Sheledon Keefe defends Auston Matthews while Matthews makes excuses for recent slump.

Matthews struggling but Keefe doesn't see an issue.

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Published 4 years ago
Sheledon Keefe defends Auston Matthews while Matthews makes excuses for recent slump.
Mike Wulf/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs appeared to have turned their season around after the firing of now former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock last month. The introduction of the newly appointed Sheldon Keefe as the organization's bench boss appeared to provide the team with an immediate injection of confidence, resulting in some big wins early on for a Leafs' squad that had begun to falter under Babcock, but that initial hype now seems to be coming back down to reality. 

The Leafs are now coming off of back to back losses under Keefe and although some parts of the team have clearly been improved during his short time as the organization's head coach, one name remains a source of great frustration for fans and pundits alike. I of course am speaking of Toronto Maple Leafs' star forward Auston Matthews, a player that carries a massive weight on his shoulders every time he steps out onto the ice and one that has produced just a single point in his last 5 games under head coach Sheldon Keefe. Most had expected the firing of Babcock to spark Matthews, given that he and Babcock had their differences in the past, but it has done anything but. 

Matthews was asked about those struggles recently and the Leafs star made it sound like the team was starting back at square one, almost as if they were suddenly being asked to enter training camp in the middle of an NHL season.

“It just doesn’t happen overnight, making these big changes. You’re going to make mistakes, be caught out there thinking a little bit because you’ve been so used to one thing,” "said Matthews as per the Toronto Sun.

“But we have to adjust. Before, we kind of had the guys on the hash marks to try and close them down, now we’re trying to take care of the middle ice a little more to keep then to the outside, to the perimeter as much as possible.

“It has been like a mini-training camp the past couple of weeks. For myself the puck will eventually go in.”

For his part Sheldon Keefe was quick to downplay any talk regarding the recent performances out of Matthews :

“A lot of attention is being put on the fact he hasn’t produced to the level you would expect or that he would expect,” Keefe said Friday after the team’s practice. “I’m not so focused on that. I go back and watch all the scoring chances he’s had in every game. For me, I mean the puck goes half an inch one way or another, doesn’t hit the goalie’s shoulder, doesn’t tip the edge of his pad, then all of a sudden the narrative is completely different.

“He’s in on the scoring chances, he’s around the net and he’s shooting from dangerous areas. We like that and we’d like to find ways to help him have more. The chances are there. We just want to make sure, much like the rest of our team, we’re good in all the other areas.”

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