NO RIFT HERE
TORONTO — Mike Babcock was at his daughter’s graduation when he received a text message from a friend about reports of a strained relationship with star centre Auston Matthews.
“I’ll find out in the morning,” the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs replied. “I’ll meet him. I’ll ask him in the morning.”
As the Leafs cleaned out their lockers Friday in the wake of a seven-game loss to the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, Babcock and Matthews both addressed speculation the coach had “lost” his player during the series.
“I said, ‘What’s going on?’” Babcock told reporters of his conversation with Matthews. “It’s interesting in Toronto, you (media) do such a good job. You’re everywhere. You’re under the bench, you’re in the crack in the door, you’re in the car, you’re in the parking lot. You’re everywhere, and any time anybody does anything there’s a big story.
“I asked him flat-out, ’Do we have any (issues)?’ He was sitting right there. We don’t seem to.”
Matthews, who had just a goal and an assist against Boston, said talk of friction was also news to him.
“I don’t know what that’s all about,” he said. “Our relationship’s fine. Obviously, you guys can speculate all you want, but I think it’s pointless.
“Stuff happens, people speculate. I can tell you right now it’s not the case.”
The 20-year-old scored 34 times in regular season despite missing 20 games due to injury, but admitted to being frustrated in the Bruins series following a Game 7 where Toronto blew a 4-3 lead in the third period before losing 7-4.
“Auston’s a young man trying to be the best player in the world,” Babcock said Friday. “The hardest part in life is when you’re disappointed and you thought you maybe could have done more. I know that from me as a coach ... it makes you sick, almost.
“He’s a good young man. We’re lucky to have him. I’m lucky to get to coach him, and we continue to grow our product here with him leading the way.”
Unlike the 2016-17 campaign where they were just happy to make the playoffs before losing in six games to Washington after bottoming out the previous year, Toronto expected a lot more this spring.
Despite having their season end at the same stage, the Leafs will see a number of positives as they head towards the summer.
Matthews got off to a great start before getting hurt on three separate occasions, but still nearly cracked the 35-goal mark, Mitch Marner had a terrible first half before finding his game midway through the schedule, and goalie Frederik Andersen set a franchise record for wins in a season with 38.
But like any off-season, there will be change.
Veteran forwards James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov are among the players set to hit unrestricted free agency, and it’s hard to envision any of the three will be back with Matthews, Marner and William Nylander all due big raises in the not-too-distant future.
One member of the blue line that had an especially rough end to his season was Jake Gardiner, who was on the ice for five Boston goals in that disastrous Game 7.
He faced the music with reporters immediately afterwards with tears in his eyes — no one forced him to speak — and said Friday he felt it was the right thing to do.
“If you don’t perform and go hide in a corner, what good’s that going to do?” he said.
“You’ve got to face what you did.”