New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe is rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs to do well in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Though his tenure on the Toronto bench may have come to an end well over a year ago, Keefe’s love for his former team has never wavered. He still resides in the Brampton area and is currently back in his home in Oakville where he has been spending time with friends and family as he gets some rest during the offseason.
In speaking with Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin, Keefe revealed that he is pulling for the Leafs with his Devils now out of the playoffs this spring.
“I look at myself as invested in it,” he said. “Nine years coaching the Leafs and the Marlies, and my kids are huge fans. And we’re watching the games, and I feel myself invested in what’s happening and want to see them do well. I have nothing but love and care for so many people in that organization, both as players and staff members. So I want to see them do great. If the Devils are out, they’re the team we’re pulling for, and I want to see them continue to keep going.”
Keefe understands better than most just how much the Leafs mean to the community, as he spent parts of five seasons manning the bench. When he was let go last May, he accepted responsibility for failing to deliver on his ultimate promise of a Stanley Cup because he knows the fan base deserves a winner.
It would be easy for him to be bitter that his successor, Craig Berube, has already gotten a lot more out of the group during his first season in charge, but Keefe is complimentary of the work done by the person who took over his role.
“I know how much it means for the community, for the city, for the fans,” he said. “And I wasn’t able to help the team get to where they need to get to, but they’re in a tremendous place right now and playing great hockey. Chief has them playing extremely well. He has done an incredible job building up their defence and goaltending.”
His tenure as Leafs head coach may not have gone exactly the way he had hoped, but it is clear that Keefe has all the love for the franchise he worked with for nearly 10 years. He got to live out his dream of working for his boyhood team and handled all of the responsibilities that came with it as well as he could.
It also allowed him to raise his family in the area, and they have loved it so much that they opted to stay behind when he accepted the Devils’ coaching job.
“We were very fortunate to spend nine years in the organization with the Marlies and the Leafs, my boys were 12 and 14 at the time, making that decision, and basically, this is all they’ve ever known,” he said. “And they’re very lucky to have been in one place for so long, to be as established as they were with school and sports and friends and our network of support that we have here. Obviously I’m from this area as well, growing up in Brampton, and my parents are still in the area. So, while the connections are still here, the proximity of New Jersey being as close as it was, we thought it was a good fit and we could make it work, and that’s exactly how it worked out.”
