I've been fine with Babcock's mantra that if you do good stuff, you get rewarded. If you play the right way, you get good stuff.
What was there last game from Komorov that showed he deserves to get rewarded playing with Nylander and Matthews? People claim he is good at penalty killing and he starts every single one, yet it failed with him on the ice. People claim he is a big hitter, yet I saw other Leafs players playing the body who don't regularly do such as JVR, yet where was Komorov? It is spouted that Komorov is a shut down forward, yet all I saw was him being shut down in his own zone. Komorov has this reputation of getting under opponents skin, yet all I saw last game was Marchand doing what ever he wanted to Komorov both physically and on the scoreboard.
I understand that the Komorov of previous seasons was a useful player. What I don't understand is how anyone based on statistics and just watching him play can see anything but one of the worst players in the NHL. He is literally bottom of the barrel in offensive statistics among all NHL players despite playing on a second line for half of the season. He is at the bottom of defensive statistics such as zone exits and entries, and spends most of his time on ice being hemmed in his own zone. All this nonsense gets spouted about his grit and able to irritate opponents, yet not at a single point this season did any of that get shown.
While last night's loss falls on every single players, this move will kill the top line. Stats show Komorov cannot exit his zone via passing, stats show he can't pass in the offensive zone. Matthews and Nylander are going to have dead weight with no offensive capability and no vision and capability defensively.