Keefe benches Kampf, ‘less tolerance’ for Maple Leafs mistakes

Article content

David Kampf will be a healthy scratch for the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Article content

Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe hopes it’s a stern notice that sinks in for the rest of the team’s players, who haven’t been able to get out of their own way with the amount of mistakes being made in recent games.

Article content

“I guess you could call it a message to the group in the sense that there’s going to be less tolerance for that,” Keefe said a couple of hours before the Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes met at Scotiabank Arena.

“We’ve got to get better in this area. That’s it. In particular, members of our leadership group, like David is, we trust these guys to lead the way for us and the expectations are higher. Kampf has to be a leader on (the fourth) line. He’s got to be a leader in those types of situations where we’re in control of the game. 

“It’s not just him, it’s the guys that we really rely on to be good in those areas, whether you’re the top guys that produce a lot of offence, we need those guys to be to be good in these areas as well. But for someone like Kampfer in particular, that is his primary job and focus when he’s on the ice. When he strays from that, he opens up the opportunity for others to take his minutes.”

Article content

Article content

Pontus Holmberg will draw in for Kampf at centre on the fourth line and will play for the first time in two weeks.

Mistakes were many in the Leafs’ 6-5 overtime loss in Columbus against the Blue Jackets on Friday night. As Keefe alluded to, that’s not new for the Leafs, who have lost four of their past five games including three in regulation.

Kampf, whose defensive acumen helped lead to a four-year contract extension with the Leafs in June, was singled out after his offensive-zone miscue helped lead to the tying goal by the Jackets’ Adam Fantilli in the third period on Friday. A bad change on the part of Kampf and his linemates before Cameron Gaunce scored the Jackets’ second goal didn’t sit well either.

For one night at least, the attention paid to the Kampf benching will take some of the spotlight away from the poor goaltending of Ilya Samsonov. Had Samsonov been playing to the standard he set last season, he would have made a save on the Fantilli goal, which was a soft one.

Article content

Martin Jones will start against Carolina.

Holding players accountable by benching them is a different tack for Keefe. We’ll see whether it goes beyond Saturday night.

“It’s not specific to Kampf,” Keefe said. “You try to be patient and you try to trust your guys and give them opportunities to go back out and do right, but the tolerance for the same types of mistakes that are happening when we’re in positions (to win) of late, is going to be a lot less.

“It needs to be a lot less if we don’t see improvement. That’s the reality of it. We’ve got a young guy in Holmberg who has played well for us and hasn’t played for a while. He’ll get an opportunity.

“There needs to be some accountability. In my opinion, (Kampf) didn’t do a good enough job in some of those moments I’m talking about as a guy that we really rely on in those positions, especially when we’re playing with leads. He’s very important player for us and he will be a lot better for us.”

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

Article content