Leafs ‘set up in a perfect spot’: Babcock
On Sunday Mike Babcock was in sermon mode.
Any fire and brimstone was likely delivered to his players behind closed doors since Friday’s loss in Anaheim extended the Maple Leafs’ losing streak to five games. But, after a long plane ride, back in their own rink and looking at 10 home games in their final 18, he used the pulpit for redemption and reconciliation .
“You have lulls during the year, that’s the way it is,” Babcock said. “You want to feel sorry for yourself? Then the lull will continue. You want to dig in a little deeper and bear down (then do it). Isn’t that life? Life mirrors sport, sport mirrors life. You want to feel bad for yourself, go home and mope? You’re not getting any better.
“You want to get on to the next thing you can. That’s our opportunity right now and I’m confident we’ll do that.”
The warts in Toronto’s game of late — defensive breakdowns, lategame lapses, another shootout loss — dogged them on the West Coast, dropping all three games (0-2-1) while the New York Islanders bumped them from the last playoff spot. All those games in hand they had on Boston? They’re down to one and the Bruins are up four points in the division. The good news is Toronto still plays three teams it’s ahead of, Florida, Tampa Bay and Detroit, both home and away, starting Tuesday at the ACC against the Wings.
“We are set up in a perfect spot,” Babcock insisted. “If we’d have known this at the start of the year, we’d have been pumped. I don’t think we’ve played terribly. Last game we gave up three goals that were defensive mistakes for no reason. So we have to tune ‘er up and get on a push again. We have most hands on deck so we’ll have an opportunity that way.”
Only defenceman Connor Carrick is injured at this juncture and he was seen in workout gear on Sunday. Babcock is confident that new centre Brian Boyle will keep acclimatizing. He lost some draws in his first game after joining the Leafs from Tampa Bay, but picked it up in Anaheim. Babcock knows puck possession gets even more vital, especially for his kids, as the stretch run begins.
“There was a great article early in the year, an interview with Shane Doan,” Bacock recalled. “He said (players) have their skating coach, stick handling coach, shooting coach, but the guys who get the puck back to them, they don’t have one of those coaches. In this league, you never have the puck, so when you do, you want to make good plays. You want to figure a way to get it back and that means learning how to play without the puck.”
His plan is to keep Boyle between Matt Martin and Nikita Soshnikov on the fourth line, with the presence of Martin and Boyle also serving as a physical deterrent to foes who would target the rookies.
“(Martin) doesn’t let anyone get smacked,” Babcock said. “We have a bunch of kids and I don’t want them to get cross checked and abused. We haven’t had any of that. Now with Boyle here, suddenly that’s two big men. I thought their line was really good for us (in Anaheim).”
Keeping the speedy Soshnikov in the mix ahead of the more powerful Josh Leivo is part of what the coach agreed were “tough decisions ... but Soshnikov is really important to us. He’s on our penalty kill, plays really fast. That’s where he’s got the nod. I talked to Leivo today, he just has to keep humming. Just one of those situations where that’s what we’ve decided.
“Eric Fehr hasn’t got in the lineup yet, I’m sure he’ll find a way. We brought him here to be a really good pro, a really good man and help our team. He’s doing that already.”
What the Leafs need more of at this time of year, as mentioned before by the coach, are the holdovers from the Ron Wilson - Randy Carlyle era who’ve gone the longest without playoffs, other than a brief run in 2013. James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Nazem Kadri, Leo Komarov and defenceman Jake Gardiner have been as inconsistent as the rookies as scoring dries up.