The Toronto Maple Leafs are absolutely on fire since hiring Sheldon Keefe as their head coach. The NHL's hottest team had a 6-3 win over the Jets tonight and improved the team's record to 14-4-1 under Keefe. This also represented the first time that the Leafs have scored four or more goals in nine consecutive games since February 1993. The Leafs are also achieving these results while missing a number of starting players with injuries and promoting players from their Marlies. Is there a better coach in the NHL right now than Sheldon Keefe?

You guys beat a team with 3 NHL calibre dman, you have elite offensive talent. It shouldn’t be that hard to beat a team like WPG. I will give the leafs credit for playing good lately. Keefe has been super smart and isn’t afraid to shorten the bench when needed.

Ion remember asking

OK, I'll say yes for the last 19 games. Might not prove he is the best NHL coach, but it might prove that Babcock was the worst.

Many CF posts think the Leaf only have 3 NHL calibre Dmen at most. So from that point of view, it was an even game.
What I noticed in the game, though the Jets had lots of shots, so many were from a fair distance from the net. Andersen just picked them off. Jets weren't jamming the net much at all.

Well some people like to say we only have one good Dman and he is out with a broken foot.... so....

What took you so long @TMLSage ? Was waiting for this to show up lol.

Mike Sullivan exists

Awesome

Yea, I'm still amazed at the trolls who honestly believe the Leafs have the worse Dmen in the league and the Leafs would be better trading for 6th, 7th Dmen from crappy teams.
Sure I will the Leafs had better Dmen, but at what cost? Since Keefe...Leafs are 11th in GAA., first in goals for.

He's not the best coach, but he knows how to let his players play. I'd probably go with Trotz, maybe Sullivan this year for doing what he's doing with everyone constantly injured and the Pens still have success. He could be the best though, only one way to find out.

You make a valid argument but Leafs also have a competent 2C.

As for best coach i thought Trotz was pretty undisputed. That team has zero superstars and still dominates

Arizona Coyotes. Rick Tochett.
St. Louis Blues. Craig Berube.
Team Canada Jr's. Dale Hunter.

It's clear that former NHL goons make the best coaches.

Sullivan seems to be doing very well with many injuries.

Maybe many folks don't give good coaching enough credit. Trotz took over an out playoff team, got them in the playoffs, and now have them one of the best teams in the league. Really with much the same personnel from the previous regime...except Tavares.

Tavares sucks though so he wasnt going to make a difference

Keefe has a Wendel Clark connection, when Tbay traded Clark to the Wings for back up goalie Hodson and a 2nd Round pick, which Tbay selected Keefe with.

There a lot of coach that are actually better , Barry trotz, jon cooper, alain vigneault, mike sullivan, dave tipett, jared bednar, joel quenneville craig berube

All those players where lot more then just goon, tocchet was a pure competitor with almost 1000 nhl point over 1100 games, same for hunter who was a complete momentum players. Berube was the only real goon

I can’t think of a team that would say no to an upgrade on the blueline. It’s a cap league and you do what you can. Think dubas has showed a lot of patience with trades. Fairly good asset management. I would expect he continues this trend when assembling the defence next season as well.

You are totally correct when you say Dubas has demonstrated fairly good asset management and expect this to continue when assembling the defence next season. Dubas is actually ahead of the curve in terms of assembling the Leafs defence for next season which he has started by signing Justin Holl to a new contract. The Justin Holl signing is strategically very important for the Leafs going forward as the guy has rocketed up the charts to actually become a 3rd or 4th pairing defenceman and signed at a very reasonable salary. The Leafs now have a defensive core of Reilly, Demott, Holl, Sandin and Liljegren locked up and Dubas just needs to add 1 or 2 UFA defenceman to this core which still may be Muzzen and Barrie for next year. Also think that Leafs might be going to make a run at signing Pietrangelo as UFA and simply let Muzzen, Barrie and Ceci walk as Pietrangelo is from Toronto and has history playing with Tavares.

hey look it's the guy who got shutout by michael hutchinson

1967

kate murray