[Alter] Asked if he’s concerned about Kingberg’s play, Keefe: Yes. What needs to change specifically: We need to protect him better.
Asked if he’s concerned about Kingberg’s play, Keefe: Yes.
What needs to change specifically: We need to protect him better.
— David Alter (@dalter) November 9, 2023
by DevOpsMakesMeDrink
24 Comments
What did we do to deserve this?
I actually liked keefes comments after the game.
I’m sorry.. you’re saying you need to protect a $4.5M defenseman from defending too much?
Sit him in the press box. I can’t believe there’s a single D man on the Marlies who wouldn’t be able to provide more value in the D zone.
With what exactly? Can’t protect dogshit with more dogshit.
If you need to protect a player making 4.5mill, that player should NOT be making 4.5mill. He should be making paper airplanes as a healthy scratch.
thats actually quite interesting, I don’t think Keefe has ever been this blunt with a player before, he was asked similar things last year about Holl when he was going through one of his massive slumps and would ALWAYS go out to bad for him and say that the media was blowing it out of proportion
Entering tonight’s action, there were 188 defencemen with 100+ minutes at 5v5.
Klingberg had started just 5.6% of his shifts with a defensive zone face-off. That ranked 187th of 188.
What the fuck can Keefe do other than sit him out? Waive him. Nick Ritchie lasted 20 games here so sack the fuck up Brad and take the L here.
That’s the wrong answer.
You don’t “protect” a 4 million dollar defenseman. This isn’t some fucking rookie making his debut.
What a shit sandwich that is
Oh Shelley, are you tryna get yourself fired?
These feels more like Keefe sending a message to Treliving more than him actually wanting to “shelter” and support Klingberg
He’s fuckin garbage
We? Keefe, you’re the guy who controls player deployment mid game. YOU need to protect him better. And that’s in the press box.
This is a really interesting comment from Keefe. He’s basically addressing the issue and calling it for what it is while also being politically correct. He didn’t say anything explicitly bad but this can be interpreted a lot of ways:
– I think he’s genuinely trying to protect Klinberg by basically saying we signed him knowing what he is. Why would you expect him to change? It’s upto us to use him correctly.
– At the same time, I think he also is implying that we need to get healthy again because with the correct defensive balance, Klinberg is easier to shelter.
get keefe and klingberg off the team
This team stinks!
6-5 with Matthews being white hot. I don’t think they are going to make the playoffs at this point.
Sit him
He needs to play harder, try and care more
He just stood there watching on that one goal
I still don’t get why Klingberg is on PP unit 1? Like what can he do that Rielly can’t?
Just waive him. He won’t get claimed. You can bury $1.15M in the AHL. Use that to call up literally any warm body from that team who can skate backwards.
Maybe, maaayyybbbeee there’s the off chance he finds his game down there and can contribute to the Leafs down the road. If not, pray McCabe comes back soon, pray Liljigren can be effective when he comes back. Maybe make a trade for a D man, idk. But you can’t give Klingberg a regular shift moving forward.
Protect him from what?!!!!? The puck going near him? This has to be the WORST pylon employed by the leafs EVER. He needs to Cambelled now.
Ppl gunna blame Keefe like he got Klingberg. We are playing are 7/8th D as well due to injuries. We are fked ATM lol
This goes deeper than Klingberg, Keefe, and Treliving. Shanahan should have been fired this offseason. His whole tenure has been riddled with missteps.
Other than a handful of high draft picks panning out this team has been a case study in mismanagement. Very few picks beyond the first round have become NHLers under Shanahan. There’s been minimal playoff success, despite a cast of all-star forwards. And zeroing in on the core four, all were paid peak value or above peak value. Zero ability to look forward and project that these guys needed to be signed early (or in JT’s case, not signed).
Only in pro sports can you be terrible at your job and stick around for years after the writing has been on the wall. Or in Treliving’s case, fail up to the biggest stage after absolutely shitting the bed on a mid-market team. This is a league where JFJ got a job after he absolutely shat the bed in Toronto. What a joke.
I personally feel the best way to have protected him would have been to let him sign with a different team.
The only good thing about this signing is that it’s a one year deal. And even that feels way too long.