Sheldon Keefe's Players in New Jersey Exhibiting Same Mistakes as His Former Maple Leafs
Sheldon Keefe's New Jersey Devils showed some of the same shortcomings on Tuesday as his players in Toronto did during his time with the Maple Leafs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off of their most bizarre win of the season, a 2-1 OT victory against the New Jersey Devils in which they were severely out-shot and outclassed for much of the game.
The Maple Leafs registered an embarrassing one shot on net in the entire first period, becoming the first team to sport that feat in the entire NHL this season.
However, due to the heroics of captain Auston Matthews in OT, the Maple Leafs escaped with a victory, despite being out shot 39-16.
The most disappointing part of the game for the Devils wasn't even the loss, but the Devils' players failing to stand up for hits their teammates after a pair of hard hits, particularly a massive check by Max Pacioretty on Jack Hughes.
As per Nick Alberga on X:
The veteran Pacioretty absolutely unloaded a hit on Hughes in the second period, but no player came to his rescue, even though the young star was visibly shaken.
To make matters worse, Matthew Knies also landed a ferocious hit on Johnathan Kovacevic, again with no answer from his teammates.
The lack of support from teammates in New Jersey begs the question of if Sheldon Keefe is the problem. When Keefe was the coach in Toronto, the Maple Leafs often failed to stand up for one another, suffering the consequences of the exact same issues.
This season, under Craig Berube, the Maple Leafs are a much tougher team to play against, and have stood up for one another far more often. After what we witnessed on Tuesday night from the Devils, I'm not too sure anyone's really missing Sheldon Keefe behind the bench in Toronto.
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