Sheldon Keefe calls out Maple Leafs defense

The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered their second straight defeat last night at the hands of the Floria Panthers, which also happens to be their second straight loss to the Panthers dating back to last spring's playoff series. 

Florida picked up a 3-1 victory at Amerant Bank Stadium thanks to goals from Kevin Stenlund and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, their first with their new team. Meanwhile, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 shots as part of the win, helping the Panthers improve back to the .500 mark. 

For Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov, his subpar start to the year continued as he's now allowed a total of 11 goals in the three games he's appeared in. But according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, the Leafs can't fully get a full view of their goaltenders until the defense shapes up. 

"We can't truly assess the goalies until we start playing better defensively... [Samsonov] made some saves on the PK for us that were really good," Keefe said. "The two goals came from distance. I would like to see him find a way to get one of those for us, especially when the guy at the other end is not giving you much. But I thought it was a good game and progress for Sammy in terms of finding his groove."

The top defensive pairing of Morgan Rielly and T.J. Brodie remains intact, while Timothy Liljegren has shifted to playing with Jake McCabe; newcomer John Klingberg has been moved down to the third pairing with veteran Mark Giordano. 

Regardless of the pairings, the defense as a whole has not carried their load in the way that they're expected to for a team with title aspirations. They'll have a chance to get back on the right side of things tomorrow when their Sunshine State tour continues as they face the rival Tampa Bay Lightning, whom they took down in Round 1 earlier this year in six games.

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