Sheldon Keefe calls Leafs "soft and purposeless" in latest loss

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe wasn’t soft on his players on Wednesday night.

With the Leafs up 3-1 after the first period against the New York Rangers, Toronto surrendered the next five goals of the game to fall 6-3.

Making matters worse, the Leafs blew its fourth multi-goal lead in the past five games, a stint during which the team has gone 2-2-1.

Over that stretch, Toronto has just one win in regulation, their worst five-game stretch since a four-game losing streak in the second week of the season.

“Each game has been different, so it is hard to talk about patterns other than the obvious in that we have been giving up leads,” Keefe said when asked about what he thought about the game.

But then came the hammer quote — the one that’s since gone viral.

“I just thought we got exposed today for being a team that was just soft and purposeless and just kind of playing the game hoping it was going to work out,” Keefe continued.

Here’s the full Keefe quote, for context: https://t.co/QFZD7ptF30 pic.twitter.com/ZdtZhMiILJ

— Adam Laskaris (@adam_la2karis) January 20, 2022

Keefe didn’t raise his voice or appear with any out-of-character mannerisms, but the message is still clear: the Leafs are losing games that their coach believes they should be winning.

“We got exposed in a lot of areas that we haven’t necessarily been exposed in. That is why I feel this one is different,” Keefe continued. “This one should bother us greatly because of how we played. It wasn’t nearly good enough.”

Keefe pointed to the absences of defencemen Justin Holl and Jake Muzzin, who are in COVID-19 and concussion protocols, respectively.

“We are missing important people tonight on defence, in particular, so our team game had to be very, very solid and purposeful in trying to make life easier on our defensemen and goaltender,” Keefe added. “We didn’t do that nearly enough.”

However, Keefe wasn’t picking on anyone, in particular, arguing that the entire roster and coaching staff had room for improvement.

“I didn’t think we had anybody that played well tonight,” Keefe added. “Coaches didn’t coach well tonight. Tonight is a much different game than we have played than the others where we have given up leads and such. I just didn’t think we had nearly enough urgency or purpose.”

The Leafs return to action on Saturday night against the New York Islanders.