Did Kyle Dubas force Sheldon Keefe to apologize to Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews?

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Sam Hutch
October 20, 2022 (6:09 PM)

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After the Toronto Maple Leafs embarrassing home loss at the hands of the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night, head coach Sheldon Keefe was critical of his star players.

The difference between us and Arizona is that we have elite players. And our elite players didn't play like elite players.

Since then, Keefe has walked back his original comments in an effort to clarify what he meant: take a look.

«I used some of the wrong words to try to describe what I was trying to describe, which is that the difference in the game was just, we weren't able to produce, whether it's power play or five-on-five. And that's really the difference, with all the puck time we had. But by no means was I meaning anything beyond that.

Is it just me or are there two different people behind those comments? I think anyone that knows Keefe as a person or a player knows that he's never minced words. He's a man that means what he says and says what he means. Don't forget Sheldon Keefe once tried to gouge out the eyes of an opponent while playing junior hockey.

These comments seem far more likely to have come from Leaf's General Manager, Kyle Dubas. Is it likely that Dubas told him to walk back his comments about his star players? If that's so, how long can Keefe and the players in the room continue to co-exist? If Dubas is the one behind the apology of sorts and I'm a player in that locker room, I've just lost a ton of respect for Keefe as the voice in the room.

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Will the Maple Leafs fire Sheldon Keefe this year?
Yes, during the season	75	52.8 %
Yes, but after the season	33	23.2 %
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