DUMPER AND CHASE
Morgan Rielly has been around long enough to know what’s wrong with the Leafs’ defence of late,
Morgan Rielly is three shy of 400 career games. Jake Gardiner is two games from 500. Ron Hainsey is four away from 1,000.
That’s a whole lot of veteran know-how on a defence corps that still causes fretfulness among Maple Leaf analysts, of which there is no shortage.
As if one guy — Mystery D-Man — will resolve the team’s purported back-end issues. Which wasn’t a problem while the team was scoring goals by the bushel. But they’ve been held to one goal in back-to-back defeats, which is rather more of a slag against their vaunted high-octane offence than it is a fault line running across the blue line.
At Sunday practice, that’s where Mike Babcock was doing his tinkering, yoking Martin Marincin — frequent pressbox habitué — with Igor Ozhiganov while pairing Travis Dermott with Justin Holl, who has yet to skate a stride in an NHL regular-season game this year. Perhaps the coach has got his eye on bigger bodies to fix what ails the Leafs with the hefty Jets on tap Wednesday.
The push-down of 21-yearold Dermott, minus-three against the Blues on Saturday, was none too subtle, possibly indicating he’ll be a healthy scratch in Winnipeg. But it’s pointless trying to take a deep dive into Babcock’s cerebrum.
“Personally, I was fighting the puck,” Dermott acknowledges. “As a team it looked like we were fighting the puck. Hockey happens that way sometimes, whether it was the ice, whether it was us being a little complaisant.’’
Maybe Dermott sits, maybe he doesn’t.
“I’m not sure of the meaning behind it. Whatever happens, happens.’’
For his part, Holl is antsy but compliant. “I’ve been in this position before. When I was with the Marlies, I kind of started in this position as well … in and out. I’m not, like, angry at the coaching staff or anything like that. I’m not angry at what’s going on. At the same time I’m ready for my opportunity and I’m ready to go.”
If there was a withering indictment of the Leafs in their two losses, it’s that they looked unengaged, especially versus St. Louis, lackadaisical. A poor work ethic is intolerable around Babcock.
“Today was really therapy, meaning let’s solve the problem, let’s put the problem behind us,” said Babcock. “In order for us to get going again, we have to dig in harder than we’ve dug in.”
But what does not working hard enough actually mean? How is that reproach interpreted by the players?
“When you don’t win, you have to look at what happened and there were examples (Saturday) night where we weren’t playing well enough,” said Rielly, taking a shot at explaining Babcock’s scolding. “It’s not because we don’t know how. It’s because of execution and it comes down to work ethic.
“When he goes up there and says we’re not working hard enough, the message to us is that we have to execute better, be more prepared to work. In reality, it’s hard to do for 82 games. There’s nights when your legs might be heavy or mentally you might be fatigued. But that’s your job, to be ready. If that’s not the case, it’s not acceptable.’’
They know this, individually, whether the 1,000-game Hain- sey or the eight-game rookie. The NHL isn’t a teaching league. Every player has grown up hearing the same exhortation from every coach along the way.
“You get to a point where you know the game and you know the team structure and you know what’s going on, so it’s up to you to be prepared physically and mentally,” notes Rielly. “There really shouldn’t be a lot of teaching going on unless you’re just getting used to a different position or something. You should be relied upon to know where you’re supposed to be and when you’re supposed to be there.”
That learning curve, however, is an endless process, Rielly adds. “It’s a balance between knowing the league and knowing the team and not having to be taught.
At the same time, learning what you can do to improve. Lots of times, that’s positionally. Really, it has nothing to do with passing the puck or skating or shooting. You should know how to do all that stuff. I’m just about 400 games in and I’m still trying to learn, to be better.”
A coaching staff can prepare the team with video and scouting reports on the opposition. Babcock can reinforce the message, when it’s ignored, by taking away ice time or bouncing a player out of the lineup. That definitely drives home the displeasure. But coaxing a higher gear effort, night after night across six months of a grinding regular season, is a challenge.
Babcock characterized working hard, or not working hard enough, as a perspective between two teams.
“When you get frustrated in this sport, it means the other team is working harder than you. You want to work so hard, (so that) it’s the opposition that’s getting frustrated. I think you never mind (the result) when you play hard, when you win the battles and the races to the puck, and the score didn’t pan out the way you wanted it. But when you don’t win the races and the battles, you don’t feel good about yourself. We have to get back to work and feel good about ourselves.”
Ultimately, that’s a peer-led pressure, not a commandment from the bench.
Rielly: “Veteran guys who’ve been around the league a long time understand what’s going on at a deeper level. You should rely on those guys for leadership and guidance.”