When the Toronto Maple Leafs announced Kasperi Kapanen would be a late scratch Saturday night, speculation was rampant that the 23-year-old winger had been traded and the team was waiting for details to be worked out before it would be announced. That was not the case. But head coach Sheldon Keefe's explanation of the situation still leaves a lot of questions.
Following the Leafs 2-1 overtime win over Ottawa, Keefe explained that the reason for Kapanen being a healthy scratch was "internal accountability."
“We had chatted about it yesterday a little bit and then made our decision. I wanted to sleep on it, and talking with Kappy this morning, we made a decision and went from there.”
Outside of that, all Keefe would say is that he'll have more to add after Toronto's Monday morning practice.
That leaves nothing but pure speculation to fill in the rest of the details for now. Kapanen has 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 51 games this season, so one could argue the scratch wasn't because of performance issues. That said, he's been held pointlesss in his last five games. It just seems odd that the team is refusing to answer questions on the situation, seemingly stalling before adding clarity.
Just before the All-Star break, Keefe had blasted his team for being "immature" following a pair of losses. Since then, the Leafs have gone 3-0. Whether it was felt that Kapanen was contributing to that immaturity, we'll just have to wait and see.
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