Toronto Maple Leafs: Mike Babcock Letting Defense Run Wild
The Toronto Maple Leafs defensive corps is running wild and I love it.
When talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs defensive corps, I’m talking about Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner, and Nikita Zaitsev.
More emphasize on Gardiner and Zaitsev because the points have followed them so far, but Rielly’s still getting his nose into plays.
In years past with the Leafs, Mike Babcock’s really grounded his defenseman, not really allowing the offensively minded Rielly and Gardiner to step up into plays all too often.
Maybe he watched Dion Phaneuf pinch, I don’t know.
I vaguely remember an unwritten rule of Babcock’s that those two weren’t allowed to make a pass (or cross under normal circumstances) behind the oppositions goal line.
That meant they were in too deep and were out of position, a valid point, but if there’s one thing for certain, it’s that Rielly and Gardiner are offensively minded defenseman first.
No excuse for not playing the defensive part of the position, but they’re still more inclined to rush and make good plays, being involved in the offense as much as possible and when appropriate.
After all, Gardiner was a forward until his late teens if I’m not mistaken.
Running Wild
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Throughout Gardiner’s NHL career, he’s been known as a defensive liability, which he can be at any given point, but there’s still way more upside to his game then downside.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Babcock’s been instructing him on how to play his style of defense, while still being effective in every zone.
It’s kind of an acceptance of who he is, type deal., a trust thing if you will.
The same thing goes for Rielly, who for most of his NHL career was being utilized (or trying to be) as a shutdown defender, when it’s clear as day that he has so much offensive potential.
Last season, Rielly produced six goals and 27 points in 76 games played, tieing for the lowest in his career, dating back to his rookie season.
A couple months ago, I wrote about how I think he’ll have a career year pointwise and I’m not taking that back one bit.
I’d still put money on him scoring 10+ goals and amassing over 45 points (which would be a career year), but what I’m not comfortable betting on is if he’ll finish with a (+) rating for the first time in his career.
No Sophomore Slump
Last, but not least is Zaitsev who produced four goals and 36 points in 82 games played during the 2016-17 season and is already off to a flying start this year.
I mean, scoring two goals and five points in five games played is pretty darn good to start the season off.
It’s nice seeing Babcock utilize his defenders how they play the game, but playing defense is still the top priority.
Don’t mistake the point I’m making, the players on the backend are playing good hockey, however, it’s not exactly how we all want it to be, which should be fine.
Yes, I want fewer goals against, but to expect these three offensively minded defensemen to play a different style of game is not effective, we’ve seen that already.
It’d be nice to have a big shutdown defender to compliment these offensive ones, eh?