Toronto Maple Leafs: Sheldon Keefe’s Biggest Challenge

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“It’s a major step backwards again for our team.” 

Those were among the first words Sheldon Keefe spoke on Tuesday night, as the bench boss was asked to comment on the Marlies’ disappointing 7-6 overtime loss to the Belleville Senators.

“I thought defensively we just played with no purpose at all throughout the game. You know we’re a high flying, free-wheeling offensively so we found a way to score a bunch which is good but we should win 100 per cent of the games that we score four goals, let alone six”

Keefe, by all accounts, is right.

The Marlies should not have dropped Tuesday’s inter-divisional contest, and especially not on home ice to a clearly inferior Belleville team missing nine different players due to injury. Frankly, they’re better than that. After shutting out the Laval Rocket in both games of their weekend series mere days prior, this was thought to be a Marlies team on the rise.

A Marlies team, supposedly, that was rounding into form.

Martin Marincin‘s return was meant as merely icing on the cake. Playing his first game as a Marlie since game 7 of the Calder Cup final, Marincin would bring with him the invaluable commodity of adding an NHL-calibre presence to an AHL blueline.

The best part? There was no real assimilation process for Marincin, either. Not only did the 26-year-old log 52 games with the Marlies just last season, but even if his tenure amounted to nothing but a distant memory now, the Marlies and Leafs employ practically identical systems to serve this very purpose.

Not to mention, Marincin’s arrival paired nicely with the return of a now-healthy Michael Carcone.

Acquired in the Josh Leivo trade, Carcone emerged as a prominent contributor for the Marlies once entering the lineup on a consistent basis, which made losing his 25 points in 34 games to a concussion on January 12th a significant blow felt by the entire offence.

The recent departure of Carl Grundstrom only amplified that further.

But Carcone was back. And with the roster slowly rounding into form, all the normal disclaimers for every Marlies loss this season – goaltending, injuries, travel – no longer apply.

Michael Hutchinson is an NHL goaltender, one who the Leafs surrendered a 2020 5th-round pick for to provide NHL goaltending. Having missed the previous 10 games with a sprained elbow, Rasmus Sandin is expected to return to the lineup at some point this weekend and immediately fortify the third pair.

While Timothy Liljegren still remains a little ways off, as high-ankle sprains tend to linger, this is arguably the closest to healthy the sophomore has been since landing on the shelf 26 games ago. Getting Liljegren back would not only boost the team from a depth perspective, but mercifully reunite the Marlies with their most gifted puck mover as well.

The pieces are all there. Management has done their part.

The first year of the Laurence Gilman era has been a decidedly aggressive one, with Tanner MacMaster – acquired on February 3rd from the Utica Comets – signalling the fourth different forward and sixth different roster player to have joined the Marlies via trade since opening day.

At whichever point that a roster hole presented itself, management quickly sought to fill it.

Some moves – Carcone, Hutchinson, Steve Oleksy – have worked out. Others – namely, Morgan Klimchuk – have not. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Marlies are acutely aware of their own limitations, have been for this entire season, and have otherwise proved just how committed they are to remedying them in the process.

These are not insignificant moves, either.

The proactive nature undertaken by management has been vital to keeping this iteration of the Marlies afloat in the face of legitimate adversity. They’re a large reason for why a team saddled with sub-.900 goaltending for most of the year, a team that’s lost a whopping 168 man-games to injury and will now be without Mason Marchment until April at the earliest, can sit firmly in a playoff spot and six points off the division lead with the trade deadline on the horizon.

The only moves left to be made at this point are the ones activating players off the IR.

These Marlies may lack the high-end skill of last year’s squad, but they’re still a markedly talented offensive team receiving meaningful contributions from both prospects and veterans alike. In fact, the Marlies currently find themselves in a tie for first in AHL goals at the moment with 167. The team they’re tied with, the Springfield Thunderbirds, needed 49 games to compile that total.

The Marlies did it in 47.

Where the real challenge lies now is maximizing this talent moving forward.

With Marincin joining the fold, and both Liljegren and Sandin on the verge of a return, the Marlies possess 9 competent defencemen to fit onto a blueline that offers only 6 open spots. Some players who aren’t used to sitting will need to sit. That’s just the nature of the beast.

How Keefe deals with that uncomfortable reality will be a delicate process to manoeuvre. There’s a fine line between icing one’s optimal lineup and doing what’s best for a prospect’s development – one every American League coach straddles on a daily basis.

Striking a balance between the two has been Keefe’s calling card throughout his entire Marlies tenure. But doing so has never been more important, and more difficult than it is right now.

Thanks for reading!

All stats courtesy of HockeyDB.com & TheAHL.com