Sheldon Keefe has a surprising approach after his team blows a 5-1 lead
It sucks when your favorite team loses, it's even worse when they blow a big lead. That's exactly what happened tonight between the Florida Panthers and visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
In a bit of a shocker the Leafs beat up on the two time defending Stanley cup champions Monday night, when they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Leafs wanted to continue that by doing the same to the powerhouse Florida Panthers.
The Leafs looked like they were going to blow the Florida Panthers away last night when they took a 5-1 lead. But it's the Toronto Maple Leafs who are notorious for managing to blow leads.
That's exactly what happened the Panthers battled back down 5-1 to win 7-6 in overtime. After the embarrassing loss the Leafs media asked Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coach Sheldon Keefe,
"What went wrong tonight when you looked like you had this in the bag? "
Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe replied saying:
Obviously, we go from being on a breakaway with a chance to make it 6-1, don't score, and follow it up with a too-many-men on the ice penalty right after. That starts to snowball. Inside of that, we had some pretty terrible penalty killing.
I am not going to focus on that kind of stuff. I am going to focus on the fact that we played another good hockey game today.
We were bad in moments with the penalties. You can't take a too-many-men penalty. You can't give up a shorthanded goal on a clear shot from the blue line. You can't have your fourth line in the third period. You can't chase the puck on the penalty kill. All of those kinds of things we can't do in those moments. Maybe those are a sign of the fatigue factor coming into today. I don't know. Last night, we didn't do any of those types of things. I am going to watch those kinds of things.
For me, this last little stretch we have been on Florida at home, Boston on the road, Tampa last night, and Florida here I was looking to come out of this segment with a sense of where we are at as a team and whether we can compete with the very best in our division. I think that answer is unequivocally yes. That is all I am going to take out of this.
I am not going to focus on that kind of stuff. I am going to focus on the fact that we played another good hockey game today.
We were bad in moments with the penalties. You can't take a too-many-men penalty. You can't give up a shorthanded goal on a clear shot from the blue line. You can't have your fourth line in the third period. You can't chase the puck on the penalty kill. All of those kinds of things we can't do in those moments. Maybe those are a sign of the fatigue factor coming into today. I don't know. Last night, we didn't do any of those types of things. I am going to watch those kinds of things.
For me, this last little stretch we have been on Florida at home, Boston on the road, Tampa last night, and Florida here I was looking to come out of this segment with a sense of where we are at as a team and whether we can compete with the very best in our division. I think that answer is unequivocally yes. That is all I am going to take out of this.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 6 | 260 ANSWERS Sheldon Keefe has a surprising approach after his team blows a 5-1 lead Will the Leafs make it out of the 1st round? | ||
| Yes | 86 | 33.1 % |
| No | 174 | 66.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
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