Sheldon Keefe still seems to be used to playing in Toronto.

While the New Jersey Devils head coach has already played the Toronto Maple Leafs twice this season, Thursday is his first game back in Toronto. And after five seasons as the Leafs’ head coach, he still feels used to playing here.

“It feels very familiar,” Keefe said during Thursday’s pregame media scrum. “Everything from my drive in this morning, to my walk in. Very familiar in that sense, but it’ll be different here tonight, on the other side of it. But I also don’t want to make it bigger than it is because it really is ultimately a hockey game and the players will determine the outcome on the ice on both sides and I’ll enjoy it for what it is and we’ll move along.”

“It’ll be different on the other bench, but when the puck drops it’s hockey.”

Keefe had spent parts of five seasons with the Leafs as his first head coaching gig in the NHL. He had a 212-97-40 record in the regular season with the Leafs, and made the playoffs in all five seasons.

“I do feel my first experience in the NHL was one in which I had such an opportunity to coach not only a great team, but such a perfect franchise with so many great resources and expectations to win,” Keefe said. “My growth as a coach has perhaps been expedited in a lot of ways because you experience so many things that maybe take a little bit longer in other places. I think I know the league a lot better, I believe I have a clearer understanding of how to succeed in the league. As a young coach, you’re finding your way through that in the first couple of seasons.

“I think you guys have a clear sense of who I am as a coach, what I can offer to the group and how to succeed in the league, and for all those reasons I’m grateful for the opportunity that I had here.”

Despite his stellar regular season record, Keefe and the Maple Leafs never found much playoff success, aside from ending their 17-year postseason drought in 2023, during their six-game series win in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I’m forever disappointed that we weren’t able to deliver and have more success in the playoffs and that’s why change is required and change has been good.”

Keefe does still have ties to Toronto though, as the rest of his family remains in the city while he coaches in New Jersey.

“My boys are 12 and 14, and have created some great friendships and are competitive hockey and lacrosse players, and I didn’t want to disrupt that,” Keefe said. “My wife is also very comfortable and has lots of great friendships and support systems around her. So we had a pretty good sense that if there was going to be a move, it would be one where the family would likely stay behind.”

The Leafs and Devils face off at 7 p.m. EST on Thursday. It will be their final matchup of the regular season, with the Leafs already taking the two prior games in New Jersey by scores of 4-2 and 2-1, the latter being an overtime win.