Keefe blasts the Leafs for horrendous play and turnovers in overtime
After another blown third period lead, the Leafs once again outplayed themselves in overtime, leading to their fifth straight overtime loss. It started with two terrible passes from William Nylander to Auston Matthews that resulted in two straight icing calls and then followed up by a Nylander giveaway that led to Erik Kallgren bailing him out. The very next shift, after gaining possession, Mitch Marner tried to be too cute once again with a fancy drop pass to John Tavares at the top of the slot, just inside the Islanders' blueline. That led to a two-on-one and Anthony Beauvillier scoring the game-winner. The loss pushed the Leafs to 1-5 in the extra frame and Sheldon Keefe let it be known he was not and is not happy.
Keefe blasted the team and their overtime play in front of the media post-game saying, "We are either just flat-out getting beaten & giving the opposition a good look or we are forcing something that is not there." He's absolutely right. For the amount of talent that the Leafs have, they should not be 1-5 in overtime, but they are trying to be way too fancy with the extra open ice. They keep looking for the "perfect" pass or play instead of keeping things simple.
While the Leafs are still second in the Atlantic Division, those additional 5 points they missed out on could have them just 4 points behind the Bruins instead of 9 and could come back to haunt them with playoff matchups once again, as it did last season when they couldn't win a shootout.
