Babcock challenges goalie to ‘steal a win’

Leafs backup goaltender Jhonas Enroth made just his third start of the season here on Wednesday.

Prior to the game, Toronto coach Mike Babcock issued a challenge to the Swede, who signed a oneyear contract with the Leafs this summer.

“He’s got to get himself a win here, that’s the bottom line,” Babcock said.

“When you go in, you’ve got to find a way, when you’re not getting all the starts, to steal a win for the team. Then the coach is likely to put you in more.”

The Leafs ended up losing 5-4 in a shootout.

To put it mildly, Enroth has struggled, and in Babcock’s mind, hasn’t earned playing time. That was apparent a couple weeks back when Freddie Andersen started back-to-back games in Toronto and Brooklyn.

In his two starts prior to Wednesday (plus two relief appearances of Andersen) Enroth had a sketchy 4.40 goals against average and .866 save percentage.

After spending so many seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, most of them when, ridiculously, they were in the Western Conference, Babcock is well aware of the challenges of travel.

As coach of a Toronto Maple Leafs team that has a league high 18 back-to-back outings this season, including Wednesday’s date with the New Jersey Devils, Babcock is dealing with a different type of weariness for his players.

The Leafs played at home on Tuesday, losing 2-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes, but the Devils had just finished a four-game run in California, including the long flight home on Tuesday.

So we asked Babcock which team might tend to be the most leg-weary on Wednesday.

“To tell you the truth, I think neither one is what you want, but I spent a lot of time in Detroit,” Babcock said, affirming the common held belief that it takes a couple weeks to find the legs after a long western swing.

“We’d fly back from California and it would be tough.”

Prior to Wednesday’s action, the Leafs were 1-2-1 in the first game of back-to-backs and 0-3 in the second contest.

The Devils have been plagued by injuries the season, most notably to centre Taylor Hall, who underwent knee surgery last week and is expected to miss at least a couple more weeks.

They did get forward Mike Cammalleri back on Wednesday, however. The Toronto native missed six games to be with his five-yearold daughter Chloe, who required surgery after being hospitalized with pneumonia.

“It’s your worst nightmare but we’re fortunate she’s going to make a full recovery,” Cammalleri said on