Maple Leafs' Keefe: Sandin 'low on confidence' to start season

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has made it a priority to get defenseman Rasmus Sandin's game back up to speed.

"It hasn't blossomed to the point you'd like it to," the bench boss told reporters Thursday. "It looks like he's low on confidence at this time, and we need to help him get back to being himself.

"Confidence is a strength of his and allows him to play his game and feel good about getting involved offensively. As that happens, you just naturally feel better defensively."

The Maple Leafs have been outscored 7-4 with Sandin on the ice at five-on-five this season, and his 36.4% goal share is the lowest out of Toronto's blue-liners, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Sandin is also a team-worst minus-4 through 17 games and has the second-most giveaways (13) among Maple Leafs defensemen while averaging just under 17 minutes of ice time per contest.

Perhaps most notably, Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby scored Tuesday to make it 3-2 after the 22-year-old rearguard coughed the puck up to the captain.

Toronto ultimately won the contest 5-2, but Sandin still regretted his error.

"I threw a pizza right up the middle," he said, according to Sports Illustrated's David Alter.

"I think I was awful, but it happens. You aren't always going to play great, you aren't always going to play the way you wanted to. It's a new game day and a new opportunity to get better."

Keefe said he watched the clip of Crosby's goal "100 times" and thinks Sandin attempted to make the right play.

"Pittsburgh is on a line change, and (Zach) Aston-Reese is wide open in the middle of the ice to get us going very quickly the other way," he said. "That's a play that, normally, he would hit, and all of our defensemen would hit with a high degree of success. It just rolls off the back of his heel, and sometimes it happens."

Sandin missed a chunk of the Maple Leafs' preseason slate due to contract negotiations. However, Keefe said the team is far enough into the campaign that his extended absence from camp shouldn't be a factor.

"I spoke with him again here today just about clearing his head and getting back to being the player that he knows he can be," Keefe said. "It hasn't come together for him like a number of our guys here in the early going, it hasn't happened for different reasons.

"He's one, but he's got far more to give us here, so we have to help him find that."

Next up for the Maple Leafs is a clash against the red-hot New Jersey Devils Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.