I know there are a couple threads on him, but I thought I would make a thread so people might want to know about his style, how he coaches, and his interactions with players. I will also provide tweets to help out.
Record:
Playoffs: 39-18
Calder cup, 3 conference finals
5 sweeps
Elimination games record: 11-8
Game 7(1st round is best of 5) record: 3-1
System
As we know, Dubas and Babcock said Marlies use the same system, but that's just wrong. Marlies have better support from the forwards, and they have a tighter gap.
Scott Wheeler had an article about the differences between Babcock and Keefe. I will only talk about Keefe obviously. I can't post the videos but I will try my best explaining it if it doesn't look clear.
The breakout
A lot of what makes both teams successful (the Marlies) and unsuccessful (the Leafs) starts here. What makes the two coaches different often begins in their own zone.
The Marlies have three by-design plays they use to exit their zone. The first, is a soft chip on the wall into a carry. It’s a self-pass. They practice it a lot and they
execute it extremely well.
This kind of play looks like an old-school, low-skill play — it isn’t. Where a hard dump clears the puck safely, it most often results in a turnover in a low-risk area in the neutral zone. What’s happening here is a higher risk play that, when it fails, turns the puck over at your own blue line while your forwards are going the wrong direction. The Marlies have several wrinkles to the play that they’ve schemed for too.
The benefit of a play like this is that it hits the forwards in movement. They exit together and one player isn’t ahead of the others until the pass is sent (a lot like soccer). It allows the Marlies to back off opposing teams with their speed, rather than a long chip or stretch pass that often leaves the receiving forward flat-footed.
And when the opposing team drives a winger or a defenceman up the boards to prevent the chip, the fact that all three forwards are exiting largely together allows them to have a Plan B in place. That’s where the second play — the kick — comes in.
Because the curling forward pushes away from the middle towards the boards, he’s also available for the kick. And by kick, I mean a short five-foot pass off the wall, normally with some kind of bump play where the board-side forward doesn’t handle the puck. It looks like this and acts as a third variation of the chip play
So what happens when the Marlies are under pressure below the hashmarks? The Marlies use their D in one of two ways (the third play I mentioned above is more of a 3A and 3B).
The first, is with another short pass. Instead of fleeing the zone and asking the under-pressure D to send a long attempt up ice, the Marlies curl all three forwards.
There, rather than attempt to push the opposing D back by providing a high outlet option, the Marlies play the long game and push the D back by swinging and using their foot speed to do it. The push happens after the Marlies have exited the zone. If the puck is turned over, all five Marlies are already in the defensive zone.
The ripple effect of Play 1, Play 2, and Play 3A is that against teams that sit back and stack the neutral zone, it allows the Marlies to carry the puck out — something they take advantage of whenever it’s there.
Neutral zone Transition
When (or if) either team converts the exit, they both do a nice job through the neutral zone. That’s the byproduct of the personnel they have (the majority of the Marlies and the Leafs are fast relative to their leagues) and of strong neutral zone structure. The biggest difference is that the way the Marlies’ exit begins allows them to have speed when they make their neutral zone plays.
And that activation we see from the Marlies’ defence — something players like Andreas Borgman have pointed to as the biggest difference between how Babcock and Keefe deploy their defencemen — gives them options:
More often then not, after opting to use a short pass or chip on the exit, the Marlies will carry on the entry in order to use the foot speed they gained from the curl to their advantage, rather than make a second neutral zone pass and further risk a turnover where the numbers are going the wrong direction:
And the intention of those entries is for them to always (or at least whenever it’s available) take place in the middle of the offensive zone blue line. In doing so, the carrier draws attention and has two options:
- Take advantage of poor gapping if the middle lane is left open to drive the high slot and shoot.
- Use that attention to find F2 or F3 immediately after the entry:
Offensive zone
The Leafs spread out in the offensive zone and seem hesitant to stack three forwards on one side of the ice or provide close, follow-up puck support that enables them to slide in and help the forechecking forward if he loses a battle. The end result is that because the Leafs don’t have the personnel to win a lot of those 50-50 battles, the lack of support results in plays dying.
The Marlies don’t have that problem. Part of that is because players like Moore and Brooks are excellent forecheckers and players like Marchment offer a physical presence the Leafs lack. A lot of it comes down to how they forecheck.
It’s about numbers and when the Marlies are at their best, it’s brilliant. Watch the way one player (or sometimes two) supports the forechecker or the carrier in the offensive zone below:
There are a couple of things at play there.
- The supporting player lurks close to the carrier or the primary forechecker, which means the distance from A to B if they need to help is easily closed.
- They always close that space when help is required. The three players are in a constant rotation and it allows them to receive little kicks if the forward can’t beat their man with speed or dive in on a loose puck to switch roles.
There is a lot of detail in Scott's article, but it's a decent understanding of what the Marlies do.
Style of play
Keefe is more of an attacking coach, but he also wants structure. If his team doesn't play with structure, he is not a happy guy. The guy focuses a lot on details, in fact it might be one of his best qualities.
"He understands that you have to be creative, so he lets us be creative," Liljegren told Sportsnet last season. "That's fun, but he can be hard on you, too. You have to push every day. It's a good environment for young guys to be in."
I think the biggest thing is Keefe adapts to the game, and can read a game situation.