Sheldon Keefe has won far more games than lost as the Head Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, bringing in 171 regular season wins over a 278-game span and an outstanding .673 PTS% ranking among the elite coaches in the sport.
Despite that, the opening to seasons has been a struggle for the Toronton Maple Leafs coach, along with the postseason, losing four of five playoff series in which the team was favored to win.
Regardless of the numbers and numerous failures in the postseason, something that happened in the last few days made the decision to find a new coach of the Leafs coach more glaring than ever.
During the November 2nd matchup between the Leafs and Bruin, in the first period, Timothy Liljegren would suffer a gruesome injury at the hands of one of the league’s dirtiest players, Bruins captain Brad Marchand.
The Leafs D-Man would land feet first in the corner boards after being tripped by Marchand, causing Liljegren to go on LTIR for the foreseeable future.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Have A Sheldon Keefe Problem
It’s not the play itself that screamed fire Keefe to me, but the response following the play.
In a clip seen by everyone since, Marchand paced around the Leafs bench following the incident and you could’ve heard a pin drop from the Maple Leaf bench following a severe injury to one of their teammates and best defensemen.
Instead of losing their cool, the Toronto players sat their unbothered by the fact that a division rival with tons of history of dirty plays against the team had just hurt a player who’s been around the team for five seasons.
The game came and went without a response to the incident, and then days later, Keefe commented on the situation, saying he “hated everything about it” and that it’s “it’s not what we want to be about.”
Well, Keefe, unfortunately the team gets judged and criticized based on your role as Head Coach. Throughout his tenure, the Leafs have never been a team filled with emotion or reaction to situations like this with a non-response being much more common than any sort of response.
If many want to blame former General Manager Kyle Dubas for the Leafs being “soft,” what form of responsibility should fall on Keefe and President Brendan Shanahan now that the team hasn’t changed with Dubas out the door?
Not only that, but newly hired General Manager Brad Treliving made it a point to “change” this issue, bringing in names like Ryan Reaves, Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi to enforce this idea that things would change.
This has proven to be nothing but superficial lip service.
Although it’s tough to judge so early on into their tenures, Reaves in particular has been horrendous as a fit. The 36-year-old was brought into the team to be the answer to situations like this and rather than fixing things, the 4th liner has been on the ice for eight goals against and has yet to register a point in 11 games, set to have his worst season of his career.
Reaves also has only two fights and 22 hits on the season, and for some reason has played in every game and in crucial moments.
If Sheldon Keefe wants to keep his job with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s time to put up or shut up with regards to the team being different. As a life long fan who never misses a game or moment, the 2023 Maple Leafs look worse than the year prior and look like a team yet to learn the simple things about what makes a team a true contender come April, May and June.