Firing Sheldon Keefe Will Not Fix Toronto Maple Leafs Issues

If the Toronto Maple Leafs fire Sheldon Keefe, it won’t change the outcome of where this team is headed.

Throughout his tenure, Sheldon Keefe has been the winningest head coach in Toronto Maple Leafs history and has guided this team to the playoffs every year. Although he can be fiery behind the bench, it’s usually towards officials as he’s definitely more of the modern-day player’s coach.

That style and philosophy definitely helped the room as the team went on a run after they fired Mike Babcock and has been good ever since. Obviously, the playoff success hasn’t happened yet, but year-after-year, they’ve been one of the top regular season teams in the NHL.

There’s no doubting that this roster is talented but are they talented enough to win a Stanley Cup? Well, the past seven years would suggest they’re not because they’ve only advanced to the second round, once.

Consistently making the playoffs is one thing but having a long playoff run should probably have happened by now, with many thinking that this year was “the year.”

Unfortunately as we all know, the team failed in the biggest series of their lives, but you can’t put the blame on the coach.

The players failed him.

Toronto Maple Leafs Shouldn’t Fire Keefe

Auston Matthews didn’t score a goal in the second round, while John Tavares and Mitch Marner weren’t much better. Their Game 3 performance was one of the most embarrassing displays of hockey we’ve ever watched.

I can’t sit here and truly think that it’s Keefe’s fault that the team lost.

Sure, could he have split up a few lines or played Luke Schenn less minutes? Yes, most definitely, but at the same time, Schenn was their best defensive defenseman. He trusted the veteran and he performed, so what else was he supposed to do?

He could have split Matthews and Marner up more or demoted Marner to the third-line and brought up Ryan O’Reilly, but how’s that going to help? Marner is the second-best player on the Toronto Maple Leafs and even if he’s struggling, you need him to play as much as possible with the hope that he’ll eventually figure it out.

Keefe is not the issue, it’s the players.

The combination of Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander are not a good enough collective group to win. We’ve tried this for seven years and it hasn’t worked, so instead of trying the same thing, let’s make a deal and change it up.

If that trade goes sideways and the team crumbles, well that’s the price you have to pay, because another year of regular season success followed by playoff failure is not good enough and Keefe shouldn’t lose his job because of his player’s lack of effort.

You can yell and scream at a player so much, but if he doesn’t listen, that’s on him, and Keefe has won everywhere he’s ever coached, so I don’t think he’s the problem right now.