NHL may come calling for Keefe
Success with Marlies earns players’ respect with mix of old and new
For Toronto Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe, winning is a complicated thing.
The 37-year-old native of Brampton is definitely a winner. Since taking the helm with the Marlies three years ago, he’s compiled a .659 winning percentage (147-63-10-3), which includes 29 road wins this season — an American Hockey League record entering Saturday’s game in Utica — and an AHL-low 16 losses in 76 games in the 2015-16 season.
If you add in his time with the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (a team he built with current Marlies GM Kyle Dubas) and with the Pembroke Lumber Kings in the Central Canada Hockey League, he’s got a winning percentage over .700.
It’s only natural then that Keefe — along with Syracuse Crunch coach Benoit Groulx, the Providence Bruins’ Jay Leach, Pascal Vincent of the Manitoba Moose and the Tucson Roadrunners’ Mike Van Ryn — is near the top of the list of AHL coaches most likely to graduate to the NHL in the near future. It’s a compliment Keefe doesn’t take lightly, but says he doesn’t dwell on. He considers hockey a continuous learning process, and that’s what makes winning complicated. Game plans and structures can change shift to shift. That means thousands of hours of video, individualized player training programs (on and off the ice, in-season and off-season), studying analytics, communicating with hockey people and shedding just enough ego to allow different ideas into your routine, even if they don’t work.
At that rate, Keefe and his coaching staff are quite familiar with 12- to 15-hour days, seven days a week. But Keefe is also a father of Landon, 7, and Wyatt, 5, and husband to Jackie. In his spare time he “pushes pucks around” at his son’s hockey practices.
“The correct title is on-ice helper,” Keefe says with a laugh.
“I have some fun with the kids and it’s a nice change of pace for me, but … it’s nice to be acknowledged that way (as a top coach). As a young guy, a player, you dream of the NHL, but I never originally got into coaching to get into the NHL. I got into it to lay some roots down, to start a family life, and coaching was a vehicle to do that since I started in Pembroke and I was the owner and general manager there.
“But when you have some success, the competitor in you takes over. The OHL takes a chance on you (Dubas was GM with the Greyhounds) and I feel fortunate to be on the path I’ve been on. But my focus is here, on this team … I have so much work to do and this city is so great.”
Marlies centre Jean Dupuy has had Keefe as a coach since junior in the Soo, and says he’s still the same: a solid communicator with a sense of humour and no-nonsense voice of authority.
He isn’t above yelling to ensure his point has taken root. Just ask rookie defenceman Timothy Liljegren, who entered the Maple Leafs’ organization as a first-round pick from Sweden, with zero experience when it comes to North American coaching styles.
“Oh yeah, many times,” Liljegren said about hearing it from the coaching staff. “But I’m in my first year here, so I expect that . . . It’s very different here than in Sweden. It’s because they tell you stuff like that every day, and that’s not always the case in Sweden, but it’s better this way because you have a better understanding when you do something wrong.”
Part of Keefe’s plan with Liljegren and other players includes periodic breaks from the schedule, which often includes three games in three days.
While it may seem appropriate to play a teenage Liljegren as much as possible to encourage on-ice development, the rookie sees plenty of breaks from games. That time is spent in the gym, or working on skills and skating with assistant coaches.
Keefe has shown he’s not afraid of getting into it with more experienced players, too. Netminder Calvin Pickard, a key part of the Marlies’ success, knows that first-hand. Pickard, who has NHL experience, drew his coach’s ire last month. Frustrated by a non-call when the other team scored, the goalie turned his net upside down. Replays showed he was correct in arguing there were too many men on the ice when the goal was scored, but Keefe still pulled him.
They met afterwards: Keefe made his point, Pickard made his, and the two moved on.
As much as Keefe has a stern side, he realizes there must also be a buffer. That’s why the coaching staff and Dubas anointed veterans Ben Smith, Colin Greening and Rich Clune as the leadership group.
Smith, a tenacious worker with Mike Babcock’s 2016-17 Leafs, was named captain of the Marlies in January, but all three set the example when it comes to work ethic. It’s similar to the dynamic Babcock and the Leafs have constructed with Patrick Marleau, Ron Hainsey, Tomas Plekanec and Roman Polak.
For Clune, though, there’s more to it than just hard work and experience. Three years ago, Clune penned “The Battle,” an introspective look at his battles with alcohol abuse, on Derek Jeter’s website The Players Tribune. He’d also been placed on unconditional waivers by the Nashville Predators, his enforcer-forward role being marginalized in the new, faster NHL.
“He doesn’t neglect older guys just because we’ve had our shot in our careers. He believes in development at any age,” Clune said of Keefe, “and that’s been a benefit for me ... He’s just so energetic — he doesn’t drink coffee — and he’s always thinking about hockey. There’s never a moment when he isn’t involved.”