Toronto Maple Leafs: Babcock Benches Nylander, Leafs Steal 2 Points

The Toronto Maple Leafs picked up two points they had no business earning last night.

The Toronto Maple Leafs played one of their worst games of the seasons. They were well rested, their opponent wasn’t.  They were supposed to get John Tavares back. They didn’t.

They didn’t play well, but they did pick up the two points, so there’s that.

Still, it’d be nice to see this team put together a solid 60 minutes once in a while.  They give you glimpses of what they can do – for a while in the first, they were absolutely dominant – but it’s just teases.

Still, I’ll bank on the potential of this roster anytime.

Toronto Maple Leafs Deserved to Lose

The Leafs dominated the first, getting 72% of the puck possession.  But since they didn’t score the four goals that period deserved, they seemed to just give up.

The second and third periods were all Flyers.  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team play over 70% hockey in the first, then go under 30% in the second.

The third Flyers goal was enough for Babcock and he benched Nylander, who made a pretty lazy play on the goal.  I get benching a player for a bad play, but it’s weird how Rielly, Marner and Matthews can make the same play all the time, but face no repercussions.

For instance, Morgan Rielly is probably my favorite hockey player in the entire world, but he had a BRUTAL game last night.  Ceci too. They were awful, finishing the night with a 30% Corsi, which is hard to do.

I don’t know how Babcock can, for instance, bench Nylander for one lazy play that probably shouldn’t even have been a goal anyways, but he keeps running out the worst pairing in the National Hockey League like they’re actually good.  Bench yourself, dude!

You’re a coach getting paid $6 million dollars per year, you’ve got to figure out to get the most out of your Norris Worthy Defenseman.  The answer – as has been obvious to everyone for weeks – is most certainly not Cody Ceci.

Babcock is brutal.  In overtime, I am reasonably sure he put Nick Shore on the ice to win a faceoff – just trust your best players and win or lose with them; stop over-coaching.   Let’s not forget the guy who was inexplicably replacing Nylander in over-time took a penalty, which is basically an automatic loss and it’s just pure luck that it wasn’t.  (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

This team doesn’t give 100% at all time.  They don’t start on time. They can’t put together a solid 60 minutes. They clearly are not interested in winning for Babcock whose message is, by this time, falling on deaf ears.

A good coach could have put the Ovechkin quote up on the board and gotten angry that the sub-text of the league’s main talking point for a whole day was that his 22 year old superstar (on pace for 65 goals that day) was being painted as lazy and selfish.

But not old Babs.  No, he agrees with Ovechkin and says “it hurts my feelings because it’s true.”  I would have paid a million dollars on Wednesday for a coach who would tell Ovechkin what he could do with his advice.

The main reason the Leafs need a new coach is this: they have the league’s funnest roster and they don’t play like it.  Their is no joy. No swagger. No belief in their abilities.  No creativity, no fun.

Mike Babcock served his purpose.  But now if you want to win, it’s time to put a coach in charge who won’t troll the GM with his player usage.   They should have done it in the summer.

They have to do it now.