Transcript: Sheldon Keefe Media Call - April 7, 2020
© Claus Andersen/Getty Images
Q (Chris Johnston, Sportsnet): I'll stick with the news of the day and ask you what your thoughts are on the signing of Alexander Barabanov and how you anticipate he'll be able to help when he joins you next season?
SHELDON KEEFE: We're really excited to add another player to the fold here that we think has got great experience and great skill set, very high character as well, and checks a lot of the boxes you look for when you're looking to add a player that you fully expect can step in and be an important part of your team. Great work by Jim Paliafito again, to first identify him but then put in the work to allow him to sort through all the different options that Alex had available to him and to ultimately settle on Toronto. We're excited to have him, but of course we're still kind of in the mode of 19-20 season here in which he's not eligible or a part of but going forward beyond that he's certainly going to be an important piece of the puzzle for us.
Q (Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun): What have the past few weeks been like for you and your family?
SHELDON KEEFE: Through the three weeks we've gone through, I'm sure, all the same emotions and similar experiences as everyone else. We've tried to stay focused, myself as a coach, continuing to work and be as prepared as possible for anything that might be coming, while also taking advantage of the time that we have as a staff to really look back and reflect on what we've been through as a group and how we can help build our team as a whole and the individuals themselves to be a little better when we return. That's been a priority as a staff. Then for me, I've just really tried to take advantage of the time that I've had to be at home here and be with my wife and kids and have time that I wouldn't have otherwise. I've really enjoyed that. Even in the off-season you get to spend a significant amount of time with your family, of course, but you're so busy, you always seem to be on the run and all those types of things. The conditions being what they are right now, you're here, you're with each other all the time and I've learned a lot about them and enjoyed my time with them. We're going through everything together here and try to look at the positives that are coming out of that experience.
Q (Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun): Looking back at 2019-20 - and the year isn't over yet - from a personal standpoint, what are you going to be able to remember about how this year has gone for you starting with the Marlies, the Leafs and everything that has gone on so far?
SHELDON KEEFE: It certainly has been eventful. I think my own experience and my own journey has been very unique and very exciting on so many levels. Of course, going through what we're going through now isn't exciting for anybody, so I think as we look back on it, we'll remember what we're going through now more than anything. I think that's really where the perspective and the focus should be. There are so many things that are happening that are more important and more significant than anything that's happening with or to or happened with myself or my family or team. So trying to keep everything in perspective as much as I can while still recognizing I still have a job to do and I've got to stay focused every day to keep working towards making our group better, but it has been a very eventful season to say the least.
Q (Paul Hendrick, Leafs Nation Network): Citing players like Egor Korshkov and Ilya Mikheyev, what has allowed the modern-day Russian hockey player to be able to acclimate themselves as quickly as they have with the organization in your mind?
SHELDON KEEFE: A big part of that, I would say goes to just the player and the exposure that they get. First of all the KHL is playing a lot more hockey on NHL size ice so right away that's something. Just the amount of international hockey and how they compete. In Barabanov's case, he's played a lot both with NHL players and against NHL players in international competition with Team Russia and the World championships That he's played in and I've watched him play in some of those games against some of those teams with a heavy NHL presence, such as Canada. He's succeeded there and I think that helps his confidence coming in. Then there is a big onus on the organization to really help what is a talented player to identify that can really help your team. Then it's on our organization to then to allow him to come in and make the transition as easy as possible and it's not an easy transition for a European player, in particular for a Russian player that doesn't speak English and all those different types of things that come with it.
We're very fortunate here that we've got a lot of experience in the Maple Leafs organization with players in similar circumstances to make that transition. That really is on us to really help that transition as best as possible, but I think all the different experiences that players and their families go through allow it to be seamless. That is on us to help that happen and help get it to a point where he can just be himself and play as quickly as possible.
Q (Paul Hendrick, Leafs Nation Network): How important was Nik Antropov in that regard this past season?
SHELDON KEEFE: From my perspective, very important. Particularly when I was with the Marlies, Egor Korshkov and his development, you've got a player that is not only trying to adjust to playing at the NHL level, or even at the AHL level in his case, but he's also learning the language and all those things that come with it. So he's in a very developmental spot and you're trying to teach him a lot of different things so having someone to help with the language situation while also being someone such as Nik, who has the experience of playing in the NHL, is very important for us. When I was with the Leafs, we started to have Nik around more just to help with Mikheyev, who was in a much different situation. Not as much in the development phase, obviously he's in the performance phase and contributing at a very high level for us and we think the Barabanov situation is going to be very similar to that. We think he's going to be a very important piece to the team. Certainly adding Antropov and his presence is another step this organization is taking to ease that step and transition period.
Q (Josh Clipperton, Canadian Press): What does your day-to-day working life look like right now, not knowing if this season is going to resume with regular season games, going into the playoffs or maybe not at all?
SHELDON KEEFE: There certainly is a lot of uncertainty with it. What we've tried to do is focus on what we can control every day, and, in many senses, it's been business as usual in the sense that we have projects and things that we're working on every day. We're working back through video, we're connecting as a staff be it telephone, text message, email. We're having regular conference calls as a staff to talk about where we're at and what's happening and recapping what we've done and what we want to continue to do through the next period. So we're just trying to continue to work and that's really been the focus. Just handle what we can control, just like we're putting it to our players. The circumstances are difficult for everybody in the world, but we have a responsibility here, our season is not complete. We have to take advantage of every day that we have to work towards being better versions of ourselves for whenever we do get back to playing.
Q (Josh Clipperton, The Canadian Press): You talked about the team being immature at one point during the season, Kyle talked to Jekyll and Hyde. Have you had time to reflect on why that is and how you might be able to help the group overcome those deficiencies?
SHELDON KEEFE: I think part of that is the growth of the team and I think an important distinction that should be made is we didn't necessarily say that our team was immature, we said that we played immature. I think those are two different things. We've shown at times that we can play very well against the best teams in the League and get great results from that. It's a matter of us finding that more consistently. We can attach whatever description we want to it, but the reality is we need to take steps both as a team and individually. Right now when we're not playing it's a chance for us reset, but also really identify where we want to grow and how we're going to get there. When we come back, we're going to have some sort of time to reset ourselves and the hope is from when we played our last game against Tampa Bay until whenever we resume, we're a better group and we've taken steps. We think there's work that can be done away from the rink that will help us do that.
Q (Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star): What kind of specific interactions have you been having with players? Are you keeping in touch much? And what are the challenges that go with attempting to sort of maintain those relationships in a moment like this?
SHELDON KEEFE: The obvious challenge is the distance, of course. You don't have the face to face contact and you're not able to sit across from someone and talk them through something or show them something. I think, like everybody, we're adapting to the situation. We're trying to find the balance as a coaching staff -- and I myself am finding the balance -- of giving the players space to deal with the things they need to deal with. Everybody has their own family situation and their own situations happening and the uncertainty being what it is. So I'm trying to give our players space knowing other members of the organization, from training and medical staff to strength and conditioning staff are staying on top of them on different things. We need to give them their space, but I am staying in contact with guys, be it directly through phone calls or text messages, regular text messages with the players, e-mails and all those types of things. We are trying to stay connected and keep them involved in letting them know what we're working on and what we're working towards as a coaching staff.
I think as this moves ahead by the day we're really adjusting our plan a little bit, but we're trying to stay connected as best as possible while also recognizing that while it feels like maybe nothing is happening, there is a lot happening because there are a lot of emotions and all those different things are attached to the situation that we're in. We want to make sure we're going about it appropriately and being as prepared as possible as a coaching staff, we have our own work to do internally before we pass it along to the players.
Q (Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star): I spoke to Brendan Shanahan maybe a week and a half ago, and he was talking about how in the interactions he's had with players, there have been guys who have been talking about making gains through this absence, through this pause in the season. Have you heard that type of reasoning from players and that type of goal setting from players?
SHELDON KEEFE: I have and that's really what our communication has been like. Again, the conditions are challenging, yet it is an opportunity where there is time to focus on certain things and the messaging I've been giving to our players and to our staff is that there's no excuse here. We should come back as better versions of ourselves. Maybe, in a lot of cases, that'll be difficult to do from a physical standpoint, but there's a lot of things we can do in other areas that maybe, frankly, are more important for our group. This pause that we're going through now gives us a chance to really talk about those types of things and make those sorts of adjustments and make those plans. We're looking to take advantage of it.
Q (Joshua Kloke, The Athletic): Your players have talked before about how important it is that they have that kind of face-to-face connection with you and they can talk about things beyond hockey with you. Has it been challenging for you not to be able to connect with players personally and have you had to kind of think outside the box in terms of how you do maintain relationships with your players through this?
SHELDON KEEFE: Yeah, I have Josh. I've thought about it a lot. I was still very early going in my tenure in this job, so I was still very much developing those relationships with guys. It's obviously more challenging to do now. I think there is balance between forcing things at a time like this versus letting things kind of play out and having periodic conversations and trying to be respectful of a player's space and their time. As I said, there are a lot of other people from our organization that have their jobs to do to connect with our players regularly. We're wanting to respect that. Also, now you're seeing more and more presence from the players with their media obligations and different things that they're doing. So, as I said, I'm trying to just use the phone and text and all those types of things.
We're also working internally and as a staff to identify things that we can do to share with the players that we think could really help us take our relationships that we have to really connect it to what's most important for us -- to how we're going to be better when we return. That's really been the priority is making sure that -- my connections with guys right now are very casual in nature, but we're hoping that as time elapses our players want information and things we can do to get them better. That's where I'm going to be focused on is to build the door to open that to them between myself and the rest of our staff.
Q (Justin Cuthbert, Yahoo Sports): You mentioned reflecting on the team's progress, but what did you discover about yourself as a coach or as a person in your couple months coaching the Maple Leafs so far?
SHELDON KEEFE: I don't know that it's so much as it's describing it about myself as it is about learning about the League and learning about the job and the things that go into that. Then, of course, there's the connection to how that impacts me and my daily process and my life and all those types of things. Certainly that is and was an adjustment. Frankly it was a little bit easier for me in the early going. When I first arrived, I started on the road and on the road, the routines are pretty similar and the demands on me are pretty similar to what they were in the American League. It was just kind of business as usual. Then as you get home, there's a lot more responsibilities that go into it and then the schedule got really busy for us at periods of time, in February in particular. So, you're learning about managing the time and balancing the time and what you're spending your time on, from a video and teaching perspective and with your staff versus with your players.
Those are kind of the things I really reflected on to think about how I could do that better and how I could manage my time better to really to prioritize. The more and more NHL coaches I speak to and when you hear NHL coaches talk, that does present itself as the greatest challenge that coaches face at the NHL level is managing your time. The schedule is relentless and there's a lot to cover. You have to trust your staff and we have great people. I'm very fortunate that I had a different process I was going through at the American League level. You have so much time to process the games before you moved on to the next one as you get through one weekend to have a week of practice and play again. That process was entirely different for me to adjust on the fly and I'm still working out that.
Q: (Mark Masters, TSN) As you reflected on the season, is there anything you learned about the team or individuals on the team specifically that you didn't know before?
SHELDON KEEFE: I don't know, Mark, I'd say specifically about the individuals that it's a mixed bag for me. I had guys who I was very familiar with in my time coaching them with the Marlies, which made up about half of the team. Then I had a situation where I was learning about guys for the very first time. So I think as I went through that process, I am learning about guys and trying to adjust on the fly a bit, but I don't know if I went in with any sort of expectations or that I learned anything necessarily new.
What I'm learning about is the team as a whole and that, of course, for me is a new perspective and new experience. The general theme is we have to get better. The biggest area for us to get better at is to be more consistent in both our preparation and our effort and then ultimately on our performance. That was the biggest thing that I learned and took away, is while all of the other things are so important - the structure, the way we play, all of these things - if we can't play at a high level every single day then it doesn't really matter what we're talking about and what we're trying to accomplish. We need to give ourselves an opportunity through a foundation of work ethic and competitiveness and discipline and structure, all of those things which give you a chance to win every day.
Q: (Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun) Two quick questions. One is a hypothetical - how long realistically would it take a mini-camp to get people up to speed, and at this time are you trading notes or texts or phone calls with any other coaches?
SHELDON KEEFE: In terms of how long it would take us to get back up to speed, I don't know that you can pinpoint any particular time. The NHL and the NHLPA will decide on that and whatever the time is, we'll utilize that time to the best of our ability and be prepared and that's really what we can focus on so I wouldn't want to get set on any sort of length of time or anything like that. What they tell us we have; we'll make best do with and that'll be my focus as much as possible.
My big focus right now, especially because we continue to work on the daily here as a staff, is trying to keep things as normal as possible so my communication has been really directly with our own staff. I have stayed in consistent contact with the NHL Coaches Association and things that are happening there. Much like the Players' Association, they're kind of organizing things about what's happening around different teams. The NHL Coaches Association does a perfect job of that for us, so we've been trying to stay informed there to keep our staff informed. Otherwise, we're just staying focused on worrying about what we can, which is trying to get better every day here despite the circumstances.
Q: (Luke Fox, Sportsnet) From a personal standpoint, how has this unique situation changed your view of the world?
SHELDON KEEFE: Well it certainly provides a lot of perspective about a couple things. First of all, you know that when it really comes down to it, sports is pretty low on the priority list. So many things are more important - family, health, all of these things of course are the most important and most essential thing - and that's why I think it's such a great time and opportunity for people to work together, take care of one another by spending time with the ones that are most important to them in their families and helping each other in that way. That perspective has been great.
You also do recognize that - I get a lot of messages and a lot of calls from friends and people around that enjoy their sports and the role that sports do play in their lives. It also makes you recognize and know that what you're doing is important and that people miss it. Both of those perspectives are important for us but of course the most important thing is that we recognize that there's a lot of bigger things happening than sports. If and when the health officials and the NHL decide it's time for hockey to resume playing and it's safe to do so, we'll be excited to get going and entertain people once again.
Q: (Joshua Kloke, The Athletic) The question I'm sure everybody wants to know - are you reading anything during this time away from the game, are you watching anything new, what are you binging on right now?
SHELDON KEEFE: I'm doing a lot of binging on the Toronto Maple Leafs currently. It's taking up a lot of my time but also, I've taken advantage of some time to catch up on good movies and things that I've been waiting to catch up on. I'm a big movie guy generally so I'm trying to catch some of those. Not a big TV guy necessarily, in fact, getting a lot of messages and having a lot of conversations with different people about the various shows that are hot topics right now, my response a lot of the time is that I don't even have a Netflix account. I'm not up to speed on those types of things so I don't know if I'm proud or embarrassed about the fact I don't have a Netflix account. It seems like a rabbit hole of entertainment that I don't necessarily know that I need to get down. The longer that this goes on, it seems like things are becoming more and more of a hot topic. The Tiger King stuff, which, when I first heard about it, I thought it was going to be a documentary on Tiger Woods, which I thought would have been terrific to catch.
There's lots of things out there that keep people occupied but I'm spending a lot of time with my family and with my kids and working on my skills as a teacher to be able to work with them on the homeschooling-type stuff here. My grade four math skills are improving daily so that's the kind of stuff we've been working at and playing a lot of board games with the family and getting out, moving around and get some walks in with the family. All of that stuff is taking up my time.
Q: (Joshua Kloke, The Athletic) What is the last good movie you saw during this time?
SHELDON KEEFE: I would say Ford v. Ferrari is one that I really enjoyed. I hadn't seen that one. That one was really good. I also enjoyed A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, the Mr. Rogers story. I thought that was done very well both in the story behind it and how they put it all together into a movie. How he impacted people's lives was pretty terrific.
