Several hours after Sheldon Keefe was “fired” as head coach of the Maple Leafs, then rehired and praised all in the same circular debate on morning sports radio, he appeared in the flesh. He wore a white collar shirt and a blazer and was, at least for the moment, still employed.

The question about his longer-term future was still left to swirl on Monday, as the team began what felt like a familiar search through the debris of another lost season. Keefe said he wanted to return next fall, but general manager Kyle Dubas suggested the answer would be revealed pending a “full evaluation.”

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Keefe has guided the Leafs to the playoffs in three straight seasons (four, if you include the qualifying round during the pandemic) and was behind the bench this month as Toronto won a playoff series for the first time in 19 years. The team did not win a second round, which was the problem.

“I certainly love and appreciate my position, and the chance to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Keefe told reporters. “I’ve enjoyed every day of it. I’ve gone through a lot of different things — from COVID and all those different things — but certainly love this job and love this opportunity.”

Dubas addressed the room a few minutes later, after Keefe had departed. He praised the coach for what he viewed as impactful tactical adjustments in the team’s second-round series with the Florida Panthers, which he said “put our group in a position to capitalize.”

The general manager stopped a few inches short of a ringing endorsement.

“There still, to me, has to be a full evaluation of everything,” said Dubas. “And a full, inclusive answer on that — I think to do so right now would be too hasty.”

The Panthers eliminated the Leafs in five games, twisting the dagger with a 3-2 overtime win in front of Toronto fans at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night. After a two-day cooling-off period, everyone was inside Ford Performance Centre on Monday for the grim ritual of exit meetings.

Defenceman Mark Giordano was the first player to emerge, after 9 a.m., and Keefe did not take his seat on the dais until the stroke of 3 p.m.

“I mean, the last couple of days for me have been pretty lonely,” said Keefe. “Lots of reflection and trying to understand what happened and all of that.”

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Sitting down with the players, he said, made him feel “right back in the fight.”

Keefe, who has won 166 of 267 regular season games behind the bench (for a .678 points percentage) with the Leafs, began the season with a fight. A four-game losing streak in October left him fending off questions about his job security before Halloween.

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At 4-4-2, the Leafs were 13th in the Eastern Conference. On Sportsnet 590 The Fan, host Nick Kypreos suggested Keefe only had “five games to save his job” with the team. He said the Leafs would have to turn it around by a Friday night game in Pittsburgh.

Toronto lost that game in Pittsburgh. The Leafs did not fire Keefe, and he ended up leading the team to a second straight 100-point season. They finished with 111 points, tied for fourth-most in the NHL. And as a reward for all of their success, they drew the Tampa Bay Lightning as their first-round opponent.

They looked awful in a series-opening 7-3 loss, but rebounded with three straight wins, including back-to-back wins in overtime. Toronto eliminated Tampa with a third overtime win, which was the first time the team had won a playoff series since 2004.

Against the Panthers, the offence dried up. In five tries, the Leafs never scored more than two goals in a game. Many of the biggest stars did not live up to the size of their marquee. At the end of his final press conference of the series, Florida coach Paul Maurice went out of his way to compliment his opponent.

“I think Sheldon Keefe is a phenomenal coach,” Maurice told reporters long after the rink had emptied. “We all have windows. We all have our time: He’s coaching in this league for 20 years, if he wants to.”

That praise did not blunt the wave of criticism on social media and sports talk radio in Toronto. Keefe’s future was a topic on TSN 1050 on Monday morning, as it was seemingly everywhere else.

“Anytime you’re coaching a team, you make hundreds — if not thousands — of decisions a day that impact everything you’re doing,” he said on Monday. “You’re not going to get all of those right. And, you know, there’s some I got wrong, for sure.”

And while Dubas did not give his coach a direct vote of confidence on Monday, he did make sure to highlight several decisions he thought Keefe got right in the Florida series. Dubas said he thought the coaching staff did a commendable job creating a plan to slow the Sam Bennett line after Game 1, and devised strategies that led to a handful of odd-man rushes early in Game 3.

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“If there weren’t those adjustments happening,” said Dubas, “I would probably be a little bit more down on him.”

Dubas and Keefe have a well-documented history, dating back to their time together with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, in the Ontario Hockey League. Dubas is nearing the end of his contract with the Leafs, and left an open question around his future, and who would ultimately make a decision on the coach. (“In terms of what happens from here,” said Keefe, “it’s out of my control.”)

Many of the players expressed their desire to stay, along with the coach. Many fans and observers — on radio and elsewhere — are advocating for major change. Those answers were not provided Monday, but they will have to arrive soon.

“I do feel we’ve made progress as a group,” said Keefe. “And a lot of the disappointment that comes in losing is attached to the excitement that you have for your team, and the potential your team has.”

That potential, he said, is still “very much there.”

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(Photo: Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images)