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The Toronto Maple Leafs Need a New Coach – NOW

By James Tanner

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 21: General manager Kyle Dubas of the Toronto Maple Leafs puts the phone down during the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 21, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 21: General manager Kyle Dubas of the Toronto Maple Leafs puts the phone down during the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 21, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Toronto Maple Leafs need a new coach.

After an embarrassing game Saturday night against the Penguins, the Toronto Maple Leafs need a new direction.

They need a new voice.

They need someone who can implement the GM’s vision.  That person is clearly not Mike Babcock.

Why he wasn’t fired when he complained to the press about the team getting Jake Muzzin and then Nic Petan is a mystery.

How he kept his job over the summer when for a second straight year he had to travel to meet the team’s best player to (allegedly) smooth things over, is another one.

And if you’re reading this and he wasn’t fired before I was done writing it, then that too is a mystery.

Toronto Maple Leafs Are Bad

They’ve lost five in a row.

They had to give away Josh Leivo because Babcock wouldn’t play him.

After sitting out for 70 games, it’s pretty clear that Justin Holl has been one of their best guys this whole time.

It was reasonable to hold back Travis Dermott after he missed six months due to injury, but then Babcock gave Zach Hyman more icetime than Auston Matthews in his first game back.

Travis Dermott is on the third pairing.  Why?

How is Cody Ceci on the first pairing? He is objectively terrible.

Rasmus Sandin is in the AHL – why?

How does Matthews not play most, if not all, of every power-play?

Why was Nick __ Shore on the ice with three minutes left in the game and the team down by a goal?

Why won’t he let his best player take a defensive zone faceoff?

How can the league’s best power-play by personnel be so terrible in action?

Remember when Patrick Marleau posted the worst defensive metrics on the team and scored at a rate lower than Frederik Guathier, but was used like a top line forward?

Oh and why does Freddie Gauthier play so much?

Remember when the Leafs acquired Tyson Barrie and then Babcock refused to let him play the style of game that made him worth acquiring in the first place?

Can any person on this earth explain why you’d use your best goalie to face the Blue Jackets and then leave him on the bench Saturday, at home, against a division rival?

Does anyone understand why, when the team is down late, why he rolls four lines like it’s the first period?

And why does he insist on having a team build to run and gun play like the 1995 New Jersey Devils?

The power-play, the overall style of game, the fact that the players don’t love playing for him, the fact that the guy who Dubas hired in both his previous jobs is waiting in the wings, and for so, so many more reasons means Mike Babcock has to go.

Next. 5 Ways the Leafs Can Get Better. dark

If it doesn’t happen today, it’s got to happen soon.  The Toronto Maple Leafs will never win with Mike Babcock, and the NHL season is short.  Do it now before it’s too late.

It’s already a quarter over.  If they don’t turn it around, it’s over.

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