Sheldon Keefe, the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was fined $25,000 by the NHL on Thursday for engaging in unprofessional conduct aimed toward the officials. This is the second time in the last two years that Keefe has faced disciplinary action for his interactions with officials.
With 2:14 remaining in regulation of Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, Keefe was dismissed.
According to a source who heard the interaction, he had been frustrated with officials Garrett Rank and Peter MacDougall after they had given Mitch Marner a dubious tripping penalty two minutes earlier and had been told to halt.
Even though the Maple Leafs have earned a postseason berth, they are aware that their work is far from over.
It appears that Toronto will virtually certainly make the playoffs. They are 10 points ahead of the Washington Capitals, who occupy the second wild card place, and they are third in the Atlantic Division, behind the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers.
We haven’t clinched anything, so we had this conversation after our win in Philadelphia before getting ready for that Washington game.
At this moment, nothing is certain. And that’s how we have to go about it, Sheldon Keefe, head coach of the Maple Leafs, stated on Tuesday morning.
We need to approach everything we do here with a sense of urgency every day, every shift, and every practice.
We’re going into it thinking that we can figure out a way to secure a spot and all that kind of stuff. But you must take action.To do that, you have to make the most of every single day. And it goes without saying that securing those points and securing our place is crucial.
Keefe wants to see the Maple Leafs have a strong game come playoff time, regardless of where they are in the standings.
“We just have a well-organized game. You’re kind of fighting all those different things and you add to the injuries and guys coming in and out of the lineup that we’ve had, which has caused some adversity within the group, he remarked.
Thus, that has caught our attention at crucial times all by itself.
Keefe does not want his team to perform like they did on March 19 against the Philadelphia Flyers, losing 3-0 before making a comeback in the third period, maybe too late.
There were a number of things about that game that disappointed me. I felt we did a good job responding in Washington, and we did a great job responding versus Edmonton. There are many reasons why the Carolina game is difficult.
