Oct. 14, 2021
HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE
Q: Kevin McGran, Toronto Star: On tonight’s slow start.
Sheldon Keefe: I don’t put this start even remotely in the same category as yesterday’s start and
yesterday’s start we gave up grade A scoring chances, odd-man rushes and all of that. I don’t see it that
way at all for us in terms of our start. You know they were out shooting us early on, but they had six
point shots out of their first seven shots so nothing dangerous. We gifted them a goal so we make that
big mistake and then they get a powerplay goal that they wrist one in from the point that we did 50
times tonight but it hits a body and goes in, 2-0, and then we give them another gift at the end of the
first period so I don’t put this in the same category in terms of our start but it certainly wasn’t the type
of period that we wanted in terms of gifting them goals. Then we had a real strong push towards the
end of the first period, lots of strong chances to score ourselves and their goaltender was great. I don’t
put this in the same category as yesterday in terms of our start.
Q. Regarding an update on Mrazek:
Sheldon Keefe: I don’t have an update at all other than he was unable to finish the game tonight.
JASON SPEZZA (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)
Q. Kevin McGran, Toronto Star: On the teams start tonight.
Jason Spezza: Yeah they pushed the pace and were flipping a lot of pucks out and I think we weren’t
getting enough of a good forecheck in, give them too much time to make plays and then we weren’t
breaking out clean and that led to us chasing the game.
Q. Kevin McGran, Toronto Star: On his goal tonight.
Jason Spezza: We knew if we got one, we’d probably get two and make it interesting. Teams generally
sit back once you get a couple and tighten up a little bit so just wanted to get a goal there on the
powerplay but unfortunate we get the call there against us because we were coming back on the
powerplay. At that point you’re just trying to gain some momentum and the goalie played well and to
get one by him opened the flood gates a little bit.
JOHN TAVARES (1 ASSIST)
Q. Kevin McGran, Toronto Star: John your thoughts on the game tonight and another slow start.
John Tavares: It’s not ideal being down three goals. I think we wanted to start a lot better, they came
out with a lot of energy. We knew coming onto the road of a back-to-back we’d need to play a smart
game and get ourselves involved early and we didn’t execute as well as we wanted to. We seemed to
get our game going for periods at a time and then think we lost it during other periods. We fought hard
until the end but unfortunately didn’t get the last one in.
JACK CAMPBELL (10 SAVES)
Q. Kevin McGran, Toronto Star: How did you feel coming into the game?
Jack Campbell: I felt good and loved the way the team never gave up – we just kept battling. Their goalie
made a lot of great saves, so we’ll get back at it and be ready to go Saturday.
Q. Terry Koshan, Toronto Star: What goes through your mind when you see Petr go down?
Jack Campbell: It’s too bad you never want to see that on anybody, and I went through it last year and
he really battled for us in the second period, so many great saves. I wish him well and I’m sure he’ll get
healthy quick and be stronger than ever.
WILLIAM NYLANDER (1 GOAL)
Q. Kevin McGran, Toronto Star: On second slow start in two nights.
William Nylander: The slow start is getting to us, I mean, with back-to-backs your obviously going to
start slow when you’ve got a fresh team playing their first game but it’s something we’ve got to work
on. We battled back but we gave them more space so we’ve got to work on that.
Q. Kevin McGran, Toronto Star: On tonight’s powerplay clicking.
William Nylander: I think we started bad too but then we were able to step it up in the third period
which is obviously big but we’ve got to start the way we ended it.
