With Tippett's firing, Sheldon Keefe is now one of the top-10 longest tenured NHL coaches
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After last season's playoff debacle against the Habs, and this season's early struggles, many Leaf fans were calling for change behind the bench claiming that Sheldon Keefe had already lost the room. Sure, Keefe is technically in his third season as Head Coach of the Leafs, but what is being forgotten is that this is his first full 82-game season. Well, after the Oilers let go of Dave Tippet earlier today, Keefe is now the 10th longest tenured coach in the NHL.
In his first season, Keefe took over for Mike Babcock in November and had virtually no time with the team to fully implement his systems and coaching philosophies. He still led the Leafs to a 27-15-5 record.
His second season gave him a chance to spend more time focusing on the details of his systems and forming a new two-way identity for the Leafs. In the COVID-shortened 56-game season, he led the Leafs to a 35-14-7 record and won the North Division, and had it been a full 82-game season, it would have been the Leafs best season on record.
A lot of individuals worked to discredit the Leafs after winning the North Division, calling theirs the weakest one and marking up their success to not having to play in the Atlantic Division. This leads us into the current season where, once again, Keefe has the Leafs performing at a record pace, boasting a 30-10-3 record and somehow, only third in the Atlantic division.
Sure, the narrative now for Keefe and the Leafs is that the regular season doesn't matter, but if you look at the majority of coaches that have a longer tenure than Keefe, you'll see that they too have had great regular season success only to struggle in the playoffs year after year until finally getting over the playoff hump. Jon Cooper, Jared Bednar, Rod Brind'Amour and Barry Trotz are just a few of the coaches ahead of Keefe on that list that have experienced playoff disappointment. They have all been given chances to make adjustments and get over their respective "early" playoff exits.
The common theme is that another first round exit could mean some MAJOR changes for the Leafs, both in the front office and in the locker room. I firmly believe that if changes will be made, they'll be made to the roster before Keefe is ousted. I think that we sometimes forget that, as fans, it's more difficult for us to notice the subtle, but tangible improvements when it has yet to lead to success at the most important time of the year. That does not mean that the playoff success won't come - just that it hasn't come yet.
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