Forget about Netflix, Keefe is binging on Maple Leafs
Preparing for next game — whenever it may be — is priority for coach
In a lot of ways, the Maple Leafs have built a reputation as a cutting-edge franchise in the era of the Shana-plan. They’ve invested in analytics. They’ve hired women in a league that’s still largely a boys club. They’ve staffed their sports science and scouting departments more extensively (and more expensively) than any NHL franchise.
But they’ve also maintained an air of old-era eccentricity. General manager Kyle Dubas wears professorial grey cardigans to press conferences when he isn’t tweeting out the link to a dead writer reciting ancient wisdom. Team president Brendan Shanahan prefers pen and paper over typing with his thumbs. And head coach Sheldon Keefe created social media buzz on Tuesday when he fessed up to a Luddite tendency of his own: Even in self-isolation amid the coronavirus-induced halt to the sporting norm, Keefe does not have a Netflix account.
Keefe prefers old-fashioned Hollywood movies to the latest buzz-worthy TV shows, he told a conference call of media types. So yes, he has caught “Ford v Ferrari,” the Matt Damon auto racing epic nominated for Best Picture at the most recent Oscars, and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” the feel-good Tom Hanks flick. But no, he has not seen “Tiger King,” the streaming giant’s hit show of the moment.
“When I first heard about it, I thought it was going to be a documentary on Tiger Woods, which I thought would have been terrific,” Keefe said.
That makes two of us, Coach. Which is not to say Keefe is cueing up his vintage reel-toreel projector for nightly screenings in his home cinema. As he told TSN 1050 on Tuesday, he’s an iTunes guy. Which is not to say he’s been spending the four weeks since the Leafs last played a game catching up on the years’ worth of popular culture in the Apple catalogue.
Even if the games and practices have been put on hold, Keefe’s work continues. The only binge-worthy season on television, to his eye, was interrupted after Game 70 of 82.
“I’m doing a lot of binging on the Toronto Maple Leafs currently. It’s taking up a lot of my time,” he said. “In many senses it’s been sort of business as usual. We have projects and things we’re working on every day … Our season is not complete, and we have to take advantage of every day that we have.”
Whether or not the season is complete is, of course, yet to be determined. On Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman kept alive the idea that summertime hockey — games as late as August — remains one of umpteen possibilities.
But while Keefe coached the Leafs for 47 of their 70 games after replacing Mike Babcock during a late November road trip through the American West, it’s safe to say he eventually found himself as visibly frustrated by this team’s inconsistencies as his predecessor ever was. It only took a couple of months on the job for him to call the Leafs “immature,” this in the midst of a stretch that saw them lose five of six in the lead-up to the bye week and all-star break.
On that point, mind you, Keefe said he wanted to set the record straight.
“I think an important distinction that should be made: We didn’t necessarily say our team was immature, it’s that we played immature. I think they’re two different things,” Keefe said. “We’ve shown at times that we can play very well against the best teams in the league and get great results from that. So it’s a matter of us bringing that more consistently.”
As much as Keefe is a firstyear coach, it’s a years-old refrain. The Leafs played at 102-point pace under Keefe, which is essentially the same as the previous two combined full seasons under Babcock, when they put up 100 and 105 points. And just like the rest of us who’ve watched this team closely, Keefe said he’s of the belief the enormity of the assembled talent ought to be producing better numbers.
But therein lies the rub. New tactics were unfurled under Keefe, but old habits eventually re-emerged. Just like Babcock used to repeat ad nauseam about the necessity to “dig in” and “work harder,” Keefe began rolling down an oddly similar road.
“The biggest area for us to get better at is to be more consistent in both our preparation and effort, and then ultimately in our performance,” he said. “While all those other things are important — the structure, and how we play — if we can’t play at a high level every single day it doesn’t really matter what we’re talking about and what we’re trying to accomplish. We need to give ourselves an opportunity through a foundation of work ethic, competitiveness and discipline and structure.”
Two coaches coming to the same conclusion in such short order might lead you to believe that the team’s problems lie beyond the guy standing on the bench in the suit; that it’s more about the personnel mix than the message. And Tuesday brought news on that front, specifically word of the signing of Alexander Barabanov, the KHL forward who inked a one-year deal worth $925,000 (U.S.). Keefe called Barabanov “an important piece of the puzzle for us” in the 2020-21 season.
As for the existing players, Keefe said the club’s been clear in its message to the group. The pandemic-related shutdown is a global calamity. But it can also be an opportunity.
“The message that’s been given to our players and to our staff is that there’s no excuse here,” Keefe said. “We should come back as better versions of ourselves.”
Better versions, and possibly fatter versions, considering the ongoing moratorium on skating.
“Maybe in a lot of cases (coming back better) is going to be difficult to do from a physical standpoint,” Keefe said.
As for the coach, he said he’s spending more time with his wife and two sons than he ever has. They’ve been playing board games, going for walks, trying out home-schooling. (“My Grade 4 math skills are improving daily,” Keefe said with a laugh.) Oh, and someone in the family has been watching copious Leafs games, no matter if he knows how they end.
“I don’t know if I’m proud or embarrassed that I don’t have a Netflix account,” Keefe said. “But it seems like a rabbit hole of entertainment I don’t necessarily need to get down.”