Toronto Maple Leafs: Babcock Coaching like Carlyle

The problems continue to build for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and there don’t appear to be many answers for them.

The Toronto Maple Leafs look lost. They look timid. Most importantly, they do not look like the team who took the league by storm at the beginning of this season.

Although the Leafs are 5-3 without Auston Matthews in the lineup, the last few games the offense has gone cold. Matthews has left a hole difficult to fill, but given the talent in the lineup, he cannot be the sole reason the Leafs are struggling as they are.

There are a surplus of problems, none of which are quick fixes. William Nylander and Mitch Marner aren’t scoring, despite generally strong play.  In 33 games, Nylander has five goals, and Marner has just two. The pairing of Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev has not panned out, yet they continue to play together.

Questionable Lineup & Ice Time Decisions

Mike Babcock’s continued use of Gardiner and Zaitsev is almost like he’s trying to shove a square peg in a round hole. Clearly, it’s not beneficial for the players or the team to keep them together.

Playing Roman Polak over Connor Carrick is still some confusing. Babcock plays Polak because he values his veteran presence, his toughness, and his ability to kill penalties. Yes, in this case, Polak provides the Leafs with a service Carrick cannot.

However, Polak has been hurting the team, not only by taking unnecessary penalties, but by not being able to help the team kill penalties. He is useless on the penalty kill if he is in the penalty box. What is frustrating is that if the roles were reversed, Carrick would probably be run out of town by now. And yet, Babcock still finds a way to give Polak the benefit of the doubt.

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Josh Leivo, who finally caught a break and has dressed for the games Matthews has missed, has played well enough to secure his spot in the lineup. He was one of their better forwards against Minnesota, and yet he was swapped out in the next game in favour of Kasperi Kapanen.

When William Nylander played under nine minutes against the Pittsburgh Penguins last week, there was a huge outcry on Twitter. Although his ice time has increased with Matthews out, Babcock seems to leaning more on players like Zach Hyman and Leo Komarov in favour of more skilled players like Nylander and James van Riemsdyk.

Why Babcock isn’t playing his more offensively gifted players, especially now that they’re desperate for scoring, is a little confusing. Yes, Nylander was stapled to the fourth line for a bit, but that’s not a way to get a player’s confidence up. Players like Komarov and Hyman should not be leading the forwards in ice time, as important as they are to the team.

Hopefully when Matthews returns, the ice time returns to normal as well.

Back to ‘Carlyle’ Hockey

The Leafs have been getting doubled up on shots nearly every game. They’re lucky that Frederik Andersen and Curtis McElhinney have been bailing them out.

Doesn’t that remind you of a very dark time in recent past?

That’s right. The Leafs are playing Randy Carlyle hockey again. It’s not a recipe for success, and the Leafs are finally starting to see that. Their play is inconsistent. They either score early and disappear for the rest of the game, or get outplayed all game, only to show up in the last fifteen minutes.

Based on the lineup the Leafs ice every night, there is no reason they should be playing like this. As a whole, they are far too talented to be letting teams walk all over them. They’re missing easy chances, giving the puck away, and not creating pressure on the forecheck enough during games. If they want to make a serious playoff run this season, that has to change.

Believing They’re Fine

Is Babcock watching the same game the rest of us are?

If the Leafs head coach doesn’t recognize that there are problems contributing to the Leafs losses, then what hope do we have of seeing any of these issues resolved?

I’ve been trying to give Babcock the benefit of the doubt with the lineup decisions and the crazy TOI numbers, but after reading his quotes from the last few games the Toronto  Maple Leafs have played, I’m floored.

Summary

The bottom line is that on paper, the Toronto Maple Leafs are way better than they’ve been playing. Nylander and Marner will break out of their slumps. Matthews will return to the lineup, and hopefully the goaltending can remain strong as well.

Next: If It Is Not Working, Change It Up

It’s still early in the season, so I have the confidence in this team that they can turn it around. Unfortunately, until they address that these problems exist and need to be fixed, it will likely be a long season.