HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE
On what he liked from the group tonight:
I just liked how we were able to stay with it. It was a different type of game than we’ve played, and we just stayed with it. We waited to get our chances and when we did, we made good on a couple of them. As you said, a combination of great goaltending, good defensive play, a little bit of luck and opportunistic players. They made good on their chances.
On the benefit for the team mentally from winning more of a low scoring game:
Yeah, I think it’s really good. I think it’s really healthy for our team in a lot of ways. Like I said, it’s a different type of game, offence is harder to come by as we expected it would be coming into the game. I just liked that our guys didn’t get frustrated with that first period. Not a lot going on. We just stayed with it. We gave up some chances and got saves which was good. Then when we got our chances, we made good on them. It would have been nice to get the goal on the breakaway early in the game, it might have been a different game if that’s the case, but we didn’t and it wasn’t, so we just had to stay patient and like it. We have to find a way to win the boring games too sometimes.
On if he has reflected on the significance of going 15-4-1 in his first 20 games as Maple Leafs coach:
No, I haven’t really. Every day brings a new challenge and, I said it before and I still believe it, we’re still not close to where I think we can get to. I think we’ve got a lot of room to grow as a team. That’s exciting and that’s what keeps us working. As a coach at various levels, I’ve had a lot of experience with coaching teams that go on stretches and runs like this. You recognize that you’re not going to be satisfied. You’ve got to continue to work and continue to get better and find the things that you can improve upon and I think that’s what we come to work every day to do.
On where the team can improve:
Well, in all areas, really. I think our play in terms of our ability to come out of our end, I think that can improve. I think being good and diligent in games like this today. It’s an area where it’s a low event game and not much happening. You can still defend well enough to give ourselves enough time to wait for our chance to come. Special teams, all those types of things, I think, can go a long way. But that’s not to say we didn’t have positives because there certainly is. We’ve been doing a lot of really good things. We’ve been resilient as a group, even though we’ve lost players to injury. We created a little extra adversity for our team today going into it, obviously, giving Freddie the day off and putting Hutch in. That raises the awareness of the team a little bit and creates some extra challenge there in terms of not having Freddie who has been so great for us and then Hutch who is trying to find his way. Clearly, he did today.
PIERRE ENGVALL (1 GOAL)
On his goal:
On the goal I just tried to hold onto it for a second to get the goalie moving and I think I found a spot there. So, it was really nice to see it go in. Obviously, [Kapanen] makes a — I don’t know what to say about that play — but it’s pretty good.
On the play Kapanen made to get him the puck before he scored:
Every time I see [Kapanen] go to the net with the puck with that speed I just try to catch up and be ready to shoot the puck. When I saw it, I was like, ‘sick play.’
MICHAEL HUTCHINSON (33 SAVES)
On his performance tonight:
Yeah, I obviously felt pretty good tonight. I felt really, really relaxed out there. I thought it was good to build off of the Detroit game in the New Jersey game. It was nice to get the win on that, but with the circumstances of the break and travelling same day it was getting more — personally, it felt like you had to battle through a lot of stuff. So coming in here and getting back into an actual game routine to be able to take the Detroit game and build off that for myself was huge. It was a lot of fun out there tonight. The guys played extremely hard. I thought we did a really good job defensively, we really made them have to work to try and generate chances. And then the guys bailed me out on a couple huge plays too.
On what he has done to put himself in a better headspace at this point in the season:
Yeah, it’s everything, really. It’s kind of resetting and knowing you can’t change anything that happened earlier in the season. But the team is playing great. I’ve been able to come to the rink positive every single day. Even when I’m not playing, enjoying the wins, enjoying the successes that other guys are having, whether they’re scoring goals or Freddie’s making big saves, getting wins. So, when you do that it’s eventually it’s going to come around to you. We’ve been playing so well as a group that now, it’s nice for myself to be a part of that and be able to contribute to those wins.
MITCH MARNER (2 ASSISTS)
On tonight’s defensive effort:
Yeah, it was good, I think we were coming back and we were getting quickly out of our zone. That team’s a heavy forechecking team, they get in on the forecheck hard and that’s how they create all their offence. I think we made it important to come back, talk to each other, try and find the exit quickly and get back on the forecheck. I thought we did a good job of that tonight.
On the bench’s reaction to Kapanen’s play to set up the opening goal:
I think like everyone else in the crowd. That’s a hell of a move by him and a hell of a pass as well to get it through to Pierre and that started us all off. It was a great play by him.
AUSTON MATTHEWS (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)
On the play of Hutchinson:
He was just dialed in. I think when we gave up good chances to their team he came up with some big saves. I know Hutch was all-time for us tonight. All the credit goes to him, he made some huge saves that kept us in the game, and we were able to capitalize on a couple chances and, I mean, he played unbelievable.
On the play that set up his goal tonight:
I just saw him get the puck and he’s got pretty good vision, so I just had a feeling he was going to throw the puck towards the middle and I just kind of tried to deflect it. I think it went off my stick, went off their stick and kind of trickled in the net, so, pretty fortunate there. Think I just had a feeling he was going to try and get the puck in that area and I just tried to make the most of it
The view from left field 