Toronto Maple Leafs: Babcock Ice Time Follow Up

The Toronto Maple Leafs have an interesting relationship with their head coach.

That’s the topic we covered a few days ago in this week’s edition of What Do You Think? 

Mike Babcock had waxed poetic on his intent to limit the ice time of Auston Matthews to around the 18-19 minute mark during the regular season, and I wondered aloud about whether I had any confidence that he’d change this strategy up when the games began to matter.

You can read that here.

But it doesn’t matter what I think. I asked you, our loyal readers, to give me your opinion on the matter in the comment section. You did not disappoint. Here are a few of your notable responses.

Illusionista

Alright, we get it, Babcock has made some decisions in the past that have been controversial and may have cost Toronto important games. And yes, he’s been quite stubborn on the idea of change and insists that what he’s doing is right. But there’s no reason to make him a solidified scapegoat all of a sudden that is responsible for every single wrongdoing us fans see in the team. All these articles reassuring Babcock’s “flaws” are only making Leafs Nation turn on him. One of the main reasons the Leafs lost to Boston 2 years in a row is because of special teams. And guess what? That issue’s already been addressed, with a complete overhaul of the bench behind Babcock. Along with improvements on defence, the Leafs have already taken action on past problems to be a better team. With all these articles, we forget that Babcock is a great coach that consistently takes his team to the playoffs comfortably. And it’s not like he isn’t a proven winner, because we know he can win, and he’s done it before.

Now that he has a great team (in fact, one of his best teams in a decade), us fans should be believing in this team and the heights they can go. If something does go wrong with such a strong group of players, then we can think about parting ways with Mike. But for now, there’s absolutely no reason for fans to make him a scapegoat and turn on him even before the season starts. Just be patient, and see where this team goes. I believe in this coach, and for now, everyone else should too.

Randy Fraser

Just come out and say it. You want Keefe as the coach. It’s obvious you don’t like Babcock’s style.
So he didn’t play Matthews as much as you would have liked with game 7 on the line.
What if he did play him and Boston just kept piling on the goals? I figure we would be reading that Babcock has to go, because he put Matthews out when he didn’t deserve to be out. Matthews play was nothing to write home about in game 6 or 7. Hell, I think he was on the ice for 5 goals against and 1 goal for in the 2 games.

With Tavares being matched against the Bergeron line, that left Matthews and the Nylander lines to feast on the supposedly weaker Bruins 2nd and 3rd lines. It never happened. So get over it already.

Editor’s Note: Randy seems a lil mad here, folks. Can someone go check on him? I’m worried he’s still having his tantrum. 

don

It’s a team!!!! Which means everyone should be equal even though a few may be better than others it is a TEAM.

Same with this carp regarding the 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th line. Please stop this nonsense. It’s a TEAM!! Just say the Matthews line, the Tavares line etc. Who cares who goes out first. A forward is a forward. One person does not make the team win. Look at Edmonton with McDavid. $12. mil a year, sure he is a great player, but if you cannot afford to surround him with better players, guess what. How many 1st draft picks do they need to ice winning team. You guys that write these columns should get a real job and allow those folks who post here do your job.
Their knowledge of the game far exceeds what you pretend to know.

Editor’s Note: Those typos are not my fault. I quoted Don verbatim. 

Editor’s Note #2: Don is making the very logical argument that Connor McDavid is the reason why the Edmonton Oilers are bad. Fun stuff! 

afp1961

Look the strongest reason behind time mgmt for both Tavares and Matthews was that the leafs had Kadri (a true #2) in the 3 spot. If you do the math, even with Kadri’s minutes dropping to 14-15 MPG, and with PP & PK involved, the minutes for AM & JT were not that grossly out of line. Sure we can always point to a MacKinnon or several top centres having more minutes, but most play for teams which did not have the balanced 3 lines the leafs possessed.

There are many variables, but, this season I do expect to see a difference. I believe AM will jump up to the 19 MPG (or so) and JT will also see a slight jump. It will highly depend also upon what minutes Kerfoot and Spezza earn as the 3rd & 4th lines will be more balanced than in the prior year. If they can contribute like Boston’s 3rd line did last year in the playoffs it creates enormous matchup benefits for our top two lines. Equally how wingers on these top two lines perform defensively will also be contributory to minutes played. Babs has faith in Hyman and JT (hence more minutes), not so much in Johnsson and Nylander (rightfully so), thus Matthews minutes do get impacted.

Notwithstanding all this, I further believe that, come playoff time, Babs will shorten the bench if he sees the need in a tight one-goal match or in the 6th or 7th game. Based upon the current roster depth, I can see players like Kerfoot moving to Matthews wing to add more defensive responsibility (as needed), Spezza/Shore moving up/down to backfill. Last year the only alternative really was shifting Marleau. This year the depth will create far more options.

Thanks for reading! And someone PLEASE go check on Randy! He’s very sensitive and I’m worried for him.