Babcock eschews break to get back behind Leafs’ bench
Mike Babcock didn’t take a break after winning the World Cup, heading to Buffalo with the Maple Leafs for Friday night’s pre-season game. But Auston Matthews was not aboard.
The earliest the Toronto head coach and the No. 1 draft pick will be together for a game is Sunday at the Air Canada Centre against the Montreal Canadiens. While it was expected Matthews would be in the second of back-to-back exhibition contests against the Sabres, he stayed at home with the second practice group.
“Sooner or later, he’s going to get in,” assistant coach Jim Hiller said, adding it was not a health issue. “The lineups are day by day. They (World Cup players such as Matthews, Milan Michalek, Leo Komarov and James van Riemsdyk) went through a solid three weeks. It’s a little break, a little down time. There are tons of games coming. They’ll get a lot of ice time. They’ll get in shortly.”
Hiller, who has been running practices while Babcock was leading Canada to the World Cup, noted the head coach’s arrival halfway through Friday’s workouts, on the observation deck with club president Brendan Shanahan.
“I’m not surprised to see him here today,” Hiller said. “He got his job done, but this of course is priority No. 1 for him.”
The absence of Matthews is not to say some camp experiments wouldn’t be scrutinized Friday. Mitch Marner, 2015’s top pick, played his second game after a pair of assists Monday in Halifax and was on right wing with Tyler Bozak. That could be the makings of a second or third line. Bozak, who played his first pre-season game, agreed there are some Phil Kessel comparisons to the creative Marner.
“They’re obviously both awesome players,” he said. “The young kids are so confident nowadays, it’s something I definitely didn’t have (breaking into the NHL) and wish I did. It’s been fun to watch them all here and see them progress already. A lot of them will be able to make an impact right away.”
Bozak, who wasn’t exactly Mr. Universe when he started, said Marner is overcoming a perceived weight and muscle question.
“I’m sure Mitch gets that (criticism), too. I’m sure it shouldn’t matter. There’s not the clutching and grabbing. He’s so smart, he knows how to elude checks, how to use his body the best he can in one-onone battles. I’ve seen him out there against big guys and he wins those battles, uses his body, his weight.”
After his practice group departed, injured No. 1 Frederik Andersen said he is on schedule to return from an upper body issue and said he’d like an exhibition game start if possible.
“I feel pretty good, taking more and more shots,” Andersen said. “Getting my game feel back is pretty important. It’s been a blessing in disguise; getting the small things done, a new place to live, meeting all the new teammates.”
Forwards William Nylander, Dmytro Timashov and Andreas Johnsson were also headed to Buffalo, along with defenceman Andrew Nielsen.
The Leafs’ record after a shootout loss to Buffalo in St. Catharines, Ont., is 0-1-1.