Five of Toronto's final 12 games of the season are against teams that are currently in a playoff spot.
Five of Toronto's final 12 games of the season are against teams that are currently in a playoff spot.
The Maple Leafs might be in a playoff spot now, but they still understand the job isn't finished yet in making the postseason.
Toronto looks to be almost a lock to make the playoffs. They're third in the Atlantic Division, behind the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers, and they're also 10 points up on the Washington Capitals, who hold the second wild card spot.
"We had this discussion after we finished our game in Philadelphia before we prepared for that Washington game is like — a, we haven't clinched anything. Nothing's secure at this point in time. And we need to approach it that way," said Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said on Tuesday morning.
"Every day, every shift, every practice we get, we got to have a level of urgency to everything that we're doing here. We're approaching it with the mindset that we're going to be able to find a way to clinch a spot and all those sort of things. But, you got to do it. You got to maximize each day in order to do that. And that's obviously very important, to secure those points and secure our spot."
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Despite the Maple Leafs' position in the standings, Keefe wants to see the team have their game in the right place once the playoffs roll around.
"We just have our game in good order. You're sort of fighting all those sorts of things and you pile on the injury stuff and guys in and out of the lineup that like we've had and creating a little bit of adversity within the group just because of that situation," he said.
"So that in itself has gotten our attention at key moments."
Keefe doesn't want to see his team play in a similar fashion as they did against the Philadelphia Flyers on Mar. 19, where the team went down 3-0 before coming back in the third period when it was likely too late.
"To me, that was a disappointing game in lots of ways. I thought we responded well in Washington, certainly responded very well against Edmonton. The Carolina game is a challenging game for lots of reasons.
"There's things I didn't like about that game, but to me, it's not the same likeness as what happened in Philadelphia. I think we still went into that with good intentions and competed well. Maybe just didn't have our legs and played against a very good team. But, tonight for me is, again, let's build on our last effort that we had in here. This is another team with high-octane offense skill.
"They'll make you pay in transition if you give them easy ice. So there's lots of reasons for us to be dialed in here tonight and have an effort similar to Edmonton."
The Maple Leafs went up 5-0 in their game against the Oilers on Saturday night, courtesy of two goals each from Pontus Holmberg and Bobby McMann, plus a tally from Nylander.
Toronto ended up winning 6-3, not allowing Edmonton to get fully back into the game. And that's the way both Keefe and the players hope to play in the future.
"I think we came out with an attitude that we know we're a better team and we want to dictate the play from the start. I think we did that and (I'm) proud of us for that," McMann said following Toronto's win over Edmonton on Saturday.
"They have some skilled players and they push back a little bit, but we took it to them enough that it didn't matter."
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