Hutch was not Clutch

There are no excuses now, Hutchinson was rested, playing an afternoon affair( Normal for the AHL)
And he bombed out.
Micheal Hutchinson is a likeable guy who always shows up to the rink smiling and ready to work. It’s no surprise to hear his Toronto Maple Leafs teammates lobbied on his behalf to get a second crack at the backup goaltending job.
But after watching him let another opportunity slip by with another four-goal period against, Leafs management has to start considering the ugly side of the business.

They need to aggressively be looking for his replacement.
If it’s not Kasimir Kaskisuo, who was shelled in his first and only career NHL start at Pittsburgh earlier this month, then they need to find an external option. That comes with complications because of Toronto’s precarious salary-cap situation, but the alternative — doing nothing — could amount to something much worse.
It might end up costing them a playoff spot.


Here we are two months into the season and the Leafs have banked all of one point thanks to their No. 2 goaltender. They are one of two teams still searching for a win courtesy of the backup — Columbus has three loser points when Elvis Merzlikins plays — and with Hutchinson they’ve now had three games with a multi-goal lead turn into a loss.
He wasn’t horrible in Friday’s 6-4 defeat to the Buffalo Sabres, but he was outplayed by counterpart Linus Ullmark who stopped three breakaways at the other end of the ice. The Leafs simply needed one more save from Hutchinson — just as they did in his start at Chicago, his start at Washington and his start at home against Montreal on the first weekend of the season.
“I think there will be a lot of focus on Hutch, of course, but I mean there’s a lot more going on in the game than just that,” said head coach Sheldon Keefe.
“We haven’t been all-too-good for him all year,” said Auston Matthews. “You definitely feel for a guy like that, who comes in and gives it his all every game. We’ve just got to be better for him.”

Mike "the Sieve" Hutchinson

Hutchinson is not without blame even if turnovers and missed assignments gave the likes of Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner great scoring opportunities at Key Bank Center.

There are troubling patterns developing here.
He’s made 14 NHL starts dating back to last season and posted a save percentage above .900 in just two of those games.
Among goaltenders with at least five appearances this year, he’s 61st of 62 with an .876 save percentage — and Cory Schneider (.852), the only guy worse, was recently demoted to the American Hockey League by New Jersey

Hutchinson is doing his best to keep a brave face amid the struggles, but acknowledges that he’s never had a stretch of play as concerning as this one.
“It’s one of those things where you think in 10 years pro you’ve gone through pretty much everything and then hockey throws something new at you,” he said.

“You can choose to dwell on it and have it kind of take over your life and be negative or miserable about it, or you can take it as a learning experience,” he added. “Go over and watch the video, see where I can improve to get my game back on track and just be positive and move forward. If you dwell on it too much, it’s a long season. It’s only November still so there’s a long way to go.”
The Leafs had hoped that giving Hutchinson the first game in a back-to-back would bring more success. But after building a 2-0 lead on goals from captain John Tavares in a matinee start on Black Friday, the Sabres pumped four shots by him inside a 14-minute stretch.
It was the third time this season he’s given up that many goals in a period and you’re simply not going to win games when that happens.

“For myself, it wasn’t the cleanest game – I was battling hard trying to find pucks – but that’s one of those things where the more you play, you just feel more comfortable,” said Hutchinson.
His time with the Leafs already appeared to be over under former head coach Mike Babcock when he cleared waivers on Nov. 12 and was assigned to the AHL.
He got another crack at the job when Keefe replaced Babcock behind the bench and surveyed his players this week for their opinion on the 29-year-old journeyman.

“To a man, they felt that he deserved another opportunity,” said Keefe.
 Freddie Andersen will start when the Leafs and Sabres complete a home-and-home series on Saturday and there should already be concerns about his workload. He’s currently on pace for 68 games this regular season and there were internal conversations before their back-to-back set with Boston and Pittsburgh earlier this month about playing him on both nights.


That didn’t end up happening, but it underscores how urgent the organization feels its situation is.
The Leafs have another set of back-to-back games coming up next week and they’re going to need someone other than Andersen to start getting wins after a 12-11-4 start.


Assuming it’s not Hutchinson or Kaskisuo, they have basically $800,000 to spend on the backup position with a fully healthy roster. The best potential option under that number is Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry, but general manager Jim Rutherford will drive a hard bargain in trade talks.

In order to bring in a more expensive option, Toronto would have to remove salary from the roster to make the accounting work.
With that in mind, you can understand why they want to make it work with Hutchinson. He’s a popular teammate and a salary-cap fit. But his goals against in successive starts now reads five, four, four, five, five and five.

His record is 0-5-1.
“It’s disappointing,” said Tavares. “We know how much he cares, how much [work] he’s put in all year. The opportunities we gave up are some pretty good opportunities to some pretty good players.

 “We just weren’t as good as we can be with the puck.”

And they weren’t quite good enough between the pipes either.

The new big bang theory - Leafs style

Sheldon working his magic

One week ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs were putting the finishing touches on a six-game losing streak, their tumultuous 2019-20 season in a full-on spiral.
Seven days later, Sheldon Keefe’s entered the fray to reinvigorate the young club.

The six-game slide’s been swapped for three straight wins, with Keefe’s Leafs posting eight goals during that pair of W’s after managing just nine over the previous four games.

Though far from fully redeemed, it seems the club’s taken to Keefe’s myriad roster and tactical shake-ups, and looks hungry to go on a run up the standings.
That being the case, let’s take a quick look at who on the roster has benefitted most from the team’s coaching swap thus far.

Obviously. If there’s one player whose two-game stretch has best encapsulated the Maple Leafs’ shift in thinking under Keefe, it’s Barrie.
Stumbling through a brutal opening quarter of the season that saw him put up just seven points — zero of which were goals — over the first 23 games, the skilful defender now has a goal in each of Keefe’s games behind the bench, adding an assist during the club’s latest win as well.
Barrie’s sudden success can be linked pretty clearly to the changes that the coach has made.

First off, the directive to Leafs defenders to push deep into the offensive zone and help facilitate the cycle game has given Barrie a much-needed green light to make the type of dashes to the cage we used to see from him in Colorado.
His first goal for Toronto came as a direct result of that strategic shift, with Barrie catching the opposition off-guard and cutting to the net.

 Tyson Barrie
A few other changes have helped the 28-year-old rediscover his offensive game as well — most notably getting some shifts with No. 1 defender Morgan Rielly at 5-on-5, and earning that long-awaited promotion to the top power-play unit.
The last note is key, as it’s shfited Barrie into the role in which he’s best-suited to contribute in Toronto — the former Avalanche defender posted the third-most power-play points among all NHL blue-liners over the past two seasons, yet got little opportunity to contribute in that role under head coach Mike Babcock.


Ilya Mikheyev
It’s been a wild rookie campaign already for 25-year-old Ilya Mikheyev.
While the young soup lover found some success within Babcock’s system as well — posting 12 points through 23 games while averaging 15:43 minutes per night — he’s seen his role increase exponentially under Keefe. One of the new coach’s most intriguing early moves, in fact, was the decision to bump Mikheyev up to John Tavares’ left wing, shifting longtime left-side staple Zach Hyman to No. 91’s right side.

Mikheyev’s responded, posting two assists and leading the club in shots (with seven) over the past two games as his ice-time his risen from that 15:43 average to 18:57 under Keefe.
Though the top-six assignment appears to be temporary, given the Hyman-Tavares-Mitch Marner trio established itself as a fairly dominant one in 2018-19, looking at the current setup, it’s Hyman, not Mikheyev, who currently occupies Marner’s spot on Tavares’ right wing.

With the new coach pushing a more skilful brand of Leafs hockey, and Hyman long being seen as the poster boy for Babcock’s preferred blue-collar style of play, it’s not inconceivable that the rookie could stick on that line with Tavares and Marner once the $10.893-million man returns to the lineup.
Even if he doesn’t, for the time being Mikheyev’s getting as good an opportunity as any to showcase his potential.

 Jason Spezza
Spezza's struggles to establish himself during Babcock’s reign in Toronto are well-documented.
The 17-year NHL veteran made it into just 13 games over the Maple Leafs’ first 23 tilts, scratched 10 times by Babcock after coming to the club as a veteran on the roster’s fringe. Injuries to centremen Tavares and Alex Kerfoot bumped Spezza into the third-line pivot role, seemingly only as a stopgap until the younger options got healthy. But Keefe’s elected to keep him there even with Kerfoot’s return, shifting the former Avs forward to the wing.

The biggest strategic shift from Keefe that should benefit Spezza is the decision to move away from emphasizing breakneck speed at all times, with the club now opting for a more patient, measured approach.
As seen in both of Toronto’s games under the new bench boss, Keefe has encouraged his players to hold onto the puck, utilize their skill, and focus on possession rather than simply pushing a frenetic pace — all of which would seem to mesh better with what Spezza brings to the table at this point in his career.

Justin Holl
As is the case whenever an AHL coach is promoted to the big club, the hidden gems from the minor-league level are dusted off and pushed into bigger roles.
Keefe’s greatest advantage in taking over this Leafs squad is the number of players on the roster he’s worked with previously during their Marlies tenures. Holl could be one such player who could see his role increase given Keefe’s familiarity with him — the 27-year-old spent three seasons working under the coach at AHL Toronto, and was given little opportunity to become an everyday NHLer during Babcock’s Toronto tenure.

Through two games back with Keefe, however, Holl’s been eating up a significant number of blue-line shifts — he’s earned 25 shifts at 5-on-5 in each of the past two games, that total ranking as the second-most on the team in Game 1 with Keefe at the helm, and the most on the team in Game 2. In the last five games of Babcock’s tenure, Holl’s place among the top shift-getters on the roster each night read like so: fifth, third, 11th, fifth, and 14th.
All in all, the blue-liner has led the Leafs in shifts per game over this brief two-game stretch, getting plenty of ice alongside veteran defensive partner Jake Muzzin.

Pierre Engvall
Engvall is another prime candidate to see his role increase due to his former AHL coach getting a promotion to the bigs.

The 23-year-old spent the past two seasons with Keefe in Marlies colors, and had 16 points through 15 games for him this season before both were brought up to the NHL at nearly the same time.
He’s already impressing as he gets a shot on the fourth-line with the Maple Leafs, posting a goal in Keefe’s debut against the Coyotes and an assist on Toronto’s first goal of the game vs. the Avalanche.
More importantly, he’s being thrown into the mix by Keefe in key situations — the Ljungby, Sweden, native has earned an opportunity on the penalty kill, and was sent over the boards in the final minutes against Colorado as Toronto tried to hold off a tying goal.
 With a number of capable forwards fighting for ice-time and a consistent spot in the lineup, the faith Keefe is showing in Engvall’s defensive game should serve the young winger well.

Micheal Hutchinson
If anyone on the Marlies roster was in need of a second chance, it’s Hutchinson.

The embattled backup netminder earned six games with the big club this season, and came up with wins in exactly zero of them, posting an .879 save percentage and a 4.44 goals-against average along the way.
All in all, little was made clear about Hutchinson in 2019-20 other than his seeming inability to survive as the Maple Leafs’ backup this season.
Through a few appearances in the AHL, however, Hutchinson’s offered a glimmer of hope — he put up a .942 save percentage and a 1.95 goals-against average in three games with AHL Toronto, earning wins in all three.
With Keefe moving from the Coca-Cola Coliseum to Scotiabank Arena, Hutchinson’s been called up once again. When exactly he’ll get back in the Maple Leafs’ net is unclear, but getting another shot at all is benefit enough for the 29-year-old.

Sheldon sorts through ideas

 Well, it's a theory anyway.

Keefe Changes

Because it happens so often these days, Auston Matthews’ goal-scoring has come to feel almost normal. (He added his 16th goal in 25 games over the weekend in Colorado.)

It’s not.




In fact, it doesn’t seem hyperbolic to conclude Matthews is the most potent scorer to enter the NHL since Alex Ovechkin.

Keefe’s changes

It was striking to see just how much change Sheldon Keefe immediately imposed in taking over the Leafs last week.


What seems notable to me is how many of those decisions contrast with the way Mike Babcock did things over four and a half seasons in Toronto.

• Zach Hyman to RW: Hyman lined up almost exclusively at left wing under Babcock and almost always with either Matthews or John Tavares. He spent a mere 97 minutes over the three previous seasons with the Leafs’ other top centre, Nazem Kadri. (It was 1,800-plus minutes with Matthews and more than 900 with Tavares.) It may be a temporary thing until Mitch Marner returns from a high ankle sprain next month, but still, it was no Babcock move. For a trip down memory lane, recall that Hyman made his NHL debut at right wing on a line centered by William Nylander with Michael Grabner at left wing. The Leafs’ “top” line that night: Kadri, Leo Komarov and Nikita Soshnikov.
• Jason Spezza in the third centre spot with other options available: Babcock would have preferred to not play Spezza at all, and he did just that, scratching him 10 times before he was let go. He relented to having Spezza in the third centre hole only when he had no other choice and injuries to Tavares and Alex Kerfoot forced his hand. Keefe chose to put Spezza there with Kerfoot healthy. We shall see if that continues — Spezza played under nine minutes against the Avalanche, including only two shifts in the third period — but it was a striking shift in deployment.
• Kerfoot to left wing: There was some thought after the July 1 trade that sent Kerfoot and Tyson Barrie to Toronto for Kadri and Calle Rosen that Kerfoot might bounce around and play some on the wing as he did with the Avalanche. Aside from a period or two when Kerfoot landed on the Tavares line, Kerfoot was locked into the third-centre role under Babcock, who was a growing fan of the 25-year-old’s unexpected “grease.” Kerfoot has spent the first two games on the wing under Keefe, including some brief spins with Matthews.
• Nick Shore scratched: Babcock played around with the fourth line in the early going before settling on Shore, Frederik Gauthier and a rotating left wing. Shore had played in every game since Oct. 10 until he was scratched in Keefe’s debut for the more skilled Nic Petan. Then, in very non-Babcock fashion, Keefe went all sentimental, returning Shore to the lineup in Colorado. Why? Because Shore is from Denver and played at the University of Denver. Shore rewarded him with his second goal of the season.
• Barrie and Morgan Rielly: Babcock usually got the two together only when the Leafs were trailing late in games and needed a goal. Keefe has started them together on the opening shift in each of his first two games.
• Andreas Johnsson on the PK: The extent of Johnson's penalty-killing over his first 82 games: 7:29. Or nothing, essentially. Johnsson killed penalties under Keefe with the Marlies, though, and played 43 seconds on the unit in Keefe’s debut and another 27 seconds on Saturday. Babcock preferred to box most players onto either special teams unit; rare were those doing both. Keefe looks like he’ll be less constrictive. He’s used 11 players on the PK in his first two games, adding Johnsson, Travis Dermott and Pierre Engvall to the mix. Marner and Trevor Moore should join that bunch once they’re healthy.
• Barrie to the top PP: That one paid off right away, with Barrie popping his first power-play goal of the year on his very shift with the top unit. What’ll be interesting is how Keefe and assistant coach Paul McFarland assemble the two units once Marner returns. Do they simply return Nylander to the second unit in favour of Marner? Do they bounce Rielly instead? Will they jettison Barrie? One comment from Keefe after the 5-3 win in Colorado, in regards to calling a timeout to get the top power-play unit on the ice, seemed revealing. “In particular, with our team and the way it is, we have elite talent, so the more we can utilize them when their energy level is good, we’re going to do it,” he said. “We’re going to take advantage of that.”

There’s still so much to learn about Keefe, obviously. Obviously.

Other subjects of curiosity regarding the new Leafs coach include the goaltending decisions; will Frederik Andersen’s workload be reduced? Will ice-time for Matthews and Tavares, who logged a season-high 22:31 on Saturday, go up? How much mixing and matching will we see?
Will Marner automatically return to Tavares’ right wing once he’s healthy?

Will Spezza keep his spot once everyone is healthy? Why not?


Keefe appears to have already abandoned the idea of having Gauthier-led fourth lines line up for all the defensive zone draws. Matthews, who lined up for 10 defensive zone draws in Denver, has a 46 percent offensive-zone start percentage in two games under Keefe after humming around 70 percent in the first 23 games under Babcock.

Also noteworthy: Keefe trusting his old (but still young!) Marlies players at key spots. Take Engvall, who was on the ice with less than three minutes left Saturday with the Leafs protecting a one-goal lead. However it is always safe to teach a player responsibility.

 It was his third NHL game. It’s safe to say he wouldn’t have been out there if Babcock was still coaching.

Leafs shovel past Avalanche

Tyson Barrie said he wasn’t sure how he’d feel. Coming back to play in the only professional home he had ever known before a summer trade to the Maple Leafs, the Avalanche’s top-scoring defenceman of all time said he was expecting to feel something in his first game as a visitor at the Pepsi Center.

“I don’t know if I’ll get emotional or just be happy, or what,” said Barrie.

Without presuming too much, it’s safe to assume Barrie was over the moon about his Saturday night reunion with the franchise that drafted him. And the same goes for his road-tripping teammates on the Leafs, who beat the Avalanche 5-3 to register their second straight win since Sheldon Keefe replaced Mike Babcock as head coach Wednesday.

Hanging their heads through the six-game losing streak that ended Babcock’s tenure, they transformed themselves into a swaggering, smiling scoring machine on Saturday — albeit for approximately eight brilliant minutes of the first period, when they scored four goals and chased Philipp Grubauer, who was relieved by Pavel Francouz.

Typical avalanche

Beyond that flurry, there was plenty that wasn’t perfect — say, most of the final two periods. There was, at times, a lot that was reminiscent of the Babcock era, including long stretches with the Leafs hemmed in their end as the Avalanche threatened. The final 2:37 of regulation, with the Colorado goaltender out and the Leafs up 4-3 and gasping for air as the Avalanche piled on the pressure, was a bullet dodged. Zach Hyman’s empty-net goal at the buzzer punctuated the victory.

But Barrie’s best moment was a high point. He scored his second goal in as many games by using his promotion to Toronto’s first power-play unit remarkably efficiently. It took just 22 seconds into Toronto’s first-period man advantage for Barrie to one-time a puck past Philipp Grubauer. Toronto’s special teams haven’t shown that kind of authoritative oomph very often this season.

“I’m over there to be a shooter,” Barrie said before the game, speaking of his new position on the power play’s left flank. “We’ve got a lot of guys who have a lot of patience and move the puck well. So I’m going to try and be an option and take shots when they’re available.”

Barrie’s goal was one of a quartet of unanswered first-period markers. The visitors got down 1-0 after Frederik Andersen whiffed on a long Nathan MacKinnon shot 31 seconds into the proceedings. But after a sluggish start, the Leafs found steam. 

As for sustaining that steam, the Leafs were outshot 13-3 in the second period, when all the aggressive playmaking of the first period’s latter half gave away to a passive defensive shell. By the midpoint of the third period, with the Maple Leafs in full retreat, it was 4-3. 

But the Leafs hung on. 

And on a night when Barrie received a lengthy video tribute, after which the bulk of the crowd offered a short standing ovation, the Maple Leafs defenceman and the rest of his rejuvenated team left happy.

“Not that there’s any ill will with this team. But in front of all the familiar faces, it’s nice to get one,” Barrie said. “It’s been a great day. Kind of everything I could hope for.”

 Barrie wasn’t the only Leaf making a homecoming of sorts. Fourth-line winger Nick Shore, a healthy scratch in Thursday’s win in Arizona, replaced Nic Petan in the lineup because Keefe said it was important for Shore, a Denver native, to play in front of family and friends. Shore responded with Toronto’s first goal, banging in a great pass from Pierre Engvall.

Nazem Kadri, who assisted on two goals in his first game against his old team, hit a second-period post after a nifty bit of dangling set him free in front. Auston Matthews scored his second road goal in as many games, after having one in his previous 10. “Kind of an ugly one for us tonight,” he said. “But a really important two points.

Tyson gets hand shakes all round

 ” The Leafs didn’t register their first shot on goal until the game was more than six minutes old. Barrie said he heard from opponents over the years that Denver’s mile-high altitude can be “murder” on the visitors’ wind. It certainly took time for Toronto to find theirs. Toronto was outshot 29-12 in the final two periods. Keefe said the Leafs, four games into a road trip, “looked like a tired team out there.”

 But the coach said he was impressed with his team’s resilience. So was I . They hung on, and prevailed. Next stop Motown Wednesday night.

Let's hope they can bring their A game at game time.

I want to Be Leaf

Marner and his crew

If Mike Babcock said it once, he said it a thousand times.

“Play fast.”

During Babcock’s four-plus seasons as Maple Leafs coach it was one of the foundational mantras of the organization. And as much as it made sense to some outsiders — this was a team built on speed and skill, after all, so playing “fast” only seemed to follow — to many of the speediest and most skilled denizens of Toronto’s dressing room Babcock’s urgings to “play fast” were always met with misgivings. To those players, it was shorthand for a style that didn’t particularly suit the roster as built by general manager Kyle Dubas. “Play fast,” as interpreted by more than a few Leafs who matter, often led to a chip-and-chase grind game at which the team only occasionally excelled. “Play fast,” too often, was a slightly more sophisticated variation on “pucks in deep.” Which is why, under Babcock, puck retrieval was such a prized skill, and why a forechecking savant such as Zach Hyman was so cherished by the coach, who was fired on Wednesday.

But what’s becoming clear in the opening days of Sheldon Keefe’s tenure as head coach is that playing fast is a thing of the past. Don’t get it wrong. Speed and skill will still be the keystones of the operation. These guys certainly aren’t winning with hard-hitting heaviness. And the ability to retrieve loose pucks will still be a valued commodity, because hockey’s a game of unpredictable bounces that requires resilient adaptation to random situations. So Hyman, though he might not be the new coach’s very favourite player, isn’t going anywhere. 

Captain John

But the core principles being emphasized by Keefe, as the rookie coach held his first full practice at the University of Denver’s Joy Burns Arena in advance of Saturday’s game against the Avalanche, are clearly different than the ones incessantly pushed by Babcock. What’s the biggest discrepancy? Players are always reluctant to make comparisons so soon after a firing. But suffice it to say that if Babcock wanted the team to play fast, the post-Babcock Leafs are being encouraged to play with patience and control. Call it slow hockey with fast players, and fast thinkers.

On Friday, Keefe described the philosophy as “trying to be a little more purposeful” with the puck. Auston Matthews, the team’s leading scorer and forever a Babcock skeptic, said the newly installed concept amounts to “not rushing plays when we have the puck, especially in the neutral zone.

“It’s having more patience,” Matthews said. 

Kapanen looming

Which is not to say it’ll always be as seamless as it looked in Thursday’s 3-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes, wherein Toronto’s players clearly took pleasure in dancing on Babcock’s professional tombstone. To be fair to the Leafs who clearly found glee in Babcock’s ouster, four-plus years of any coach can be too much. As for four-plus years of Babcock’s repetitive shtick — “redneck authenticity” is what the two-time Olympic gold medallist once called it, as though it were a saleable product — nobody who works for the club will tell you Babcock’s act wasn’t at times tiresome. Mike Babcock, when he wasn’t betting on Mike Babcock, was about Mike Babcock. It’s entertaining until it’s not.

Which is not to say Keefe won’t soon experience more trying times than the honeymoon of a 1-0 NHL coaching record. And certainly they’ll face serious opposition on Saturday, when 10-year Maple Leaf Nazem Kadri takes a shot at exacting revenge for the summertime trade that sent him to Colorado against his will, a deal that brought Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot to Leafland.

“(Kadri is) kind of in your face, and I’m sure this is the game he’s had circled on his calendar for a long time,” Matthews said. “You always know what to expect when you go up against him.”

You know what to expect, or you don’t. On Friday, mind you, the Leafs were very much focused on what to expect from each other. One of the linchpins of Keefe’s system, after all, is five-man co-operation in every aspect of the game, from advancing up the ice to retreating through the middle on defence.

“Everyone has to be on the same page to support one another, especially through the neutral zone,” Matthews said. “I think everybody knows how hard it is to get through the neutral zone in the NHL.”

Auston awaiting the face off

If any Leaf knows how hard it is to get into an NHL lineup at age 36, it’s Jason Spezza. Scratched by Babcock on opening night, never mind that he’s a GTA guy who took less to sign with the Leafs, suddenly he finds himself a valued commodity in the Keefe era. If a play-fast, straight-line game doesn’t suit a guy who’s not as fleet as the average 20-something, Keefe’s new push to be purposeful and patient speaks to why Dubas signed Spezza in the summer.

“He has a skill set that fits the way that we want to play, so that I think sets him up for success,” Keefe said Friday.

If Dubas and Babcock never found “simpatico,” to use Dubas’s word, Spezza and Keefe seem like kindred spirits. Years ago they played against one another in the OHL during Keefe’s long-ago days as a wayward junior. Spezza joked on Friday that those years “will not be spoken about,” perhaps out of respect to a coach who is now Spezza’s lifeline to extending a career that, under Babcock, looked to have hit a dead end.

Playing Keefe’s style of game, Spezza said, “feels natural to me.” If Babcock wanted the team to dump the puck and chase, Keefe wants them to keep it and improvise, albeit with caveats and with purpose and with defensive responsibility always in mind. For a roster filled with expert practitioners of a lifetime of skill work, Keefe is speaking in what amounts to a love language. It’s a honeymoon, indeed.

Tyson Barrie

Said Tyson Barrie, the offensive-minded defenceman who was traded from Colorado in the summer: “It’s an exciting time to be a Leaf.”

Leafs prevail in Arizona

Tyson Barrie and rookie Pierre Engvall came through to help new Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe get a win in his NHL coaching debut.

Barrie scored his first goal of the season, Engvall got the first of his career and the Maple Leafs snapped a six-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.

"Pretty special night for a lot of guys here," said Toronto's Auston Matthews, who also scored back in his hometown. "And a big two points with everything that's been going on the past couple of weeks and the past 36 hours."

Frederik Andersen stopped 30 shots to help the Maple Leafs end an 0-5-1 skid one day after Keefe replaced the fired Mike Babcock.

"The guys went out and played with confidence," Keefe said. "We had to find our way through the first period. I thought we had really good energy on the bench."

Not everything was perfect in his first game behind the bench in the NHL, though.

"I was a little behind on making my line changes," said Keefe, who was in his fifth season as coach of the AHL's Toronto Marlies when he was promoted. "I'd like to speed that up a bit. But the players took care of me well there."

Some Maple Leafs players saw the coaching change as a chance for a new start.

"He came in with a really fresh attitude," Barrie said. "We know we weren't meeting expectations and we need to be better."

Vinnie Hinostraza scored with 17 seconds left for Arizona to spoil Andersen's shutout bid.  Darcy Keumper finished with 29 saves. The Coyotes had won four of their previous five games.

"Too many mistakes and we didn't really defend good enough," Arizona's Oliver Ekman-Larsson said..

Barrie got the scoring started with 46 seconds left in the first period, beating Kuemper under the right glove after coming down the right side from the point with open ice.

"I think I did a good job jumping in on the pass and that's what I'm accustomed to," Barrie said.

The Coyotes had trouble generating offense, as the Maple Leafs dominated the puck. Andersen was forced to make a glove save midway through the first on Carl Soderberg, and made a clean save of Jason Demers' shot on a break in the second off a feed from Phil Kessel

Engvall scored short-handed after breaking up a point-to-point pass and beating Kuemper under his left leg with his left-handed shot with 3:11 remaining in the second.

Matthews made it 3-0 as he skated far side and beat Kuemper between the legs 48 seconds into the third period.

"With everything that (Keefe) threw at us in a short period of time that he'd like to see I thought we executed that for the most part," Matthews said.

NOTES: Toronto had allowed the first goal in its previous seven games. ... The Maple Leafs hadn't led in regulation in its previous eight games, since a 3-1 win against Los Angeles on Nov. 5. They trailed 1-0 against Vegas two nights later before rallying to win 2-1 in overtime in their last victory before their skid. ... The Coyotes lost for just the fifth time in 19 games (14-4-1).

Sheldon Keefe gets his first NHL win as a head coach, and lets hope there are more wins ahead.

And thank you Mike, for all you have done for this franchise.

Babcock out

The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired head coach Mike Babcock and replaced him with Sheldon Keefe.
Babcock had a record of 9-10-4 in 2019-20 for the struggling Leafs, who are 0-5-1 in their last six games, including five straight losses in regulation.

Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan flew to Arizona on Wednesday to break the news to Babcock along with general manager Kyle Dubas. Shanahan said that he felt he should be present as he hired Babcock in the spring of 2015.
"It wasn't an easy conversation to have and it wasn't pleasant, days like today are not," Shanahan said in Scottsdale, Arizona. "But it was what we felt was important for the club. Once you realize there's something you should do, and have to do, then it's best to act on it."

 Toronto, two points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, fell 4-2 to the Golden Knights in Vegas on Tuesday night. Babcock's last win for the Leafs, on Nov. 7 against Vegas, was the 700th of his NHL career. He has a career record of 700-418-19 with Toronto, Detroit and Anaheim.
Hired as part of a massive rebuild, the 56-year-old Babcock went 173-133-45 in his four-plus seasons with Toronto. He joined the Maple Leafs with an impressive resume, having won the Stanley Cup with Detroit in 2008 and back-to-back Olympic gold medals with Canada in 2010 and 2014.
After signing the richest coaching contract in NHL history at US$50 million over eight years, Babcock got Toronto to the playoffs the last three seasons, but was unable to advance beyond the first round.
The 39-year-old Keefe, who has a long history with Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas, was in his fifth season as head coach of the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies. Keefe was 199-89-31 with the Marlies and helped secure the franchise's first Calder Cup championship in 2018.
"Our relationship has grown," Keefe said about Dubas in May. "He really opened my eyes to how much there is to learn and how to look at things a little bit differently."
Toronto's last four in-season coach firings — Pat Burns, Ron Wilson, Randy Carlyle and now Babcock — all took place with the team on the road.

The Maple Leafs are set to take on Coyotes on Thursday night. Shanahan, Dubas and Keefe were all scheduled to speak with the media Thursday morning.

Babcock's Leafs stumbled this season despite a star-studded forward group led by Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander, a defense corps headlined by Morgan Rielly, Tyson Barrie and Jake Muzzin, and goalie Frederik Andersen.
Toronto was unable to find traction after a summer of change that saw a number of Babcock's trusted veterans leave town as part of a salary cap crunch precipitated by big-money contract extensions handed to Matthews and Marner.
In fact, Toronto's Big 4 forwards chewed up nearly half of the $81.5-million cap, leaving Dubas to try and fill in the roster around the edges with young players and discount veterans.

"Our game is not really meeting our expectations," Shanahan said. "We're mistake-prone on defence, the attention to details aren't there, and even the explosive offence that our team was known for has been missing for a while now, so there's a lot of work for Sheldon to do and there's a lot of work for the players to do."
The young Leafs surprised many by making the playoffs in 2016-17 before falling to the Washington Capitals in six games. Babcock was unable to get Toronto past the Boston Bruins the last two springs, losing both series in seven games.
The 2019 series was especially frustrating given that the Leafs led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 with a chance to close things out at home in Game 6 before the Bruins fought back to win two straight.


While there's no questioning Babcock's track record, there seemed to be a disconnect between the coach and GM in terms of roster construction and style of play after Dubas took over the top job from Lou Lamoriello in May 2018.
Driving by data and analytics, Dubas focused on skill and speed — basically trying to win with four first lines — rather than the grinding type of player Babcock had previously preferred in his bottom-6 forward group.
Toronto's lack of attention to detail in the defensive zone the last two seasons and sub-par specialty teams were both troubling aspects Babcock was unable to rectify, even after changing assistant coaches this season.


Backup goalie was also a constant headache after the Leafs lost veteran Curtis McElhinney on waivers before the start of the 2018-19 campaign. Garret Sparks never gained Babcock's trust, while Michael Hutchinson secured just one point in five starts before getting demoted to the AHL.
Before the season, Dubas was asked about his relationship with Babcock, who was heavily criticized for his deployment of Matthews in Game 7 of Toronto's first-round playoff exit last spring.

"We talk a lot," Dubas said at the start of training camp. "We disagree, as any coach and GM do a lot. We agree on a lot of things and we work through it all. The key is, on areas that you disagree, that you respect one another and you work through all that."
"We communicate all the time," Babcock added in September. "We don't agree all the time. I've enjoyed it. We're excited about our opportunity."

Babcock also knew he'd be on the hot seat if things went sideways.
"I do, for sure," Babcock said. "The expectation each and every year should be greater than the previous year if you're going in the right direction."

So very sorry Mike, I know you were the right coach for this team, unfortunately the team was not the right one for you.

Okay Sheldon, you're up.

Leafs lost in the desert

The only thing missing for Marc-Andre Fleury was a magic wand.

Fleury made 31 saves for his 450th win, including an incredible diving stop late in the game, and the Vegas Golden Knights held off the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Tuesday night.

While his clutch save against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final with 1.2 seconds remaining might still be the biggest of his 16-year career, Fleury now has an argument for the most spectacular.

With the Golden Knights clinging to a 3-2 advantage and less than four minutes left, Ilya Mikheyev fired a shot that went off the crossbar and directly to Nic Petan, who was staring at a wide-open net and a chance to score his first goal of the season. But Petan's backhand from the bottom of the circle was thwarted as Fleury dove back to his left and with his body outstretched snatched the puck before it hit twine, sending 18,292 fans into a frenzy - even some wearing Maple Leafs jerseys.

"It was fun. A little lucky cause I didn't stop the first one; it was off the crossbar," said Fleury, who is three wins behind New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for sixth place on the career list. "It's good when you get those second opportunities to redeem yourself. As a goalie those are the saves that maybe make you feel like when you're a player and score a goal - the saves I love to play for."

Mark Stone, Cody Glass, Tomas Nosek and Cody Eakin scored for Vegas. But for the second consecutive game it was Fleury who kept the Golden Knights in it with outstanding stops, particularly when the Maple Leafs turned up the pressure in the third period.

With 14:59 left, Fleury denied William Nylander on the doorstep. Then with 11:21 remaining, he stymied Toronto captain John Tavares' first shot of the game, tipped the puck with the paddle of his stick to himself and snared it with his glove.

It was that kind of night for Fleury.

Moments later, with the heat still on, he robbed Nylander by sliding across the crease and stretching out his left pad at the right moment to prevent the puck from sneaking into the corner of the net.

Fleury, who shut out Calgary 6-0 on Sunday, became the seventh goaltender in NHL history to win 450 games.

"He's pretty incredible when he makes types of saves like that," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. "As a coach you come to expect that from him. He makes those saves. He's acrobatic. He never gives up on the puck."

Jason Spezza had a goal and an assist and Zach Hyman also scored for Toronto. Frederik Andersen, who has lost his last four starts, stopped 33 shots.

The struggling Maple Leafs have lost six in a row and are 0-5-1 since star winger Mitch Marner went down. Toronto dropped to 9-10-4 on the season and has just two regulation victories in its last 16 games.

"We had lots of chances. ... Bottom line is we've got to stick with it and just keep grinding," coach Mike Babcock said. "It's disappointing, but I'm always about the process and how hard guys play. We played way harder, so I thought that was good."

After Max Pacioretty's shot trickled through Anderson's pads into the crease, Glass was there to clean up for a man-advantage goal that gave Vegas a 1-0 lead midway through the second period.

Toronto tied it when Mikheyev entered the zone and dropped the puck off for Spezza, who fired it past Fleury early in the third.

Vegas answered immediately when Nosek made amends for missing an earlier breakaway when he stole the puck in the neutral zone, raced in on a breakaway, put a filthy deke on Andersen and backhanded the puck into the net to make it 2-1 just 42 seconds after Spezza's goal.

Stone extended the lead to 3-1 with a power-play drive from the right dot at 10:22. Hyman cut Vegas' lead to one with his first goal of the season at 12:47, but Eakin put the game away when he scored the 100th goal of his career into an empty net with 21 seconds left.

NOTES: After the Maple Leafs placed forward Trevor Moore on injured reserve, forward Pierre Engvall was called up Monday and made his NHL debut for Toronto. ... Pacioretty has at least one point in nine of his last 11 games, and Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt has six points in the last four games - including five assists in the past two. ... It's the first time Toronto has lost six straight under Babcock since doing it twice during the 2015-16 season.

A new low ?

Mike Babcock has been talking up the significance of the 20-game mark for a couple of weeks now.
“What you try to do is you try to get out in the first 20, and you gotta try to get yourself established — you know what you are,” he said earlier this month. “And you also want to be in a good position so you’re not under duress.”
Duress, that is, for the playoff race.
The Leafs coach likes the 20-game barometer because “it gives you a handle” on your team. “And you can go back and say last year’s Stanley Cup winner doesn’t apply,” Babcock explained Wednesday morning, referring to the St. Louis Blues, in the dumps at midseason before winning it all. “OK. But in 20 games, you usually got a pretty good handle on what you are. I think for us, this year, it’s a little bit different in the fact that we had so many changes (in the offseason), and so we’re still getting to know each other a little bit. But I still think we got a pretty good handle on our people. But it’s taken us our full 20, without any question about that.”
Twenty games into the season and the Maple Leafs are what? Lost? Disjointed? Underwhelming? Fragile? Falling short of expectations? All of the above?
After 20 games, a team with legitimate Stanley Cup expectations, a team with as much pure talent as just about any other team in the league, hasn’t felt that way all that often. Something has been a little off all year long.
Is there even a signature win so far? The kind of victory that screams dominance or encapsulates what this team is and/or can be? Arguably, the most complete performance of the season came on Oct. 7 in a one-goal loss to the reigning champs.
More often, the wins have felt kind of hollow, missing the meatiness you might expect from a team with John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Jake Muzzin, Tyson Barrie and Frederik Andersen on it. Is it a question of coaching?
The Leafs (9-7-4) are presently on a 90-point pace, which would’ve been well short of a playoff spot last year and falls well below the 100-point benchmark of the past two seasons. Their goal differential is an uninspiring +1. The Leafs were 14-6-0 at this point last season (a 115-point pace), with a goal differential (+19) that topped even the eventual Presidents’ Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning. That team ended up with a respectable 100 points.
The Leafs pumped out 105 points the year before that. Two back-to-back 100-point teams for the first time in franchise history. Three in a row seemed like a slam dunk.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Tavares said after a disappointing 5-4 loss to the Islanders on Wednesday night. “I think we obviously want to play a lot better, a lot more consistent. We gotta keep working to find a way.”

(Dennis Schneidler / USA Today)

The Leafs captain then brought up a fragility that’s emerged at times, including in Long Island. The Leafs played well for long chunks of the game — they limited chances, rolled around in the offensive zone and raced back from 2-0 deficit — but trailed most of the night and sank when Anthony Beauvillier potted the third New York goal. In what’s been a season-long struggle, the Leafs also got hammered on the special-teams front, giving up two power-play goals while coming up with nothing — not even a shot — on two power plays of their own.
“OK, so they score,” Muzzin said of the goal that put the Islanders back in front 3-2. “We can’t let that kill the will in here or give them momentum. Mistakes happen. Goals happen. We’re fine. We’re playing good hockey. Let’s just continue. Let’s not panic, you know? I think we’re getting better at it — we gotta continue with it.”
“At times, I think it feels like it goes against us, and that’s just the nature of it,” Tavares added on the subject. “Sometimes that’s the way hockey goes, the way the games go, and you gotta just mentally stick with it and keep playing and keep trying to find a way to turn the tide and consistently up your level, up your consistency and get things snowballing in the right direction. We’ve had that for points of the year, but we haven’t really been able to sustain it as long as we’d like.”
The Leafs sounded like a team that was searching — for answers, reassurance, hope?
The only Cup winner on the roster, Muzzin seemed frustrated, if also hopeful about the team’s prospects.
“I think we have confidence in this group, in the team, in the room,” he said. “We’re just having some weird lapses throughout the game, and it’s costing us. I think we just have to be sharper throughout a full 60, shift to shift, more focused, with better preparation, I think, and we’ll come out on top in these games.”
Weird lapses like not getting the puck up and out in the leadup to the second Beauvillier goal, the one that made it 3-2. Or Andreas Johnsson turning the puck over on a failed drop pass to Nylander ahead of the first New York marker.
Earlier this month, Babcock said his team needed to figure it out “what we are.”
“We gotta know what we hang our hat on,” he said.
Asked what that was, Babcock responded: “Nothing. We’re still trying to figure it out.”
He continued: “We gotta find a game that we can bottle, or that’s our formula, that we can say, ‘This is what we do,’ and do it every day. So when we say, ‘This is what we do,’ we know what we do.”
What that is isn’t clear.
Who are the Leafs supposed to be? They haven’t been blowing teams away offensively, ranking 10th in goals per 60 minutes, usually hitting more with one-off quick strikes. And they certainly haven’t established themselves as a stingy defensive product at the moment.
Muzzin said that whole identity question could be found in the start of the game at Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders didn’t get their third shot on goal until more than 14 minutes had elapsed. The problem? They scored on it and added one more late in the period on a power play. Still, there was a solid, simple game there for the Leafs.
Of that start, Muzzin said: “We were quick in the zone, managed the puck through the neutral zone, we got on the forecheck. We’re not the most physical team, but we’re quick and hard, and I think when we do that, we’re a very good hockey team. It’s doing it for 60, 65, whatever it may be, every shift. You take a shift off, you give good players opportunities to score, they’re going to do it. It’s a battle of will. It’s tough to explain, but who’s going to wear the other team down the most at the end of the day? Who’s not going to make as many mistakes? We cut those little mistakes out, I think we win a lot more hockey games.”
What kind of identity did Tavares think the Leafs should establish?
“I think we have four deep lines that can skate, can be strong on the puck, and then can make plays and be strong at the net and be able to come at you wave after wave,” he said. “Same goes with our D-core. And I think we want to defend quick — be able to close lanes, time and space and get our transition game going the other way. It all kinda funnels together. When one link in the chain isn’t there, everything else is affected.”

A few things shouldn’t be lost amid the underwhelming results.
For one thing, the Leafs have newness all over the place. New to the mix this season: Cody Ceci, Barrie, Ilya Mikheyev, Nick Shore, Alex Kerfoot, Dmytro Timashov and Jason Spezza. Rasmus Sandin and Kevin Gravel, too. That’s a lot of unfamiliar players and personalities to incorporate into the group, a lot of people trying to find their way in a new environment, with new coaches and teammates, a new organization, a new city, etc., all of them doing it at once.
All that newness has meant little continuity from last season.
All three defensive pairs are new. Rielly is adjusting to Ceci on the top pair. Muzzin is getting used to a struggling Barrie (one point in the last 17 games).
It’s the same story up front, where not one line really emerged intact from last season.
Nylander and Johnsson played with Matthews a bit last year, but not for any sustained period. The Leafs’ best unit of a year ago, meanwhile, hasn’t spent a day together so far this season, what with Zach Hyman missing the first 19 games recovering from offseason ACL surgery, Tavares missing seven games with a broken finger and Marner now sidelined with a high ankle sprain until early December. The third and fourth lines have been mixing and matching all season as Babcock has tried to plug holes and find short-term solutions.
“We still haven’t put our lines together yet,” he said before facing the Islanders.
Don’t forget the two new assistant coaches, either, Paul McFarland and Dave Hakstol, each bringing his own philosophy to the table. Under their watch, the Leafs have made changes to their power play and penalty kill.
Another factor in the early-season blues: The stars haven’t exactly been stars.
Matthews has been just fine, scoring at a 53-goal, 107-point pace, and Nylander has come around of late — now with 11 points in the last 11 games. Marner wasn’t right before he got hurt, though, even if the numbers (18 points in 18 games) were there. Tavares had one of his better games of the year against his former team on Wednesday night — one goal, one assist, 64 percent expected goals — but he’s not played at last year’s standard yet. Nor has Rielly, even if, again, the numbers are there (17 points).
Andersen had only an OK October and currently owns a .912 save percentage. And where would the Leafs be if they had competent play between the pipes on those nights Andersen didn’t play, when Michael Hutchinson stumbled?
It’s just been a bumpy start a lot of different ways.
Consider everything that’s happened:

• Marner misses the start of training camp in Newfoundland because of a contract dispute.
• Marner agrees to a six-year deal with the Leafs worth over $65 million, arrives in St. John’s the following afternoon.
• Babcock hints that Spezza might not have a solid roster spot.
• Matthews’ disorderly conduct charge from the offseason surfaces. Kyle Dubas says he learned about it on Twitter.
• Sandin, at 19, earns a job with the Leafs out of camp. Timashov also unexpectedly claws his way onto the team.
• Babcock scratches Spezza in the season opener.
• Tavares becomes captain, ending months of speculation.
• Leafs play their best game of the early season against the Blues but still lose. Yield seven goals three nights later in a thumping against Tampa.
• Sandin returns to the Toronto Marlies after averaging 12 minutes over six games with the Leafs.
• Tavares breaks his right index finger in Washington. Misses the next seven games.
• Leafs go 6-5-3 in October.
• Mikheyev surprises with 10 points in his first 13 NHL games.
• Alex Ovechkin creates a media firestorm when he says the Leafs need to play like a team, not individuals, to one day win a Stanley Cup. Babcock agrees with him.
• Barrie struggles in his transition to Toronto.
• Justin Holl solidifies a spot on defence, playing more games in October (12) than he did all of last season.
• Travis Dermott makes his season debut following offseason shoulder surgery.
• Marner suffers a high ankle sprain against the Flyers. Expects to miss a minimum of four weeks.
• Hutchinson loses his first five starts — all on the second night of back-to-backs. He’s waived a day after giving up five goals in a loss to Chicago.
• Leafs recall Kasimir Kaskisuo to back up Andersen.
• Hyman makes his season debut following offseason ACL surgery.

A lacklustre start like this doesn’t mean things can’t or won’t turn around. The Leafs are still close to a sure thing for the playoffs, a decent bet for 100 points (they need 78 over the final 62 games) and a candidate to compete for the Cup.

They just haven’t looked like it yet, and that merits some level of concern. For Babcock. For Dubas. For everyone in that dressing room. Right now, this team, with all that firepower, all that speed and skill, is sitting 20th in points percentage (.550) and clinging to the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
It’s not been good enough. Not yet, anyway.
“I think, human nature, you want everything to click and us to get rolling and playing well, and it doesn’t obviously always happen that way,” Tavares said.
Added Nylander: “I think we know where we can be. I feel like we’re getting better. The group is growing. So, I think we just gotta keep the pedal down, keep focused.”

All in all they look lousy so far, and Babcock's job is certainly on the line. I wouldn't want to be in Santa Claus' shoes if Mike Babcock sat on his lap and told Kris Kringle what he'd like for Christmas

After all, Micheal Hutchinson got a rock in his stocking.

Hutchison is in the dog house now

The Leafs generated 57 shots on goal. The Blackhawks generated 34. Toronto lost the game 5-4.

That tells most of the story in that Robin Lehner outplayed Michael Hutchinson — which probably doesn’t surprise anyone — but score effects did play a huge role in this game. Chicago got out to a 4-1 lead after the first period despite Toronto controlling the run of play.

Overall, this was a strong comeback performance from the Leafs despite their goaltender not getting them a save to start off the night, although you’d like to see more from the team’s depth.
As you’ll see from the grades, this really was a two-man show.

 William Nylander (RW, No. 88) — It was recently announced that Mitch Marner is going to miss at least four weeks with an ankle injury. This is consistent with everything I’ve been told by people much smarter than me in the medical field.

 Nylander’s been taking hold of that opportunity in these past two games. He’s been dominant at even strength, with that top line living in the offensive zone. He’s making creative plays in transition and nifty passes on offense, and most importantly, he looks engaged without the puck. The play he made before his second goal of the night is everything fans have wanted to see from him.


When Nylander is playing like this, he’s one of the best hockey players in the world. If he can continue to play with this kind of effort every night, I have a feeling he’s going to help change some minds on the value of his contract.

Auston Matthews (C, No. 34) — The game ball had to go to one of them tonight. I went with Nylander because of the two goals, but Matthews was just as dominant. He was stripping pucks in all three zones, generating tons of shots and carrying more of the load in transition. If I’ve had one complaint about Matthews’ offensive game over the past few years, it’s how deferential he’s been in transition, often relying on Nylander to carry the puck up the ice. This season, he’s done a much better job of putting that on himself and dictating more of the play offensively.
If he can keep up the defensive effort and continue to move the puck like this, that Matthews-Nylander line is going to dominate — like they did Sunday.


Andreas Johnsson (LW, No. 18) — I thought his linemates were more responsible for the line’s dominant performance, but Johnsson put in some work along the walls. I was worried I’d have to write about him whiffing on all the quality chances he was given in the slot, but he was able to bury one late in the game off of a quick pass from John Tavares on the power play.

John Tavares (C, No. 91) — This was a slow start for Tavares. I didn’t even notice him until he connected on that baseball swing in the second period, which served as a nice reminder of his ridiculous hand-eye coordination. From that point on, he was making some craftier plays up the ice and creating things offensively. He also picked up a couple of points on the power play — which is why I’m bumping him up to four stars — but I’d like to see him impact the game a bit better at five-on-five, especially to start the game.


The Dermott-Holl Pairing — This was a quiet but effective game from the pairing. They didn’t make any dynamic plays up the ice, but they were taking away space in the neutral zone, forcing dump-ins and making quick decisions with the puck under pressure. Those types of plays typically get things moving in the right direction, which is why I’m such a fan of the way Dermott and Holl play the game.
Tyson Barrie (RD, No. 94) — I wanted to get mad at Barrie for not converting on his Grade-A chance after jumping up in the play, but then I realized: Tyson Barrie jumped up in the play! Those are the kind of aggressive offensive plays we’ve been wanting to see from him this season. He obviously isn’t very good without the puck — he gave up way too many passes that went right through him in the defensive zone — but when he jumps up in the play, he can help make up for it with his talent. I still want to see more of it, but I have a feeling the coaching staff wants him to take fewer risks in his game, which I would argue is a mistake for an offensive talent like Barrie.
The Energizer Bunnies — I never like repeating the same thing in these report cards, so I’m going to group Trevor Moore, Ilya Mikheyev and Dmytro Timashov in this section. The latter isn’t quite as strong defensively, but I love how much hustle all three played with in this game. They finish every check in the offensive zone, hustle to take away space on the backcheck and actually have some underrated skill to make plays up the ice. It still drives me crazy when Mikheyev lets passes go through his legs in the offensive zone — it reminds me of Zach Hyman’s rookie season — but you can live with it when you’re getting this kind of effort from a complementary winger on a consistent basis.

Jake Muzzin (LD, No. 8) — He had a pretty rough start, losing an edge at four-on-four and taking an undisciplined penalty. Frankly, I don’t think he should be playing four-on-four — I’d prefer to see teams rely on their speedier defenceman like Morgan Rielly, Tyson Barrie, Dermott and Holl — but that’s another conversation for another day. Muzzin did turn it around, though, with some stellar defensive play. He’s been the best penalty killer on the team by far among blueliners, mainly thanks to his tight gap in the neutral zone and good stick defensively for taking away passing lanes.

There’s very little I enjoy more than a huge, clean hit like this. We don’t see them much anymore in the modern NHL, and when we do it tends to result in a fight, which I think is ridiculous, but good on Muzzin for standing up for himself. These are the kind of plays a lot of Leafs fans want to see more of from this team, and frankly, I can’t blame them.
⭐⭐
Alexander Kerfoot (C, No. 15) — He had a few shifty moments in this game, and he even skated end to end late in the third period to create a quality scoring chance. But he’s still hesitating in the middle of the ice when he has the puck. I love that he has the confidence to hold on to the puck and look for a backdoor pass — it’s a big part of the reason he’s such a great passer and puck-mover. The issue is that sometimes you need to shoot when you’re wide open in the slot, and Kerfoot doesn’t want to. I’d love to see him play a bit more selfishly. He actually has a surprisingly decent shot.
Frederik Gauthier (RW, No. 33) — This was an uneventful game for Gauthier. Shocker, I know. With that being said, he did have an excellent backcheck to prevent a two-on-one after Cody Ceci blew his coverage in the neutral zone. That’s why Gauthier’s in the lineup, and the inner coach in me understands that. With that being said, it’s still a tad frustrating to watch him offensively with the puck in open space — he can’t really do much with it.
Jason Spezza (RW, No. 19) — I’ve actually liked Spezza with the puck on his stick this season. He’s making crafty passes in the offensive zone despite the fact he can barely skate anymore. I still have no idea what he was doing defensively on Toronto’s third goal against, which is why Mike Babcock tends to get frustrated with Spezza. I get it, but I’d also still like to see Spezza put in more situations that benefit his offensive skill set. He still has some great hands and vision, which helps explain why the team has generated significantly more offense with him on the ice than a player like Nick Shore.
Coaching Staff — Let’s look at both sides of the argument here. On the one hand, it isn’t Babcock’s fault Hutchinson gave up four goals in the first period. On the other hand, the fact that the Leafs look way better when they play high-event hockey is indicative of the bigger problem with the team’s conservative style. Rielly and Barrie looked terrible until the team fell behind by three goals, which gave them the freedom to be more aggressive in transition, jump up in the rush and pinch offensively. Those two should be playing like that all the time. They’re never going to be great defensively at this point, so you might as well take advantage of the incredible things they can do offensively.
I also didn’t love Matthews and Nylander setting up on their strong sides off of faceoff wins on the power play — thought they looked much better with the one-time option — but they scored a nice goal later in the game from that formation, so maybe it isn’t a huge deal. Personally, I’d love to see Nylander let a few one-timers go from the left circle. Unlike Marner, he can actually rip it from there. I’d also like to see Barrie on the top power-play unit — Rielly’s weak-point shots aren’t scaring anyone — but again, I doubt we see any change there. Babcock’s stubbornness is extremely frustrating when it comes to stuff like this.
Michael Hutchinson (G, No. 30) — I completely hear the argument for Hutchinson playing well after giving up four goals. He did. The issue is that you can’t give up four goals in the first period; teams typically don’t come back from that. The Leafs were giving up far too many passes through the middle of the ice in this game, which doesn’t help your goaltender, but it doesn’t excuse Hutchinson’s poor rebound control, which has been a consistent problem all season.
I’m rooting for him to succeed, but unfortunately, I just don’t think he’s a quality NHL backup. It’s hard to find that for the league-minimum salary, but Toronto’s going to need to do a better job of it in the future. If Frederik Andersen goes down for any significant amount of time, the Leafs’ chances of making the playoffs fall off a cliff. That’s a problem.
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Kasperi Kapanen (RW, No. 24) — I didn’t notice Kapanen much in this game, which has been rare for him lately. I’m not sure if this is a lack-of-chemistry thing playing alongside Tavares or just a one-off, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on. He’s been playing excellent hockey since being switched back to his right wing, but maybe his skill set just doesn’t work in the top six? The next month should help get us a definitive answer.
Nick Shore (C, No. 26) —  We’re reaching the point where I never notice Shore. The Leafs will get slightly out-chanced with him on the ice, but nothing significant enough for the coaching staff to see it as a problem. Personally, I’d like to see a fourth line outplay its matchups on a more consistent basis.
Morgan Rielly (LD, No. 44) — He looked excellent offensively after the team fell behind 4-1, but his struggles defensively are a big part of the reason it happened. He willingly gives up way too much space defensively, which allows opposing forwards to get shots off that they shouldn’t, gain the zone when they should be forced into a dump-in, or get a pass through the middle of the ice when the play should’ve been killed five seconds earlier.
I love his offensive talent, especially when it’s unleashed in a high-event game like this, but Toronto isn’t always going to be playing from behind. Some of these defensive concerns are more noticeable now because his partner isn’t covering up for him — I think we might’ve underrated Ron Hainsey’s ability to do that over the past two seasons — but some of this still falls solely on Rielly. His one-on-one defence has been terrible this season. That isn’t his partner’s fault.
Cody Ceci (RD, No. 83) — This was a hard game to watch for Ceci fans. The poor guy keeps backing off in transition, which opens up tons of space through the middle of the ice for passes. I counted at least four times he allowed a pass through the middle of the slot, which just can’t happen as an NHL defender. As a side note: Are we sure he’s a good penalty killer? I don’t think he is; he doesn’t defend the entry well, isn’t taking away space when players come near him and is gifting opponents passes through the seam. That doesn’t sound like an ideal penalty killer to me.

The hottest topic heading into tonight’s game wasn’t about the Leafs. It wasn’t even a Jonathan Toews quote about what it takes to win multiple Stanley Cups — that would’ve been my best bet.
The topic du jour has been Don Cherry’s offensive comments on Saturday night’s episode of Coach’s Corner.
Whether or not the comments offended you frankly doesn’t matter; it’s clear that a large portion of hockey fans felt personally attacked. Cherry found a way to turn a positive topic — supporting fallen soldiers by buying a poppy — into a rant about immigrant families coming to Canada and not appreciating “our way of life.”
Now, I loved watching Coach’s Corner growing up. Cherry felt like my uncle who helped introduce me to the game, but he’s alienating a huge portion of the fan base with rhetoric like this. I’m glad Ron MacLean issued a heartfelt apology over the incident, but that isn’t enough. Cherry needs to be held responsible for his actions.
I’ll gladly “stick to sports” when we stop playing the national anthem before games, honouring the military at centre ice and spending our tax dollars on public arenas. Until then, sports and politics are going to be intertwined. When there’s a story this big, people are going to talk about it. In fact, this discussion we’re having is far more important than anything that happened on the ice Sunday night between the Leafs and Blackhawks — and I say that as someone who’s writing about hockey for a living.