Maple Leafs' Ryan Reaves Explains Lack of Response in Brad Marchand Trip of Timothy Liljegren: 'It'll Be Changed Going Forward'
Reaves is one of several Toronto Maple Leafs brought in this summer to be more physical and lamented on the team's lack of physical counter to Brad Marchand's trip of Timothy Liljegren.
The Toronto Maple Leafs held a few meetings about their lack of pushback when Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand tripped defenseman Timothy Liljegren in the first period of the team's 3-2 shootout loss on Thursday.
"In real-time, it didn’t look like anything and in the replay," Reaves explained on his initial reaction to the trip. "I think you can form your own opinion on what happened, based on the player. It didn’t look overly malicious but it looked like there was some intent there."
Following the hit, cameras caught several Maple Leafs players exchanging words with Marchand. Reaves said part of what he said to Marchand was to get away from the team's bench.
"It’s just lucky I wasn’t on the ice with him," Reaves said. "Unfortunately they had last change so I didn’t get any shifts against them. That’s hockey."
Sheldon Keefe was equally unhappy with his club's lack of response to Marchand's trip of Liljegren, who will be out of action for a minimum of 10 games and 24 days with a high-ankle sprain. But the Leafs head coach disagreed with Reaves' assertion that any change advantage had anything to do with it.
"It’s less about that. Brad Marchand doesn't care about Ryan Reaves or anybody else in the league," Keefe said. "It’s more about the team response. There are a lot of players wearing Bruins colours that we can make life harder on them. It’s more about an uplifting of our team.
The Maple Leafs get ready to take on the Buffalo Sabres at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday. Keefe didn't spend much time talking about the challenge that the Sabres presented following a 5-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday and focused more on addressing how his team would respond to standing up for each other.
And while a pushback from the rest of the club was expected from the Maple Leafs, Reaves, in particular, is supposed to bring that enforcer and intimidation presence that was expected of him when Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving signed the player to a three-year, $4.05 million deal this summer.
"We talked about it and addressed it in the room. It’ll be changed going forward."
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