Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe took the high road after his club suffered a stunning 7-6 defeat at the hands of the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
The Maple Leafs appeared to be cruising to a sixth consecutive win with a 5-1 lead in the second period, but Florida stormed back with five unanswered goals to set up a dramatic overtime victory.
"I'm going to focus on the fact that we played another good hockey game today," Keefe said, according to The Leafs Nation's David Alter. "We were bad in moments. You can't take a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty. You can't give up a shorthanded goal from a clear shot from the blue line. You can't have your fourth line take a penalty. All those things we can't do in those moments."
Keefe continued: "This last little stretch we've been on where we played Florida at home, Boston on the road, Tampa last night, play Florida here. To me, I was looking to come out of this little segment of the schedule with a sense of where we're at as a team and whether we can compete with the very best in our division. And the answer is unequivocally yes."
Toronto is 7-2-1 in its last 10 games and sits three points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second spot in the Atlantic Division with one extra game played.
Florida appears well on its way to locking up the division with a franchise-record 104 points in the bank. The Panthers became only the third team in NHL history to record multiple four-goal comebacks in one season, according to ESPN. They have 23 comeback victories overall through 70 contests.
