Under Keefe the Leafs have been playing the kind of hockey that were expected of them at the start of the season. I didn’t think the coaching change was a good decision but the way they’ve been playing now is proving how wrong I was.
Gradually the Leafs have added a bit more size. Mikheyev, Engvall, Spezza, are big guys that can play. Marchment has also been called up and he can bring some grit that the team needs.
I really like the in game adjustments Keefe makes and how the players respond. He called timeout when the team seemed disoriented, he put Matthews and Marner together when they’re desperate for a goal, he benched Nylander when he was floating in a game after he scored a couple the game before. These are just some examples of how well the players responded to his coaching. Let’s just hope this trend continues.
The soft schedule might have contributed to their success. The next few games are tougher tests and we’ll see how the Leafs do against better teams.