Leafs Fire Sheldon Keefe

 

Photo From Toronto Sun

I think we all knew this day was coming after Toronto’s loss in game 4 against Boston, but in typical Toronto fashion, they forced a seventh game. I am torn about this announcement because I think Keefe did an excellent job as Leafs coach in the regular season but unfortunately success in the playoffs was hard to find.

I know Sheldon has his critics as everyone does, but Sheldon had a pretty good run within the Leafs organization. He became the Toronto Marlies head coach for the 15-16 season. The first of four full seasons as Marlies bench boss before taking over the Maple Leafs in the 19-20 season but we’ll get to that shortly.  In the AHL Sheldon led the Marlies to the postseason all four times and if he hadn’t been promoted it would have surely been five consecutive seasons because the Toronto Marlies under Sheldon was always a top team in the league and with the amount of turnover AHL rosters have I think it speaks volumes to Sheldon’s ability as a coach. The highlight of Sheldon’s time with the Marlies came in his third season when he and the Marlies won the Calder Cup and as a Toronto hockey fan that playoff run was so much fun to watch because it showed that Toronto’s formula had signs of success. The 19-20 season got off to a sluggish start for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kyle Dubas wanted to replace then-coach Mike Babcock after Toronto’s 18-19 campaign ended after a first-round loss to the Bruins, but Brendan Shanahan felt Mike deserved another season. Unfortunately for Mike, his final season as Leaf coach would only last 22 games because following a 4-2 loss in Vegas Shanahan did what needed to be done and announced Sheldon Keefe as the team's new head coach.   

In Sheldon’s half-season with the Leafs, he would post a record of 27-15-5. That was good enough for 56 points giving Toronto a 3^rd place finish in the Atlantic and a playoff matchup against Columbus where the Leafs would fall short in 5 games. Fans though seemed optimistic as to how things were going to go with Keefe. Next would be a shortened season of just 56 games where the Leafs would only play Canadian teams due to Covid and the border being closed. In 56 games Toronto would finish with 77 points to win the North Division. Toronto would go on to meet the Montreal Canadiens in round 1 only to see a 3-1 series lead collapse losing in 7 games. In his third season as Leaf coach, but his first full season the Toronto Maple Leafs would finish with their highest point total in franchise history with 115 finishing in second place but would once again exit in the first round after an overtime loss against Tampa in game 7.

Toronto would see their point total take a slight dip in the 22-23 season collecting 111 points finishing 2^nd behind the red-hot Boston Bruins. Going into this first-round matchup against the Lightning something just felt different about the team and on April 29^th in overtime of game 6, Chris Cuthbert said it best when he said “The Leafs have finally caught Lightning in a bottle” after John Tavares lifted the Leafs to the second round. Round 2 of the playoffs wouldn’t go as planned for Toronto as they would be set aside in 5 games by the eventual Eastern Conference Champions the Florida Panthers.

It was after the 2^nd round exit that fans wanted changes. Kyle Dubas would be fired and replaced by Brad Treliving, and everyone thought Sheldon Keefe would be fired then, but Treliving decided to keep Keefe for another season and even gave him a 2-year extension which annoyed many Leaf fans. Toronto would once again see the postseason, but it would end in disappointment as Boston beat Toronto in overtime in a seventh game.

 

Sheldon Keefe finishes his five-year run with the Maple Leafs with a record of 212-97-40 finishing 5^th all-time in wins he finishes with a win percentage of 66.5% the best percentage in Franchise History but in the playoffs, your goal is to win 16 games and lift the Stanley Cup and with Toronto he managed 16 wins in five playoff appearances. Those 16 wins rank Keefe 6^th all-time for the Leafs.

In the last few years, we have seen Toronto have issues scoring goals and if you go back to when the Amazon Prime series following the Leafs aired, we heard Keefe mention this concern many times, but hockey is a results-based business and Keefe unfortunately couldn’t get it done.

In a statement released by General Manager Brad Treliving following the firing of Keefe, he said, “This was a difficult decision, Sheldon Keefe is a great coach and a great man, but we felt the team needs a new direction”. Treliving would also go on to say that the rest of the coaching staff will be discussed, and a decision will be made on their future. So, this is just me speculating but I think there will be more changes made to the Leafs coaching staff.

 

So, who takes over as Leafs coach? Well, it seems that Craig Berube is the likely replacement he is someone who won a cup in 2019 taking over from Mike Yeo in St Louis and on New Year's Day the Blues were last in the NHL and went on a historic run winning a Stanley Cup beating the Bruins. I have also seen Bruce Budreau have his name mentioned. Don’t get me wrong Bruce is a very good coach, but he is another coach who has great regular season success but has never won a game 7, so the Leafs would possibly be in the same spot they are in now.

Leafs management is scheduled to speak on Friday morning  I will surely tune in and watch that and hopefully, there will be answers to questions that fans may have but time will tell. The summer of Leafs speculation has begun, and I can’t wait to follow it. Below is a video from Sheldon Keefe’s Twitter where he shares a few words for the fans.

Video From Sheldon Keefe's Twitter

Thanks as always for reading.