Babcock pushes right buttons

Leafs coach paying particular attention to Kadri, Nylander

Mike Babcock has a lot of pet sayings. “He’s a man,” is one. It’s not an acknowledgement of a player’s gender. Every resident of the Maple Leafs dressing room is presumed a biological male. But only a few earn the right to be called a Babcock-worthy man. The definition has never been clearly spelled out. It seems to especially apply if you’re wide-bodied and Eastern Europe. Burly Czech defenceman Roman Polak, who once blocked a puck with his face and didn’t complain that the puck tore clear through his cheek, got that compliment before he was shipped out to San Jose. Estonia-born Leo Komarov, the peace-disturbing all-star, still occasionally gets it.

Here’s another one of Babcock’s phrases: “There are 23 players — you coach them 23 different ways.”

It’s a great notion to perpetuate. And it’s probably true. But if we’ve learned anything about Babcock in 72 games as coach of Toronto’s NHLers, it’s that if he’s officially in charge of 23 players at any given moment, he seems to coach a select few players far harder than the others. For much of the season, and even before the 82-game grind began, 25year-old centreman Nazem Kadri has been one of the coach’s primary focal points. That’s meant regular one-on-one meetings in the coach’s office, complete with exhaustive video review of the evidence that suggested Kadri has not yet lived up to his potential as a two-way force.

“I’ve been in and out of his office pretty daily,” Kadri was saying on Wednesday.

It has quite possibly been a relief to Kadri that lately the coach’s attention has been at least partly diverted to another concern — namely William Nylander. Kadri and Nylander have their similar traits. They’re both talented. They’re both centremen. The difference is Nylander is about a half-dozen years younger and a few hundred NHL games less experienced. This week, Babcock said he’d asked Kadri if it’s possible Nylander will be invited to as many one-on-one meetings as Kadri has attended this season.

“I told Babs there’s not enough time left in the season for that,” Kadri said.

Still, between the 12 NHL games Nylander has played and the 10 games that remain, there’s plenty of time for a considerable quantity of Babcock’s brand of no-stone-left-unturned tutorials.

“I think Willy’s getting a little taste of what I went through right now,” Kadri said with a smile.

For all the scrutiny, Kadri has also received his share of praise within the organization. GM Lou Lamoriello has employed one of his own favourite phrases in lauding Kadri’s competitiveness.

“He’s one that I wouldn’t mind going into a foxhole with,” Lamoriello told Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman back in January.

But Babcock, whose early-season praise for Kadri was often seen as an act of trade-value fluffing, has taken a slightly more critical tack since the trade deadline has come and gone. Lately the coach has spoken publicly of the need for Kadri to “get stronger” and work harder on a specific skill — his shot — a curious criticism considering Kadri, drafted almost seven years ago, is nobody’s idea of a just-hatched prospect.

Still, you can see what Babcock’s on about. According to numbers available at war-on-ice.com, Kadri has had the sixth-most high-danger scoring chances in the league this season, with 86. Players who get those kinds of opportunities are generally burying them far more frequently than the man who leads Toronto’s forwards in ice time. Dallas’s Jamie Benn had 85 high-danger chances heading into Wednesday’s games; he had 36 goals. John Tavares had 87 such chances; he had 26 goals. Kadri, on those 86 prime chances, has converted 12 goals. On a team that already lacks experienced scoring punch, he’s striking below his weight.

Still, Kadri is, in many ways, a player made for Babcock’s possession-based system, and all the attention Babcock has paid to him suggests he’s a keeper. Kadri’s Corsi numbers have always been impeccable. And in a league in which power-play opportunities are being doled out at historically paltry levels, he has a league-leading gift for drawing penalties that has to at least partially offset his not-so-magic hands.

Also, there’s luck involved in Ka- dri’s scoring rate. His shooting percentage — a paltry five per cent this season — is tracking at about half of his career average of 10 per cent.

“Sometimes it feels like everything you touch turns into gold. And sometimes you’re a little rusty,” Kadri said. “I think a little bit of it is on the unlucky side. But obviously (shooting) is something I can work on. I think that’s a good thing for me to recognize. Even if you have a great shot, a shot is something you can always get better at.”

Kadri’s reasoning recalled another of Babcock’s pet phrases: “You’re a work in progress.” Meaning, we’re all works in progress; even Babcock, the $6.25-million-a-year coach who’s won everything there is to win; even Kadri, the $4.1-million-ayear centreman who’s not yet a Babcock man but who’s hoping to score a long-term deal as he heads into the off-season as a restricted free agent. Has Kadri thought ahead to those negotiations?

“Not really,” he said. “I’ve got a pretty good understanding of how Babs and Lou feel about me, and they understand that Toronto’s like home to me. So really, the decision’s up to them.”

The decision won’t come for months. And there’s still time to make more impressions, not to mention learn a few more lessons. As Babcock left the practice ice on Wednesday, he stopped to have a private word with Kadri.

“He’s still teaching me day in, day out,” Kadri said. “I’m just trying to take on that leadership role and guide these young guys. You want to be able to be there for ’em and do it the right way, and show ’em how a professional does it every day. That’s been the message that’s been relayed to me. That’s just how it’s been from Day 1 with Babs.”