TORONTO — After his Toronto Maple Leafs dropped a winnable season opener to the Montreal Canadiens, Sheldon Keefe called his club’s effort “unacceptable.”
Monday night, after his team’s second subpar performance of the year — a 4-2 loss to the rebuilding Arizona Coyotes that seemed all too familiar — Keefe was more pointed in his criticism of the team, pointing, specifically, at his leadership group:
“The difference between us and Arizona is that we have elite players,” he said in the wake of that loss. “And our elite players didn’t play like elite players.”
On Wednesday, the bench boss walked back the criticism of his stars.
“I used some of the wrong words to try to describe what I was trying to describe, which is that the difference in the game was just, we weren’t able to produce, whether it’s power play or five-on-five. And that’s really the difference, with all the puck time we had. But by no means was I meaning anything beyond that.”
Keefe relayed as much to his leadership group before practice, according to Mitch Marner.
“I talked to him today — he explained what he meant to say and how it came out and everything like that. I’ll leave it at that. We have closed doors for a reason, and we have talks without you guys for a reason. We had that talk today and we understand. We’re grown men.”
While those outside the Leafs’ room have taken note of the fact that Keefe has called out his team twice already through four games in 2022-23, the club’s two brightest stars made clear they weren’t miffed by their coach’s criticism.
“I mean, I think what’s said in the media and then obviously what’s said behind the doors in private discussions is maybe different than how it’s interpreted in the media,” Auston Matthews said of Keefe’s public comments and their discussion earlier Monday.
“This is my seventh year here and I kind of understand how it works now. But I think the conversations that go on behind closed doors, without media, are more generally discussions and communications rather than just harping on guys.”
While Keefe clarified the criticism of his stars, he reiterated Wednesday that more is needed from the Maple Leafs’ top scorers, even if last year the club wound up turning a slow start into a dominant regular season.
“It’s an 82-game schedule, a lot of things fall into place and you find your rhythm. I think it’s fair to say that, offensively, we haven’t found our rhythm here yet, whether it’s 5-on-5 or power play. At times, it’s looked really good, and other times not as much,” he said.
“Whether it’s our individual players or our team, we had a record-setting-type season last year in the regular season, and it took some time to get to that point. So you do have that. But, I mean, let’s not settle on that.
“Let’s be better than that. That’s really the message.”
