Young Leafs take aim at playoffs
Rookies now expect — not want — to win games, coach Babcock says
Mitch Marner still has the type of baby face associated with a kid in minor hockey, not the NHL. There are signs of stubble on the chin of fellow rookie Auston Matthews, but he’s worlds away from ever approaching the fuzziness of Brent Burns territory.
When it comes to potential playoff beards, many of these young Maple Leafs will likely come up short in the facial hair department.
When it comes to their on-ice maturity, however, their rapid development is far more tangible.
As the Leafs embark on the second half of the season, the phoenix-like ascension of this team’s learning curve through the first 41 games truly is admirable.
No longer are belching up leads late in games commonplace. No longer does Matthews need to be the offensive focus like he was when he scored four goals against the Senators in his first NHL game — one the Leafs lost 5-4 in overtime.
The transformation of this Maple Leafs team from Game 1 to Game 41 was in evidence on Saturday night against that same Ottawa team in the same building, the rink known as the Canadian Tire Centre.
Instead of wilting after coughing up a two-goal advantage, the Leafs snapped a 2-2 tie with a pair of third-period goals that moved them into a tie with the Sens in the standings at 48 points, good enough for a playoff slot.
Asked what the key was in his team’s development during the past three months, coach Mike Babcock replied: “I think a big thing is you’re expecting to win and that’s a big difference.”
There’s a big distinction between “wanting” and “expecting” to win. For too long — dating back to the end of the late Pat Quinn’s reign a decade ago — this franchise settled for the former. Now they are focused on the latter.
With apologies to former MLSE boss Tim Leiweke, we’re not about to map out a parade route quite yet. At the same time, the root of such optimism within the organization sprouts from the hunger of kids like Matthews, who is never satisfied, never content, always looking to get better, win or lose.
“I think we’re maturing at a pretty rapid pace like you said,” Matthews said when asked about how far he and the team have come in just 12 weeks. “Earlier in the season we’d definitely be folding in these types of games. But definitely we’re building it up, we’re playing with confidence, we’re playing the right way and we’re able to get these very important points.”
The numbers back up Matthews’s words.
Through the opening 41 games, the Leafs have 48 points. Only once in the previous decade have they collected more during that same span, that coming during the lockout-shortened season of 2012-13 when they had 51 at this point. By no coincidence, that’s the only time the franchise reached the playoffs since the salary cap was implemented in 2005.
At this rate, the Leafs would finish with 96 points. Matthews is on pace for 42 goals, Marner 70 points and Nazem Kadri a career-high 36 goals.
“It feels like a complete 180,” Kadri said when asked to compare 201617 with last season. “Being here as long as I have it’s really encouraging to see the organization move in a positive direction, in terms of our future. Obviously, we didn’t want to wait too long. We wanted to get at it.”
And with that comes a new vibe around the team, both in the dressing room and among the team’s long-suffering fans.
“It’s unbelievable,” Kadri said. “We love it. There’s a buzz around our team right now.
“Obviously we’re not trying to get too excited about it, but we’re not a complacent group. We’re not always satisfied. Coming into the season, we felt the ceiling was as high as we wanted it to be.”
During a recent radio interview, Chicago bench boss Joel Quenneville compared the youthful infancy of this Matthews/Marner-led team to his own early days with the Blackhawks, when budding superstars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were laying the foundation for a magnificent run in which they’d go on to win three Stanley Cups — and counting.
Coming from the second-winningest coach in NHL history, that’s some heady praise, indeed.
“I think we’ve already developed a lot,” said Leafs rookie Connor Brown. “Not so much in terms of scoring — sure, some of us are scoring a lot — but away from the puck we’re a lot better and we’re learning to win hockey games. We are playing a lot better brand of hockey, we’re being more patient with the puck. I think we have a ways to go, but it’s good to see the strides we’ve made.”
We’re not sure if Brown would be any better at sprouting a playoff beard than Marner or Matthews. But if those strides he mentioned continue to be made in the second half, he might actually get the chance to grow one.
And that’s all the organization and its legion of supporters can really ask for, isn’t it?