"Gio is a leader": Leafs' Keefe backs Giordano sticking up for Matthews
Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Mark Giordano isn’t exactly known as a fighter throughout his career.
But with superstar teammate Auston Matthews getting roughed around last night by Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny, Giordano took it upon himself to throw down the gloves.
Mark Giordano didn't like that š„ pic.twitter.com/FJ5X2XhezE
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 3, 2022
While Giordano didn’t get his revenge on Konecny per se, he and Kevin Hayes then went at it in a little scuffle.
And while some might’ve looked at the 5-2 score of the game and thought the brouhaha was a bit much, the Leafs’ bench boss wasn’t one of them.
“Those are the kinds of things that help build your team a little bit closer. It is great to see,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said postgame.
Per HockeyFights.com, it was just Giordano’s fourth fight in the last five years.
“Loved it. It is another huge moment in the game,” Keefe said. “In the situation, that is what the game called for in that moment. Gio is a leader. He has been in the league for a long time. He is an absolute competitor. He is not known as a guy who is going to fight or anything like that, but he is an absolute competitor.”
Giordano has played 1,035 games in his career between the Leafs, Calgary Flames, and Seattle Kraken, racking up 833 penalty minutes: an average of 0.8 per game. But Keefe was fine with Giordano effectively getting the boot in the waning moments of the game.
“In that moment, he is in there sticking up for his teammates. Even before that, Auston is in there competing and sticking up for himself. That has happened a couple of times now and our guys have responded appropriately in the moment. That is another really positive thing to come out of it.”
More importantly for Toronto, though, they picked up the two points and snapped out of a four-game losing streak.
And even though Philadelphia got the loss, Flyers coach John Tortorella was probably a little happy for his buddy in Keefe.
āI hope he jams it to you all, quite honestly. Not tonight. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him,ā Tortorella said pregame about criticism of Keefe in the Toronto media. “I coached him and weāve had conversations as a young coach in this leagueā¦ you guys chuck darts at him because you want some results. I guess it is, itās always the coach that gets the darts chucked at him. But I know in watching him and coaching against him, I think heās a terrific coach.”
Toronto and Philadelphia don’t meet again until December 22 at Scotiabank Arena. Maybe there will be a little extra love shown around the holidays, but don’t count on it.