Sheldon Keefe approved of John Tavares slashing incident

Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares got into a scuffle on Saturday night with Edmonton Oilers forward Vincent Desharnais, ultimately delivering a slash that would result in his getting fined a total of $5K. Of course, Desharnais wasn't completely without fault himself as he was cross checking Tavares and also tried to take out his skates. 

Tavares seemed to show remorse for his actions afterward, and promised to be better moving forward.

“Obviously, I’ve got to be better in that scenario,” Tavares said in his postgame comments. “Control your emotions better, so that’s on me. Heat of the moment, obviously, course of things throughout the game… Just have to control your emotions better in that situation, regardless of what I may feel or [if there’s] something going on that I dont like. I’m better than that, and I’ll learn from it”

However, according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, he had "no problem" with it and said that it was simply a case of the Leafs captain defending himself. 

"You want to see guys be disciplined — especially in a game like that — and maintain their composure, and yet at times, emotions are high," Keefe said. "On the top players, in particular, a lot of players take a lot of liberties, especially in tight games. It seems not much of it gets called. Sometimes players have to take it into their own hands in cases like that and stand up for themselves."

"For that reason, I have no problem with it. Just like William, I have no concerns about John’s ability to keep his composure at key times and not cross the line. To that end, we just press on with it."

Did you have a problem with Tavares retaliating against Desharnais?