Surprising change to Leafs’ practice after sloppy loss to Devils

On Tuesday night, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe didn’t hold back when roasting his players in his postgame presser following a 6-3 loss at the hands of the New Jersey Devils.

On Wednesday, he didn’t have a problem making a sudden change to practice, deciding not to hold a full one, but instead opting for a skills session with select players.

Last night, Keefe called out his players for being immature, making stupid mistakes and overdoing it on the ice. When told that both star forwards Auston Matthews and William Nylander also called out the players for their immaturity and sloppiness on the ice, the bench boss didn’t miss the opportunity to drag them to under the bus.

“They got to be the example. John Tavares has been the example for us. He’s been outstanding for us for a long period of time. He himself got carried away tonight. That’s our captain. So if that’s going to happen, well, like the rest of our bench is now, we’re just making it up as we go. When you do that, you open the door for the opposition to have a good night. And they did that. And I thought the last goal at the end of the third period there, that’s indicative of our second and third periods.”

During this new skills day, the hope is that the Maple Leafs will focus on fixing significant issues that were put under the microscope in yesterday’s loss, notably their bad start, 19 giveaways and their penalty kill tumble to 27th in the league.

Attending the skills day were injured forward Mitch Marner and goalie Ilya Samsonov, who is also sidelined, along with veteran backup Martin Jones. Samsonov was seen working with goalie coach Curtis Sanford. This was the full Leafs skills session attendance: 

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