Toronto Maple Leafs: A Championship Basketball and Mike Babcock

After the Toronto Maple Leafs first win of the season, Mike Babcock came into the dressing room with something special.

When the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship, Mike Babcock and the Toronto Maple Leafs thought: “Let’s do the same.”

The beginning of every NHL season starts with new faces, new friends and new traditions. Babcock started with a new ritual after every Leafs win; the Player of the Game.

“We think it’s our time,” says Babcock while holding the championship basketball following the Leafs home opener win against the Ottawa Senators, “We wanna go out and dominate like they (Toronto Raptors) did every single night.”

The Player of the Game is a life-old tradition that’s used in all levels of the game. From house league, to junior hockey – it’s a tradition that’s been in the game forever.

Babcock bringing this tradition into the Leafs dressing room could create a shift in the performance of the team. Not by wanting the basketball, but wanting to play for everyone in that room.

When teams win the Stanley Cup, it’s not because they’re better than everyone else, it’s from the belief that the players have in each other and in the systems.

Could this be what pushes the Leafs over the top?

I don’t know – but it’s something different.

It gives personality to all of the players and helps mesh the team closer and closer. Players like Tyson Barrie and Alexander Kerfoot have explained how hard it is to go into a new dressing room with players they don’t know very well.

This helps them just that much more. You might not believe this works, but it does.

Don’t believe me?  Let’s find a team in recent memory that added a tradition after a win and went onto do something special: the St. Louis Blues.

After the Blues comeback win against the Florida Panthers back in February, they played the song ‘Gloria’ in the dressing room after every single game that was won.

They went onto win the Stanley Cup.

Of course – this isn’t the only part that will push the Maple Leafs over the edge, but it’ll help. The first recipient of the championship basketball was Auston Matthews and you see his personality come out right away, which is good for the players.

This will bring the team even closer, which is what they need desperately. They need to be good friends, and they need to believe in it, together. If the players can do that, Toronto could see another championship come home to the City of Toronto.