Maple Leafs’ Post-Game Press Conference After Game 2 Win

Following the game, the Maple Leafs players held their post-game press conferences, and it just felt different. They were excited and happy to have tied the series with Games 3 and 4 back at home. It feels like this win could be the fire starter to a potential series win for the club. The most important thing for them to remember is that this is only Game 2, and the series is tied. There is still a long, hard-fought series ahead of them, so they need to channel this energy and emotion into their play on the ice. With that, let’s take a look at members of the Maple Leafs’ reaction to the Game 2 victory.

Sheldon Keefe:

Maple Leafs’ head coach Sheldon Keefe met with the media for just under five minutes, and in that time he seemed to keep it positive. TSN’s Chris Johnston asked him about the adversity that his team faced during this game. Keefe had this to say: “Yeah, loved our result tonight. The goal at the end of the first period gave them life and momentum going into the second. The game in the back of your mind had the potential to be similar to the one the other night. We didn’t let that happen. Great effort on the road tonight. Really good team win.”

He was then asked about Ilya Samsonov’s performance, to which he had this to say: “It was great. Some really huge saves at key times. One at the start of the third period stands out, and one to start the second. He is important. I thought we played another really strong game defensively tonight. It is never going to be perfect. Their team does a lot of good things that are going to stress your team defensively. He had to be there, for sure. He is a big part of this one today. It is a great team effort. We had some great individual efforts, but it was a really good team effort.”

Keefe was then asked about his top line of Matthews, Max Domi, and Tyler Bertuzzi: “How they competed and worked. Auston has a goal and two assists. He was all over the stat sheet tonight. In so many regards, he is affecting the game positively for us. To me, with the way he worked and the way he competed, he was hard and physical. He was winning puck battles all over the ice. I would say the same thing about Bert and Domi.”

Keefe also touched on the trust he has in his fourth line and how the team can keep momentum heading into Game 3:
“I am not going to reflect back or spend much time thinking about that, but I like the line. The line has been very good. They have a really clear identity. Kampf and Dewar can really be trusted defensively. They give you everything they have. Reavo has done his job wonderfully for quite some time. I thought he was really good tonight again. He was all around the net offensively and on the forecheck. He was also really good on the wall in the defensive zone.”

“We believe in our group. We know we have a good team. We know what we are up against. They were one win away from finishing second overall in the league. A few weeks ago, we thought they were going to make a push for the President’s Trophy.”

Tyler Bertuzzi:

Bertuzzi also met with the media for just over two minutes and had nothing but great things to say about his linemates. He was asked about his perspective on the Matthews game-winning goal. This is what he had to say: “It was awesome; I saw Max have it and kind of just a flip pass, and Auston grabbed it and went in and scored, and that was, you know, a big goal for us and the team, and something we all needed, and we shut them down after.”

He also spoke about his goal of being called back due to a high stick. “Yeah, I kind of had a little bit of an idea.” He followed that up by talking about the Maple Leafs’ late-game penalty kill on his slash to Brad Marchand. “Yeah, that was a big kill by the guys. That was not a good penalty by me, and they bailed me out, and it was a great kill late in the game.” Lastly, he was asked about Matthews’ ability to step up in big moments. “Yeah, that was a big goal at a big key moment in the game, and then the guys did a great job killing that penalty, and then we shut down six-on-five. There’s going to be a lot of games like that coming up that are going to be one-goal games that we will have to shut them down.”

Ilya Samsonov:

Samsonov spoke post-game after back-stopping his team to a win to tie the series. Last night’s game was big for him after he appeared to have lost all confidence in himself after Game 1. The first question he was asked was about the team’s response: “Yeah, like a really good game for us, everyone stayed strong the whole game. You know, like every zone, D-zone, offensive zone, neutral zone, really good game for us.”

Samsonov spoke on the mindset of bouncing back after giving up a late first-period goal: “We didn’t think about it; we just need to play our game, talking to the coaches and talking with the team; we just move forward, moment by moment.”

It appears that Samsonov’s new mindset that helped him turn his season around is based on “moment by moment.” He was asked a few times about his ability to make saves and how the team came up big in big moments, and he ended his answers to a lot of the questions with “moment by moment,” which is great to see.

Max Domi:

Domi has been exactly what the Maple Leafs needed in their top six: a player who can be a Mitch Marner 2.0 but also bring a physical edge to the line he is on. The game-winner goal by Matthews wouldn’t have been possible without Domi’s flip pass to him to spring him on the breakaway. After the game, he spoke on that play, “Yeah, great play by Boosh (Lyubushkin). I obviously tried to catch them in transition, and Tone (Matthews) took off, so I just threw it up, and he did the rest.”

He also spoke on the team’s response last night: “Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, I think anytime you have a close game like that and you got everyone stepping up at different times, the PK had to step up at times, and when we needed to, we scored when we had to score, and Sammy (Samsonov) made the saves he had to make.”

Domi is known to be a bit smart with the media at times, and that showed when he was asked about how the team managed to overcome the late-first-period goal by the Bruins. He said “60-minute hockey game for a reason, right? I mean, it’s the playoffs; you can’t afford to waste one second or one bit of energy on feeling sorry for yourself or complaining or anything like that; just get back to work and lock in, and that is what we did.”

John Tavares & Auston Matthews:

John Tavares and Matthews met the media together at the stand, and the first question went to Matthews. He was asked if it was worth the waste for his 70th goal of the year, to which he said, “Ha, I don’t know how to answer that, honestly. You know, it’s an important time of year for us, for the team, and these moments are obviously emotional and mean a lot, so we’re really happy about the win and split 1-1; we just gotta continue to stay focused.”

Tavares was asked about what he had learned about Matthews and stepping up in big moments for this team. “He’s just world-class at everything he does.” He then went into further detail about Matthews by saying, “I think when you see the drive nervy single day and the passion for the game and wanting to be such a difference maker, night in and night out, and certainly at this time of year, it was massive for our group and puts us back on level terms going home. Big win for us, and he really led the way and hell of a goal.”

Tavares also spoke on Samsonov, saying, “We love him, we love him, and he’s a big part of our locker room.”

Overall, the Maple Leafs played a very good game and were rewarded with the win. In the playoffs, not every good effort by a team is going to result in a win; sometimes the other team is luckier and takes advantage of mistakes. That is what they were able to do tonight, and it led to them tying the series 1-1. During Keefe’s post-game presser, he had the quote of the night when talking about Matthews and Domi’s connection on the team’s third goal, and it summarized the game perfectly: “That’s big-time stuff.”

The Maple Leafs are next in action on Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00 PM, as the series shifts back to Toronto for Game 3.