Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe didn't mince words after the Buffalo Sabres snapped a six-game losing streak by defeating his club 5-1 on Wednesday night.
“It was terrible from start to finish," the Leafs bench boss said, according to The Athletic's Joshua Kloke.
"In terms of how we played with the puck, we were really careless and didn’t have much happening," Keefe added, per the Toronto Sun's Terry Koshan. "Offensively, we were abysmal. All four lines."
The Leafs head coach had harsh criticism for the team's top line led by superstar Auston Matthews.
"That’s as bad as they’ve played in quite some time," Keefe said, according to Sports Illustrated's Mike Stephens.
Keefe experimented with a defensive pairing of Morgan Rielly and Rasmus Sandin in the loss and said he will "probably not" keep the duo together in the future.
The Sabres only outshot the Maple Leafs by one (31-30), but Buffalo controlled 60% of the scoring chances at five-on-five and 55.27% of the expected goals in those situations, according to Natural Stat Trick. Sandin tied the game at 1-1 in the first period but the Sabres replied with four unanswered goals over the final two frames.
Toronto had won three consecutive contests before the loss.
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