I was kind of wondering the same thing. All these super skilled hard working players and the best GM in Dubas and yet still only 1 round win…….must be all on the coach or just maybe it’s all bad luck…………..or COVID’s fault.
You think this sort of shit helps players focus on winning?
You suck, you suck, you suck, he tells them you want to be glory hounds, go be glory hounds.... if this is the sort of stuff he says in front of cameras what is he saying privately when the cameras are not rolling? These guys are elite athletes, they know when they are getting their ass kicked, you dont need to remind them, if they have not corrected on their own, it is the coaches job to say, hey this is what they are doing to you, do this, this and this to counter balance it. Your job as a coach is to get their minds free of negative thoughts and ready to play hockey and not focus on the negative. If the player is doing something structurally that can be corrected , tell him how to correct it and move the f*** on. That Pasta stretch play in OT that won them the last series, it was 100% talked about in the intermission. They knew they were going to do that because they saw something in the game that told them the weak side will be open. Keefe sure as shit didn't see it until the puck was in our net.
Win one for the Gipper speeches dont work, the team didn't didn't need motivation, they need a coach to do the X's and O's. The Leaf's in the last 8 playoff rounds looked like a team with out a game plan and they were just shooting from the hip, calling audibles at will, lets try whatever comes to mind. The 8 playoff rounds they lost all had the same DNA, they were outcoached, out strategized. If you are an X and O's type guy, watch the game closely for the moment the other coach adjusts to Keefe's game plan, all of a sudden what was effective is no longer effective and the Leafs just keep doing the same shit over and over and over and over again to complete failure. Keefe is a one trick pony, he has zero clue how to adjust, he is not a X and O type coach. That famous quote from Keefe, it's not verbatim but you'll get the point, where he was asked are you worried about line matching and his response was we dont line match, the other team will need to line match us... seriously? That came out of the mouth of a NHL coach?
Being coached by Keefe is like trying to swim the English channel with a 50lbs backpack full of rocks.