Sheldon Keefe has a record of 13-4-1 since being brought in as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
A lot has been said about Keefe and how he coaches the Toronto Maple Leafs, compared to Mike Babcock.
Keefe has coached his teams in a way where players believe in him, and his systems. He has the records to show for it, too. He lead the Toronto Marlies to a Calder Cup, and now he’s looking to win the Stanley Cup with some of those same players.
You can already see how different the response is from players since Keefe has come into coach. They’re on track for more goals for, less goals against and a much better power play and penalty kill.
Leafs improve to 13-4-1 under Sheldon Keefe.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) January 1, 2020
They're now on pace for 98 points at the halfway point. Quite a turnaround.
When Babcock was fired at the quarter point of the season, he finished with 73 goals for in 23 games. Keefe on the other hand has already matched it, with five less games played.
Keefe’s new-look Toronto Maple Leafs lead the league in goals for (73), goals per game and power play percentage (36.8%).
A lot of that has to do with the different usages of players. For instance, Mitch Marner has only had under 20 minutes of ice-time in one game since Keefe has taken over.
He’s even gone as far as playing music during practices, which I know a lot of players enjoy.
Some of Keefes ‘other’ changes:
The defense (before Muzzin was injured):
Rielly-Barrie
Muzzin-Holl
Dermott-Ceci
Whether it’s the new defense core, or newly named all-star Frederik Andersen, the Toronto Maple Leafs witnessed a significant change in goals against since Keefe was brought in (81GA in 23GP for Babcock, 51GA in 18GP for Keefe).
While there is still five games to go (until he reaches Babcock’s GP), and Keefe may have the same amount of goals against, but it’s not just that.
The usage of Pierre Engvall was one of the curveballs in the beginning of his tenure. There were a lot of fans who didn’t know what he’d bring, but Keefe and Engvall showed us in the first few games.
While Keefe coached the Toronto Marlies, he saw what potential each player had. With Engvall, he possessed great penalty killing abilities. A big body with a long stick, who can cut off passing lanes and take the puck away from opposing players.
There’s still the other penalty killers, like Marner and Zach Hyman who are leaned on a bit more, but Engvall has been a nice surprise and one of the teams best penalty killers since coming in.
But you have to think — once players like Trevor Moore, Andreas Johnsson and eventually Ilya Mikheyev return, what changes will be made? Will Engvall stay up with the Toronto Maple Leafs? Or will he be sent back down to the AHL?
These changes will come in due time and some of them might shock us all. But at the same time, they might not. The Toronto Maple Leafs believe in Keefe, so it’ll be interesting to see what changes will be made (once or, if the team ever gets a full lineup back).