Former Maple Leafs Coach Reveals Shocking Truth About the Intense Pressure of Coaching in Toronto

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Tom Banks
September 23, 2024 (3:15 PM)

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The Toronto market is the toughest one in the entire NHL, and now former Maple Leafs Head Coach Sheldon Keefe has seemingly showed just how hard it is.

Coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs certainly isn't an easy job, and after winning just one Stanley Cup Playoff series throughout his tenure, the team officially moved on from Sheldon Keefe this past summer, opting to quickly sign with another Eastern Conference team in the New Jersey Devils. After dealing with the immense pressure for the past five years, Keefe has noted at points during the off-season just how different things are outside of the Canadian bubble, and now he's proven that again with a recent interaction with a Devils writer.

According to the writer, Keefe saw her after the pre-season loss and apologized for coming out on the losing end in game one, with the response from the writers quickly being "it's only pre-season". In that simple interaction, it shows how much pressure is on in Toronto to be perfect all year round, whether it be on or off the ice and no matter how much a game or the situation truly matters in the long run.

This doesn't mean there's no pressure on in New Jersey however, as this is a team with high hopes in 2024/25, with the roster loaded with superstar level talent like Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hiescher, Dougie Hamilton and others, but it's not quite the same in Toronto. Thankfully for Maple Leafs fans however, they've now got a coach that has dealt with all of those pressures in Craig Berube, who has coached at the highest level and won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues.

Ultimately, there's pressure on everywhere in the NHL given the amount of money, prestige and glory on the line, but in Toronto it's just different, and Keefe has proven that he wasn't up to the task, so now as he chases a Stanley Cup in New Jersey, the pressure shifts to new captain Auston Matthews and Craig Berube to get it done in Toronto.