List of objective mistakes Keefe could make in the playoffs (A priori, aka before) (speak now or forever hold your peace).

[Nineteen67]

I dont know what he’ll do, but with his track record, I feel confident he’ll come up with something that’ll leave us scratching our heads.

 

[egd27]

When you're a lock for the playoffs then I don't hate the idea of experimenting
That's the most important thing to do over the course of the regular season. If you're not working on new things you become stagnant. Unless you're calling on our past playoff success as support to not change the lines up.

There's a difference between actually working on new things and just trying new line combinations. Throwing 34/16/88 out for a few shifts isn't an adjustment to the style of play, it's just what U12 AAA coaches do when they are down a goal or two.

 

[Its not your fault]

At this point if you don't and lose anyways then what?

 

[notDatsyuk]

Playing Holl more than 20 minutes a game.

Playing JT higher than line 3.

Playing Willy with JT.

Not playing either Mitch or Willy with Matthews.

Not using his timeout at the right time.

Swapping goalies unnecessarily.

 

[francis246]

Playing Holl more than 20 minutes a game.

Playing JT higher than line 3.

Playing Willy with JT.

Not playing either Mitch or Willy with Matthews.

Not using his timeout at the right time.

Swapping goalies unnecessarily.

I will be critical of Keefe but the one thing I won’t get on him about is Matthews linemates.

Why does he need Willy or Mitch to be effective? That’s a huge flaw On Matthews if it’s the case. A lot of the other star centers around the league play with average wingers and still sustain elite play and even make those wingers better. If Matthews can actually drive a line with two wingers like a Kerfoot and Jarnkrok it would make our team that much better.

 

[DarkKnight]

Not enough cow bell.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I will be critical of Keefe but the one thing I won’t get on him about is Matthews linemates.

Why does he need Willy or Mitch to be effective? That’s a huge flaw On Matthews if it’s the case. A lot of the other star centers around the league play with average wingers and still sustain elite play and even make those wingers better. If Matthews can actually drive a line with two wingers like a Kerfoot and Jarnkrok it would make our team that much better.

Fair enough, although I think he needs a bit more than Kerfoot and Jarnkrok to be really effective.

 

[francis246]

Fair enough, although I think he needs a bit more than Kerfoot and Jarnkrok to be really effective.

I think Kerfoot is the Knies place holder tbh

 

[Maple Leaf]

I knew Keefe was done when he lost to Montreal canadians (AHL team)

 

[Mr_Fun]

Barring a plane crash where Kerfoot is the only team survivor; putting Kerfoot on the 1st line.

 

[Superstar]

11F/7D...

 

[notDatsyuk]

I think Kerfoot is the Knies place holder tbh

I don't think we will see Knies on the top line in these playoffs.

Maybe I should say "I don't think we should see Knies on the top line in these playoffs".

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Not trading for a top 6 winger with all those assets going out, and then handing him a NCAA rookie (whose only sign of being ready for a top 6 playoff role is hype on a message board) to put in his top 6 sounds like the kind of bs Dubas would do to Keefe and then Keefe gets the blame.

It's not Keefe's fault the D is soft. Keefe has been crying himself to sleep over Muzzin for over a year.

It's not Keefe's fault all our upcoming opponents have lights out goalies and we have swiss cheese.

Then I'll cheat with etc etc etc for the rest

 

[Antropovsky]

Do other team boards have threads like this?… or is this something only we’re blessed with.

What you didn't like Marner on defense?

 

[thusk]

He will adjust too late. Like in the Montreal series…

Ineffective lines just peppering Price in the chest from the perimeter. Then with 7 minutes left, he blends the lines and goes for it, double shifting Matthews and Marner.

We score and come close, but playing from behind is against you.

We lost to Montreal and Columbus the same way because he was too scared and reluctant to make the moves with confidence.

Also he seems to be unable to calm the players into making simple plays at times. Last night VS islanders was just chaos, that’s also on the coaching…

Islanders had a system of interception having predicted the Leafs breakout methods.

What was the counter?? NOTHING…
Repeat until it was 7-2

Bad coaching will try having Marner, and Willy Dangle their way with no system.

The other series with Bolts was a closer game, but still the same type of flavour of not fully utilized lines.

I said it here. I hope Keefe proves me wrong in a month

Leafs didn't lost cbs and mtl the same way

Vs columbus leafs had the worst defensive amount 24 team in playoff (or qualifying tournment)

Barrie on top pair
Dermott on your secons pair
Marincin in the line up

He had to make a choice betwwen all open game and trying to 6-5 or dont took any risk defensivly with every DMan who was looking like they had a kind of glue in their skate on blueline because they never left the blue line in offensive zone of this series. So leafs tried to attack at 3v5 all serie long because defensivly this D was just so Bad...

Against montreal, they completly outplayed in every aspect of the game except 1... goaltending. It was the same result at the end but 2 different series

7-2 didn't resuming this game... leafs outplayed NYi first 40... Sorokin stole this game and Samsonov was trash... thats it

 

[PromisedLand]

where do i start and how do i even start....man I don;t really have time to write an essay here. and yes it will be objective but....

i wish i could use chat gpt to go through my posts on here and grab all keefe related material and post it here. save me a lot of time

 

[francis246]

I don't think we will see Knies on the top line in these playoffs.

Maybe I should say "I don't think we should see Knies on the top line in these playoffs".

Why not? If it balances out the lines I’m all for it. Literally the leafs should be exploring any and every option they have to win.

If Knies and Matthews work well together that’s only a good thing for us.

And as I’ve said in the past we don’t need Knies to necessarily be a prolific goal scorer, we need him to be Physical and create space for our stars to do their job. Cause trouble in the net front spot. All of our lines could use a guy like Knies.

 

[francis246]

Not trading for a top 6 winger with all those assets going out, and then handing him a NCAA rookie (whose only sign of being ready for a top 6 playoff role is hype on a message board) to put in his top 6 sounds like the kind of bs Dubas would do to Keefe and then Keefe gets the blame.

It's not Keefe's fault the D is soft. Keefe has been crying himself to sleep over Muzzin for over a year.

It's not Keefe's fault all our upcoming opponents have lights out goalies and we have swiss cheese.

Then I'll cheat with etc etc etc for the rest

There have been numerous scouts and NHL GM’s that have expressed they believe Knies is top 6 ready/NHL ready. That’s been the general consensus among NHL executives, scouts and media the entire year. So it’s not just an HF Boards thing.

The problem is we as a fanbase are so used to our prospects underachieving that it’s hard to accept that we have a decent one. The other problem is being top 6/NHL ready doesn’t equate to being a top goal scorer. (Our fan base expects the most all the time) It literally means he can keep up with the other players in our top six and probably chip in here and there. No one is expecting him to lead the leafs in scoring. But he can provide good depth to the top six this year which is all we need.

 

[Dayjobdave]

I think the number 1 post game complaint after losses will be that he went with the wrong goalie

 

[Ciao]

I think going 11/7, wearing the purple suit and staying too long at the breakfast buffet about does it for me.

If he's back in the fall, I hope he sees a dietitian over the summer because he would look a lot sharper if he shed a few. Not a good look on him.

He's a pretty good coach, and I really wouldn't know how to improve on his performance. He has the best winning percentage in Leafs' history, and the next guy might not be as good.

We might very well find that out by this time next year.

 

[Hellcat]

He could show up.

Worse he could open his mouth.

Worse players listen to him.

Worse he wins a round and Dubas thinks THAT'S progress and brings him back next year.

Can we just fire Keefe and move on to Quenneville. Yeah Quenneville is a monster for what he did in Chicago but everyone deserves a chance at redemption.

 

[Nineteen67]

I think Kerfoot is the Knies place holder tbh

People that have watched Knies say he needs to work on his skating, If he’s eligible to play for the Marlies, maybe that’s where they see him this spring.

 

[thusk]

The reality as a coach is when yourw losing youre a zero, when youre winning a hero...a coach who using a strategy and winning will be considerate like a genious but an other coach doing the same exact thing and losing will be considerate as an idiot...

since keefe is leafs coach, its the first season he having both depht with foward AND d to make a run so lets see whats happening

 

[Nineteen67]

I think the number 1 post game complaint after losses will be that he went with the wrong goalie

Wronger.

 

[HockeyVirus]

First of all, I think he's at the point of his tenure where results trump everything. You can't justify keeping him around after losing 4 straight series in the first round, especially that brutally ugly Montreal series loss.

But to answer your question, I think there are some key areas he has control over that he should be able to influence positively. For starters, no more patting themselves on the back and easing up when they win a game or take a lead in the series. Being okay with a split in Tampa is just a losing mentality, they should not accept losing ever. He also has to find a way to get the powerplay going, as that's pretty much always been an issue in the playoffs. Finally, in a bit more of an abstract sense, he has to be able to make the right changes and quickly. It's harder to call this ahead of time, but we'll know it when we see it. For example, he can't play Matthews+Marner together for the whole series if they're not generating anything like against Montreal. Tampa is a team that is able to force mistakes and generate goals from turnovers, and Keefe is going to need to find a way to limit that as much as possible. I personally get the sense that he'll go too far the other way and play it too safe at the expense of our own offense.

As far as things like motivating the team to start on time or whatever, I don't think that's on him anymore. The players should know by now that they have to play a full 60 minutes and not fall behind in games. He can't figure that out for them.

That's the thing with this forum. I agree with you but if he splits them then people are crying why is our best playmaker not with our best scorer. He can't win