Ian Tulluch on Babcock today in his post game analysis, plus other information.
Mike Babcock — The section you’ve all been waiting for!
On the plus side, the Leafs outshot the Islanders for the majority of the second period. The downside is that both teams generated zero dangerous chances during that 10-plus-minute stretch, which doesn’t sound like it’s playing to the strength of Toronto’s roster. It’s been struggling to generate chances like crazy in its past couple of games, which is super concerning.
We can talk about Babcock helping the Leafs play better defensively, but they’ve been getting out-chanced consistently over the past few weeks when you look at a metric like expected goals. You can’t say that’s a positive because they’re giving up less because their tactical choices are suffocating their offence. This team takes way too many point shots, isn’t activating its defencemen enough on the breakouts and forecheck, and still hasn’t figured out that its top power-play unit should play more than 60 percent of the minutes on the power play.
As a side note, Hyman got more minutes than Matthews and Nylander in his first game back from a torn ACL, while Dermott got 12 in his first two games back despite playing well. Babcock’s biases are strong, and I doubt they’re going away anytime soon.
this was a low-event game at even strength. Neither team generated much offensively through the first 40 minutes, and then score effects kicked in for the third period. Can’t say I love watching that kind of hockey from a team with Toronto’s talent.
This team has been getting outplayed for 20 games now, and things don’t appear to be getting any better. Something needs to change.
Is it all right to admit I hate watching this team lately? Because I hate watching this team. Toronto’s roster has some of the most dynamic talent in the NHL, and it’s sucking the life out of games Minnesota Wild-style.