Ryan O'Reilly Takes a Shot at Sheldon Keefe in Interview

PUBLICATION

James Connelly
June 9, 2023 (1:11 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

Ryan O'Reilly is disappointed with the Leafs' performance in the playoffs and has called out Sheldon Keefe for some poor coaching decisions.

O'Reilly Disses Keefe

Ryan O'Reilly knows what it takes to win a Stanley Cup and knows what a Stanley Cup winning coach needs.

O'Reilly won a cup with the St. Louis Blues back in 2019 where he won the Conn Smythe as the best player of the playoffs.

In a recent interview with TSN's Overdrive, O'Reilly said this about the Leafs 2nd round loss.

"We kind of dug ourselves a hole quick and didn't respond. There are so many things we could have done differently. It's frustrating. We could have given that series a better chance. That's just the way the game goes sometimes. When you get into these moments where it's challenging, you have to find a way to pull something out of each other and find a way to give a bit more. Against Tampa, we did that.. again - there are so many things we could have done differently." - O'Reilly

This is alarming for many reasons. He appears to take ownership of the loss as a player but also eludes to there being some stylistic reasons why they lost.

He feels as if they could have done better but the question is if they could have done better, what was holding them back?

The reasonable conclusion is that Keefe was holding them back and that makes a lot of sense. If the coach is not even trying to change things up, then the players get caught in a cycle of failure.

Reading between the lines shows it's clear that O'Reilly was not happy with Keefe and could be a large part of why he walks in free agency.

As seen on Maple Leafs Daily -
Ryan O'Reilly appears to call out Sheldon Keefe's lack of adjustments against Florida