John Tortorella defended Sheldon Keefe a day after the Columbus Blue Jackets eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs from the Stanley Cup qualifier.
Tortorella, the coach of Blue Jackets, responded to criticism leveled at Keefe, the coach of Maple Leafs, for decisions made during the best-of-5 series, won by Columbus with a 3-0 victory in Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday. The Blue Jackets advanced to play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Game 1 is in Toronto, the hometown for the East, on Tuesday (3 pm ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS).
The Maple Leafs have not won a postseason series since winning seven games against the Senators in Ottawa in the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
“I just can not touch on people ripping Sheldon Keefe and his staff up to the job he has done with the Maple Leaf team,” Tortorella said. “They’ve done a great job with that team. Now this is after the series and all that, and some of the things I read, some of the things I saw yesterday, I mean, the half of the pundits in this city think they really know about the game, but they really do not. [upsets me] for another coach in this league. “
Keefe played most of his 125 NHL games for the Lightning 2000-03 with Tortorella as his coach. He was hired by Toronto to replace Mike Babcock on Nov. 20. After a start of 9-10-4 and was 27-15-5 in 47 games. He coached Toronto from the American Hockey League to the Calder Cup in 2018.
“And I know it’s Toronto, a great city, a great hockey city. I love being here,” Tortorella said. “But some of the things he’s been criticized for do not believe me. And it just shows that people have no idea what’s going on in this game. That I just want to support him, I’m glad we won, but I just want to support him, and his staff have done a great job with that hockey club. “
The Maple Leafs (36-25-9, .579 points percentage) were the No. 8 seed in the East. They were one of eight teams (Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipeg Jets) eliminated from the qualifying game that had a 12.5 percent chance at the No. .1 pick in the NHL Draft in 2020, won by the Rangers, on Monday in the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery.
Alexis Lafreniere, a left winger for Rimouski of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, is the projected top pick.
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