D.J. Llewellyn
Firing Mike Babcock was, ultimately, the right decision.
Anybody watching the Leafs this season could clearly tell that something was not right with this group, and when you have a roster with the stars this team has, you have to ask yourself did these players all forget how to play at the same time, or is something else going on?
Night after night, the players looked defeated, the special teams and goaltending stunk, at best on a line or two on the team would play well during the game. Even when they won, they never looked very good, and all their wins came against non-playoff teams anyways.
Despite all this poor play, Babcock did little, if anything, to adjust the team’s play during or in between games. For Dubas and Keefe, this is their moment to put in place their vision of how this team was meant to play. The opportunity to take over a team with the likes of Auston Matthews and John Tavares must be very exciting for a coach. Keefe’s first order of business should be to focus on defence and the penalty kill, which are the team’s biggest problems at the moment.
They have to stop allowing so many high danger chances against and give Andersen a reasonable chance in net. He also needs to try and get Barrie going, which we will start seeing tonight when Keefe added him to the top power-play unit. When the goals against go down, it’ll be much easier to let the offence run wild and do its thing. For now, Keefe just needs the guys to buy in, and they’ll have to do it quickly if they want to be playing hockey in spring.
Keefe will be here for the next few years, Dubas has his coach for the first time. Now we can finally see how this vision pays off at the NHL level. Half these players know Keefe and speak highly of him. Time to show it or be shipped out.