Sheldon Keefe Feeling Pressure as Maple Leafs Have Decisions To Make
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was on his regular spot on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio, Morning Skate with Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin and when asked about Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe’s future with the club, he was unsure if ownership will pull the trigger as the seat gets hotter and hotter.
** NHLRumors.com Transcription
The Toronto Maple Leafs Are Not Passing the Stanley Cup Contender Eye Test
Scott Laughlin: “Well, Elliot joins us now, and Friedge, we were talking about this earlier. It just seemed like after last night’s game, you heard Sheldon Keefe say it when asked about the team struggles here of late and blowing another multi-goal lead. Well, it’s been about a week. It’s been seven days, eight days, almost trying to downplay all the pressure he’s feeling. And you see Craig Berube’s name trending.
And we know that Craig came out recently and mentioned that, yeah, it would be a great opportunity if he could ever coach the Toronto Maple Leafs and that sort of thing. What do you make of the pressure, real or imagined, on the Leafs head coach right now, Sheldon Keefe?”
NHL Rumors: Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs
Elliotte Friedman: “It’s real. I just don’t necessarily know that they’re going to make any changes. Like, the one thing Scott, is that they gave him an extension before the year right? And I just think we are probably getting into a bigger argument or a bigger conversation than I think everybody intends, but look the organization as a whole is about to go through some big changes.
I think the ownership structure is going to change. Right now. It’s 37 Good Telecom Rogers. 37 and a half bad Telecom Bell (laughs). 25 percent Tanenbaum. I think that that’s going to change over the next few years. And you know, one of the things also is Keith Pelley coming in as the new president that was announced last week.
Here’s one of the things I know about Toronto and MLSE, is when Babcock was fired and still had $25 million left on his contract or what it was like I worked for Rogers, I understand how it thinks. They didn’t like that. And a lot of decisions behind the scenes in the organization got pressure on them because of that, and a lot of negotiations got a lot tougher because of that.
I just think if they, doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but I think if they fired Keefe before his extension even kicks in, I just think that would be really frowned upon. Now, I think there are a couple of things here. Number one, they’re down to basically their third-string goalie. Although Samsonov came back and played pretty well the other night.
NHL Rumors: Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets, and the Toronto Maple Leafs
Their D is thin, and it’s something that they are trying to address. So I think those are factors but you know, if you look at some of the goals last night, the 2-2 goals, that was a coverage issue, I think the 3-2 goal was a coverage issue. So like these are the kinds of things that put the heat on the coach, right? Plus, it’s Toronto, so there’s a lot of noise. So I think it’s real what you guys are talking about. I think there’s real pressure there.
Like right now, Toronto looks like it’s gonna have to fight for a playoff spot. And I don’t think anybody expected that before the season. So I feel like that’s real. You have to live with it and you have to deal with it but every loss it just seems to get hotter and hotter.”
