared and you’ve got to be awake.”
Still, as sloppy as they looked for most of the game, when they pushed back to tie the score when Hyman scored early in their third period, it was hard not to be reminded of how quickly things can turn for a team as talented as the Leafs. Even Egor Korshkov got in on the action with his first goal in his NHL debut.
There were stretches in the first period and to start the third period when the Leafs looked capable of maintaining momentum. Mitch Marner was one of the few Leafs players who put forth a strong and noticeable effort all evening. He was one of just three Leafs players, including linemates Hyman and Auston Matthews, who had a positive expected goals for percentage on the night at 56.29.
But those stretches were far too short, and the Leafs remain difficult to predict.
“We got ourselves back in a game we probably really didn’t deserve to be in,” said Tavares.
As has been the case throughout February, the Leafs let momentum swing the other way too easily.
“It’s a tough time of the year,” said Jason Spezza. “Teams are going to take momentum. I don’t think you’re going to get 60 minutes of dominant hockey many nights, but I think you’re going to have to understand that you’ve got to control momentum swings a little better than we did.”
In the end, it was fascinating to watch the patient and analytically inclined Keefe speak so brazenly about his players’ performance.
Consider how resolute and focused on the Leafs’ growth as a team he sounded the day after a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. “That is really what the challenge is here for us — to be able to develop and show that we are an upper-echelon team,” he said then. “I believe those teams are the ones that don’t get fazed by an injury here or an injury there. We’ve just got to stay focused on what we need to do well as a group and where we need to continue to grow.”
Keefe has established himself as a coach who can connect with his players on an empathetic level. But on Sunday, he was necessarily direct about a team that, so far this month, has not produced the kind of results it did in earlier stretches.
“To me, it was pretty apparent from about the 10-minute mark in the first period on that we didn’t have it today,” said Keefe. “Frankly, I was a little stunned that we even had the surge that we did to start the third (period). Just because we just didn’t seem to have it today.”
The change in tone from Keefe was warranted. It will be interesting to see whether Keefe’s message resonates enough to spark a larger momentum swing for the Leafs in the final quarter of the season.
“We’re in a battle here,” said Hyman. “Every point matters. This is the final stretch. This is game 60. Twenty-two games left. We’ve got to get going.”
It's time to put on your big boy pants and win some damn games.
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