David Kampf arrived to work on Saturday when he received a message from Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe that he was going to be scratched for the very first time with the club.
“I was a little bit surprised,” Kampf said when learning that he was benched. “It is what it is so I need to focus on the next game and be better.
Kampf was back in his regular spot on the fourth line alongside Bobby McMann and Noah Gregor. Keefe cited two specific instances in Kampf’s previous game — a 6-5 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday where mistakes by Kampf led to a pair of goals surrendered by Toronto, including Adam Fantilli’s goal in the third period that tied the game 5-5.
Toronto’s defensive play as a whole wasn’t great against Columbus, but Keefe expected more from Kampf, who is a defensive leader on the team.
Keefe is hoping that the one-game timeout will sharpen Kampf’s commitment his role.
“He’s a very very important player for us we really need him to take charge of that role and take charge of his line… That’s really it,” Keefe said after the team’s practice on Monday. “A bit of a reset in recognizing that we’re serious about the urgency that we need him to have.”
Kampf admitted on Monday that he was struggling to start the season but that his game had come around in the last month or so. Keefe seemed to agree with the player’s self-assessment. But following Friday’s game, Kampf wasn’t the only player who struggled and Keefe chose him as the player to make an example of when others from the leadership group could have been selected.
In the game Kampf missed, Toronto surrendered two goals on the penalty kill in a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Kampf is a mainstay on the team’s first penalty-killing unit.
“We had talked a number of times and given him opportunities to keep going and play through it…But some of those same mistakes were showing up and you elicit a response from the coach,” Keefe reasoned. “That’s the way it goes but it does not change the way we feel about Kampfer and what he means to our team.
“He’s a very very important player for us and we need him to.be better and he will be.”
Since joining the Maple Leafs, Kampf has usually hovered around the even 50 percent line in 5-on-5 expected goals, which was impressive given the amount of defensive-zone assignments he had. This season he has the worst expected-goals rating of any Maple Leaf at 36 percent, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
In 33 games this season, the 28-year-old Czech forward has four goals and three assists.
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