Keefe says future with team ‘out of my control’
Coach confident group can succeed despite eight straight early exits, five of them on his watch
Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe didn’t sound like a dead man walking. Keefe was confident, almost defiant, as he took responsibility for the team’s first-round failure against the Boston Bruins when players and coaches gathered for one last time Monday.
“Today is always a difficult day and really the worst day of the season,” Keefe said. “It should feel that way when you don’t meet expectations.
“We’re in the results business here and we didn’t get results and we haven’t met expectations, and as a head coach I take responsibility for that … My job as a head coach is to find solutions and chart a path ahead for the group to come through and to succeed at the most important time of year, and we haven’t done that.”
Keefe and a handful of players met the media for the last time this season at the Ford Performance Centre, each expressing in his own way a desire to return and a belief the group can get the job done despite eight straight early playoff exits.
There will be changes, there always are. But how big remains the question. GM Brad Treliving, president Brendan Shanahan and MLSE CEO Keith Pelley are expected to address the media Friday.
Last year’s exit meeting revealed a rift between then-GM Kyle Dubas and Shanahan that resulted in Dubas’s contract not being renewed.
There is some heat this year on Shanahan, now 10 years on the job with little to show for it. There’s a new chief executive in Pelley and an ownership group that may be tired of being the butt of jokes. But there’s also heat on Keefe, now behind the bench for five playoff series losses. He has reached the second round once.
Keefe’s two-year extension hasn’t even kicked in but replacing the main voice in the room remains an option for the front office, a fact the coach acknowledged.
“You don’t get to make decisions about your position,” he said. “It’s out of my control. My job is to find solutions and help direct and create a path for our team to continue to move forward. And that’s my focus.
“I understand that ownership and management, they make those types of decisions. And I accept responsibility for not meeting results. I believe in myself greatly. I love coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now more than ever, I believe in myself and our team and that I will win and our team will win.
“But you’ve got to be accountable when you don’t meet expectations.”
Among other tidbits coming out of the room:
■ Auston Matthews says he got really sick after Game 2, played through it in Game 3 then “took a weird hit (in Game 4) and couldn’t go any longer. That’s as detailed as I’m going to get into it. It was tough. It was frustrating. It sucks. It was killing me to watch.”
■ William Nylander said the migraines that cost him the first three games of the series interfered with his vision.
■ Captain John Tavares said he hasn’t thought about a contract extension, for which he is eligible July 1. “I love playing here,” he said. “When I committed here six years ago, I saw a tremendous amount of talent, and an amazing hockey market, and an organization that is fully committed to winning and doing whatever it can. I still feel that way.”
■ And goalie Ilya Samsonov, winger Tyler Bertuzzi and forward Max Domi, all pending unrestricted free agents, are open to returning. “I love this city,” Samsonov said. “I love everybody on this team.”