BABCOCK KNOWS BRUINS WELL
Bergeron, Marchand grew from working with Leafs coach in international events
When Mike Babcock fought hard to make a case for the inclusion of Patrice Bergeron on the 2010 Olympic hockey team in Vancouver, he sometimes thought he was fighting alone.
By the time he finished with Bergeron, the veteran centre had been moved to the first line on the 2014 Olympic team in Sochi alongside Sidney Crosby, had taken so many of the important shifts and significant faceoffs for the greatest Canadian Olympic team we’ve ever witnessed, and had two gold medals.
This from a player who started off as a “why him?” addition to Team Canada, began as the 13th forward, worked his way up the lineup in 2010 and eventually to the first line for the dominant 2014 Games in Sochi.
And when the same Babcock pushed for Brad Marchand on the World Cup team for Canada two Septembers back, there was some doubt among the Team Canada decision makers — and even more doubt when Babcock elevated Marchand to the first line alongside Crosby.
With Bergeron moving to the wing to help form the tournament’s most dominant trio.
Since then, suspensions and idiotic moments aside, all the scrappy Marchand has done is elevate his game enormously. He was 37th in points per game in the NHL the year Babcock gambled on and believed in him. This season, he finished tied for 13th in points — and only because he missed 14 games, some of them in dubious ways. But more importantly, he finished fourth in points per game in the league (among everyday players).
The only players with more: Guys named Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Evgeni Malkin. You might have heard of them.
So here is Babcock now, at the start of his most promising playoff season as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and what has to be his greatest concern as the Leafs get ready for a sevengame dance with the Boston Bruins? How do you deal with Bergeron and Marchand.
How do you stop the monsters you played a part in creating ?
There aren’t many lines in hockey like the Bergeron-Marchand-David Pastrnak trio. They score goals. They shut down opposition lines. They understand neutral zone play. They cycle the puck and create offence. They compete at a level few players can compete. And Bergeron and Marchand, in the words of Babcock, are elite penalty killers.
In between periods, they probably pass out towels and sharpen teammates’ skates.
They are, in essence, the Boston Bruins.
Somehow, Babcock and the Leafs will have to find a way to play even or close to even with the Bergeron line and win games against the rest of the Bruins.
Babcock takes no pats on the back for what he did for Bergeron and Marchand in international play — in a way he’s proud of their accomplishments, just not enough to take them as a personal compliment.
“I don’t think I (elevated them),” Babcock said. “I think opportunity helps you get better and earn confidence. And what I mean by that, when you get to play on the Olympic team and you get to be around the best players and you decide you’re a pretty good player, that’s huge for confidence. And then you go in there and see who does what better than you do, and the opportunity you gain from those events, and it only happens if you have the drive train and the initiative to do so.”
Bergeron was 24 when he first played on a Babcock-coached team. He turns 33 this summer and is on every coach’s list as a top-five complete player.
Marchand turns 30 next month. He was 28 and entering his seventh season when Babcock first had him with Team Canada. This year, he scored eight game-winning goals, led the league with five overtime goals, and put himself in the crowded Hart Trophy conversation even if he won’t win the MVP award.
Had Bergeron not missed 18 games, he might have been a Hart selection himself, and with balloting now closed, he will likely be a finalist again for the Selke Award, which he has won four times, the same number as Hall of Famer Bob Gainey.
There is no award for a partpest, goal-scoring, hard-charging, penalty-killing, highlyskilled, cheap-shotting but not cheap-shooting winger. Marchand understands who he is and what he is and what makes him successful.
And yeah, polite off the ice, he returns the compliment to Babcock.
“Maybe he was throwing the dice (on me),” said Marchand of his World Cup inclusion. “But it worked out and I’m very thankful for that opportunity. (Babcock) knows what he’s doing.
“He knows what works in his system. He sees the game, studies the game. I think that’s why (Nazem) Kadri has had such a good couple of years under him. He knows what he’s doing.”
So, too, do Bergeron and Marchand, graduates of Babcock’s international studies class. Let the chess match begin.