“It's a great night to give him confidence, life and stay in contention for the job.”

Sheldon Keefe spoke to the media following the Maple Leafs' 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues, improving the team's record to 27-16-8.

---

In the absence of Morgan Rielly, John Tavares and Mitch Marner:

The boys played well. We played a very simple game, which is what is required, especially when we get ahead. We needed guys to step up in different ways. I thought we put in a lot of effort tonight.

Bobby of course scored two big goals for us and a great free kick to finish it off. A great end to a weird day for us, honestly, with a lot of uncertainty and stuff like that.

Bobby himself didn't know he was going to play until he got to the rink today. Steves came in at the last minute and changed the lineup.

There was a lot going on there, and other things going on behind the scenes where other guys were sick. We tried to prepare them and the guys were struggling with it.

All things considered, it was a pretty good move.

Here's what a hat trick could do for Bobby McMann:

If you look at his goals, he wins the battle and attacks the net. A great finish. In the second, he raced to the front of the net, turned and shot toward the net.

You hope it helps with confidence and makes you feel like you belong in the league. For a guy like Bobby, you want that kind of effort and goals, but he's trying to learn to have a role in the league, right?

He can score. He did it at the AHL level, but it was tough in the NHL. If you're not going to score and you're not going to get a hat trick every night – you've got to work on everything else and do other things really well. Be physical. Be responsible for the defense. Rest assured. Ability to kill penalties. All of these will help keep you in the league.

Different players will figure it out at different times. He's 27 or 28 years old and in his first year in the NHL. He's trying to find his way in the role here. Today is a great night to give him confidence and life and stay in contention for one of those jobs.

About John Tavares and Mitch Marner's illnesses and if they are related to Conor Timmins' mono:

We think it has nothing to do with it. This is completely different. It's flu-like stuff.

John didn't come to the rink this morning. He was not well last night. He tried to give us an update on what he was doing every four or five hours. He hoped he could handle it. He wanted to walk over it so he could play.

We made it available so Bobby McMann was told to be ready this morning. We might need him, but we didn't commit to playing him because we hoped John would settle down a bit. Around four o'clock it was clear that John couldn't play. When Bobby arrived, we told him he was coming in.

Mitch really didn't expect it. He got here and I didn't know about Mitch until 4:30. He didn't feel well after coming here. A lot of his situations were here (on the ice). It must have been about five o'clock when Steve was told to find the road here. It was just in case Mitch couldn't go. It soon became clear that Mitch couldn't play, so Steves joined the game.

We had a couple of other guys who played them or played them short. They fought it. They were not (sick) to the same extent as the others. They were able to pass the game.

About Max Domi and Nick Robertson's performances:

You're leaving out Burt, and I thought he was great along the way too.

Of course, Max and Robi were asked to step up and handle the responsibilities and tough matches. These guys were really good. I thought Max was really in control. The line was really good tonight.

We didn't get the best of St. Louis today. This team has won seven of their last eight games. They're going through the NHL here. I didn't think we did our best, but from our perspective, as a team, there were some parts of the game that I wish we could have done better, but overall, it was a very good effort. our team.

These guys did a really good job putting in the effort to play tough minutes and tough matches.

On limiting the Blues to 15 shots on goal:

Morgan coming out was one thing, and then you lose John and Mitch. You're moving things around a bit there.

The team looks different. You have to play a little differently. Through it, some minds become different. We took the lead early, so there were plenty of reasons to just wait the game out.

It was a really good job. Good protection. Their team is really dangerous in rush and transition, but I thought we were able to limit their best guys, especially those who are usually very dangerous on offense.

Like I said, I don't think they could say they gave it their all tonight, but I thought we did a good job of keeping them out of the game.

In the announcement of Morgan Rielly's five-game suspension:

You can go further. You realize where it is and just move on. The important thing is that we played the game tonight, so you focus on the game and move on. All these other things play out behind the scenes.

I think Tre will speak to the media tomorrow and talk more about it. From my point of view, I'm just focused on the hockey team.