Keefe: Focus as Leafs’ coach is creating ‘environment for players to thrive’

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe joined Tim and Sid to talk about the team re-signing depth defenseman Martin Marincin, and why the organization feels good about the extension.

As the Toronto Maple Leafs headed for South Florida, remnants of their annual outdoor practice were still visible at Nathan Phillips Square on Friday.

It was a first for Sheldon Keefe, the rookie NHL coach who’s already made the Leafs’ record books as the first coach to win 15 of his first 20 games. And though the team was coming off of a frenetic shootout loss to the Winnipeg Jets, some fun was well deserved given the dramatic turnaround — on and off the ice — Toronto has seen under its new coach.

“It was a great time, the players had a lot of fun with it, the fans seemed to enjoy it,” Keefe said in an appearance on Tim and Sid on Friday. “It was a fun time for all.”

The Maple Leafs jumped from a 9-10-4 record under Mike Babcock this season to 24-15-6 since Keefe took over following his Calder Cup-winning season with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. In addition, their goals-for, goals-against and power-play percentage numbers all improved under their rookie head coach, who is currently leading the team to a projected 98-point season.

[snippet id=4167285]

They’re still a work in progress, but there’s reason to be content as well.

“I certainly would say I’m happy. The players have responded very well,” Keefe said during Tim and Sid. “(We’ve seen) lots of progress in some key areas, both offensively and defensively and on special teams.”

The uptick in production comes along with a new culture.

As a former player, turned AHL coach, turned Maple Leafs saviour, Keefe has experienced multiple facets of the game and its evolution — on and off the ice. A new generation of players, one that requires direct communication and transparency, has contributed to Keefe’s keenness on keeping open lines of communication with his players, and creating an environment where everyone feels safe and heard.

“So much attention, of course, goes onto the tactics and all the decisions you make as a coach every day,” he said. “But really the softer skills when it comes to communication and creating an environment for players to thrive, that’s what I’ve tried to (focus) on my own development and I like to think I’ve made some strides there. I’m not perfect, by any means, and it is a challenge … it’s probably the biggest area of growth for me, that I recognize.”

Maple Leafs fans who attended the open practice on Thursday probably couldn’t catch a real glimpse of how elaborate and diversified Keefe’s practices are. The 39-year-old brought with him from the Marlies an unconventional yet dynamic approach, in which players are divided within two different rinks and six or seven coaches take the ice at once.

He defends it’s more than simply a mechanism to stave off the monotony of the NHL season, but also a unique way to work on specific skills and game situations.

“In the development program like that, we really got to see the benefits of having deliberate practice and deliberate skill work to refine the skill sets of the players,” said Keefe. “You get to the NHL, and of course you’re dealing with players that have great skills, but even them over the course of the season require some fine tuning and the proper repetitions to refine their game in that way.”

Now that the coaching drama is resolved and Keefe has proven his ability to coach an NHL team, old storylines have begun to creep their way back into discussion, and there are still those who say that, as they are, the Maple Leafs might not have enough physicality to go all the way. In other words, they might not be “tough enough.”

Keefe defends that he and Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas don’t necessarily shrug off those claims. But, like most things with the duo, their definition of toughness veers away from conventional ideas.

“We don’t for a second disregard the fact that you need to be competitive and you need a level of physicality that’s going to allow you to be able to play the way you want to play and also to persevere when things are difficult,” said the coach. “I think we probably look at toughness in a different manner that others do, and we would describe it mainly as just the ability to play through difficult circumstances, and that to us is toughness.”

Marincin extension

With a couple of days off ahead of him before his team’s game against the Florida Panthers, Keefe also had time during his Tim and Sid appearance to comment on Martin Marincin‘s one-year extension, as reported by Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston earlier on Friday.

“He’s served the organization very well in his role as a depth defenceman, played in the minors and (was) a big part of our Calder Cup championship down there,” Keefe said about the polarizing Marincin. “You need to have really good depth in the NHL.

“I can also say, from my time in the American League, that when it comes to players that can play in the American League, but also when you need them to be players that can fill in and play minutes in the NHL, that’s extremely valuable. And as I see it from my short time in the NHL Marincin is as good a depth defenceman as there is.”

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.