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Sheldon Keefe has plenty of time, but none of which he'll waste
With the NHL on hiatus as the world collectively grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns over what sort of shape players will be in when and if they are rushed back onto the field of play are certainly valid. Aside from home workouts and maybe some dry-land training outside, players can’t help but slip into a relatively sedentary lifestyle considering how their time is normally is spent.
Players are doing typical things, like typical people; they’ve essentially been forced to. They’re watching Netflix, playing video games, reading, cooking, and some are even working on their carpentry, building things like chicken coups. They have been taken away from their routine, and forced into new ones. And those who best mimic what they were doing before the world stopped could very well be in the best position to have an impact if the NHL does indeed find a way to pick up where it left off.
For coaches, though, there is no excuse to slip.
Sure, they aren’t delivering instruction on the ice, the bench, or inside the dressing room like they normally would be, and important conversations they have with players have most definitely dropped in frequency.
But they have everything they need to exert themselves, to perform the tasks required of their profession.
There is no time to waste — certainly no time to burn through hours of mindless television.
“I’m doing a lot of binging on the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Sheldon Keefe said Tuesday.
It was really much of the same when comparing Keefe’s half-hour media availability with players and other management types. He acknowledged those in the front lines, saw the silver lining in the hours he’s banked with family, and minimized the importance of the NHL and sport in general in times like these.
Then he was asked how he was spending his down time.
"I don't know if I'm proud or embarrassed to not have a Netflix account,” he added.
While he would acknowledge that movies are more his speed, mentioning ‘Ford vs. Ferrari’ and ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood’ as recent flicks he’s watched and enjoyed, Keefe is quite clearly not becoming complacent while the NHL remains paused.
He is focused on spending his time trying to improve as a head coach.
“No excuse here — we should come back a better version of ourselves," he said.
For the 39-year-old Keefe, that means scrutinizing tapes, game plans and strategies to help streamline the team’s processes. And with less than four months of actual on-the-ground coaching experience at the highest level of competition, Keefe is reviewing and working on refining his own procedures.
Most specifically, he’s reflecting on the time crunch that is placed on NHL coaches, and learning ways to adjust to the lack of preparation time that he once used to his advantage in the minor leagues.
Keefe called the NHL schedule “relentless,” and the lack of breathing room between games, practices and other checkpoints being the biggest takeaway point from his time since graduating from the Toronto Marlies and replacing Mike Babcock as Leafs coach in mid-November.
He’s also working on things that he will eventually share with players, but at this time doesn’t see the point to inundating them with information, instead giving them the opportunity to care for themselves and their families.
He’s also focused on his role with hockey operations, and the ongoing efforts to add talent to the system. The club just came to an agreement with coveted Russian forward Alexander Barabanov, who Keefe suggested would step right into an important role with the club next season.
For now and for the foreseeable future, Keefe will have plenty of time on his hands.
None of which, it seems, he’ll choose to waste.
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