Sheldon Keefe explains his decision to go with Sandin over Tavares in the shootout against St. Louis
Much has been made of the Leafs' 6-5 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. The Leafs went into the game fresh off of a dominant win over the Colorado Avalanche in Colorado to close out 2022. However, their first game to kick off 2023 didn't go nearly as smoothly as the Blues, who were missing Torey Krug, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O'Reilly, got out ahead of the Leafs early and held multiple 2-goal leads during the contest, eventually winning in the shootout.
One intriguing storyline from this one was Sheldon Keefe's decision to give defenseman Rasmus Sandin a shootout opportunity ahead of captain John Tavares. In the end, the move backfired, but Sandin missed his shot and the Blues capitalized on theirs. But was the move really a questionable one? Not in Keefe's mind.
"We don't practice [shootouts] a lot, but every time we do Sandy's the guy who finishes with the greatest level of success. We're so used to having Jason Spezza out there to be the guy to get us going, so having the first one here was a little off there."
-Keefe on the decision to go with Sandin ahead of Tavares in the shootout
-Keefe on the decision to go with Sandin ahead of Tavares in the shootout
As for Sandin himself, he was happy to have the trust of his coach, even if he was a little disappointed with how the cards landed. In the end, Sandin missed his shot, but it didn't get his spirits down.
"It's fun to know that you have that belief that you are going to go out there and score. I was happy to get the opportunity and if there is a next time, hopefully, we'll have a different result."
-Sandin on his missed attempt in the shootout against St. Louis
-Sandin on his missed attempt in the shootout against St. Louis
It is worth noting that Sandin actually won his team's shootout tournament in a practice during the 2021 season, so perhaps Keefe's decision wasn't as crazy as it seemed at the time. They can't all go in, after all.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 5 | 176 ANSWERS Sheldon Keefe explains his decision to go with Sandin over Tavares in the shootout against St. Louis Should the Leafs have gone with Tavares over Sandin in the shootout against the Blues? | ||
| Yes | 134 | 76.1 % |
| No | 42 | 23.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
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