Leafs’ Leivo encouraged to take someone’s job

Mike Babcock would be thrilled if Josh Leivo made it impossible for the Toronto Maple Leafs coach to scratch him from the lineup.

“He comes in and he does a good job for us,” Babcock said. “Should he be in every day? You can debate that all you want, but the reality is, you need a certain amount of power play guys, a certain amount of penalty kill guys and enough speed in your lineup.

“His opportunity is now to grab hold of it and make it as hard on me as possible and take someone’s job.”

Leivo will be in uniform Wednesday when the Leafs play the Ducks in Anaheim. It will mark just the second game of the season for Leivo, but you can assume he’ll be spurred by his performances from last season, when he had 10 points in 13 games for Toronto.

To have a player of Leivo’s ability fight to stay in the lineup is a nice problem for Toronto, the kind many other teams gladly would take on.

There’s potential for a line of Nazem Kadri between Leivo and Leo Komarov. Now, the trio has to capitalize. Leivo knows his role.

“We did well last year when I played with them,” Leivo said. “I think we produced a lot of chances and a lot of points, so hopefully we can keep the chemistry going.

“Leo is a hard-working forward who gets in on the forecheck and Naz is skilled and makes plays. I’m just there to bury the puck.”

BLUE-LINE OBSERVATIONS

Connor Carrick, we figure, has a future one day as a hockey analyst or coach. The Leafs defenceman’s insights on the game are well-respected by members of the media.

Carrick will return to the lineup Wednesday after being a healthy scratch for four consecutive games. He’ll be paired with Jake Gardiner.

“Any time you can take a step back, where it’s not personal, you’re not in the fire, you can see what’s working for your team and what’s not,” Carrick said.

“I was pretty happy with how I was going for the most part (before being taken out of the lineup).

“There were mistakes I was making that were ending up in goals. Flat out, you can’t have that. There were little details that are going to help our team in the long run, and as a player in the role that I am, those have to be sharp.”

The mood in the Leafs’ dressing room remains upbeat despite three consecutive losses.

“We still have a long way to go,” Carrick said. “We knew that when we were 7-2. It’s all about building your game toward the end of the season and playoff time.”

With Roman Polak slated to be a healthy scratch, we wonder when we might see him again.

Babcock wants his defence, including the Gardiner-Carrick pair and the duo of Andreas Borgman and Nikita Zaitsev, to put down roots. Borgman, the 22-year-old rookie, continues to solidify his spot.

“We think (Carrick) should be in the lineup on a regular basis,” Babcock said. “We just thought that gives us three solid pairs. We think Borgman is really starting to come and settle in, so we don’t have to be as concerned about matchups. We can roll him out the door more.”

LOOSE LEAFS

Patrick Marleau’s versatility is a bonus for Babcock, but using the veteran at centre, as the Leafs will do Wednesday, is a stopgap measure as the coach tries to find combinations that work among his forwards.