WordsOfWisdom

YOU'RE BACK!!!!!!

It's that time of year (and that position in the standings) where Leafs management, fans, and media need to stop dreaming about this season and start thinking about what needs to be changed on this team for it to return to the playoffs next season. If you were the Leafs GM Dubas (put on a pair of frames with no glass to pretend), what moves would you make to improve this Leafs team? Trade a few of Toronto's big name forwards for 1st round draft picks? (Mini-rebuild) Player for player trade to upgrade the defence? (Would mean giving up a player like Matthews, Tavares, Marner, or Nylander.) Stay the course and run the Leafs into 9th place in the East and the worst possible draft position? The issue I have is that even if the Leafs made the playoffs this season (by some fluke / weak Atlantic division / whatever) they're not a Stanley Cup team anyway. This is a broken team. First round fodder for one of the other teams to quickly dispatch. So what's the point of getting there just to be trounced in the opening round? Isn't the goal to win the Cup? I think if you're going to lose, you might as well get something out of it. The Leafs could dump a few forwards for draft picks, finish near the bottom, collect another good draft pick in the lottery, and then bounce back very quickly next season with the beginnings of a new core group.

Maybe he figured it would take the Av's longer to score on a breakaway than it would on the Leafs "penalty kill".

I think it was just the optics of it more than anything. It looked as though he dodged out of the way of the Av's player to allow him to go by lol. Sometimes you just need to run a little interference, especially if it means preventing a breakaway.

This might be some of the worse defence I've ever seen. Check out the video at 6:41: Spezza actually twirls out of the way of the Av's forward and costs the Leafs this game.

My issue with Babcock is that he put Marner (a rookie at the time, but it doesn't matter) in a no-win situation. He basically created an environment where one player was being asked to turn on his own teammates like a rat. So, in this instance, I agree 100% that Babcock was in the wrong. That's just terrible coaching. Playing mind games and trying to screw over your own players (the Mike Modano 1499 games played thing being another example) is something that should get him exiled from the league. However, what I'm talking about is just basic yelling at the players. ie: "Move your ass", "That was f'n terrible", etc..... That needs to be okay given the nature of sports in my opinion.

Is he "the" Ron Jeremy? (I didn't want to ask him in case it annoyed him or anything.) The only celebrity I've ever met or talked to was David Hasselhoff at the grand opening of Toys R Us when I was like 6 years old and he was there signing autographs.

What kind of abortion was that at the finish? The Leafs had so many chances to bury the Flyers in the first period and it was a close game right up until the end. Flyers set an NHL record for most goals scored AFTER an empty net goal. (Or so I'm guessing.)

Agreed. When I had to listen to an NHL analyst during the intermission talk about "creating a safe work environment" for players (by not having coaches yell at them) I knew the league had gone full on puss mode lol. I mean, can you imagine a coach not being able to yell at the players because it might hurt their feelings? OMG.

I don't miss the trap, but I do miss the hitting. Don Cherry was right when he said that the league was going to legislate hitting out of the game. I thought he was nuts and just being a neanderthal about the league clamping down on fighting, but he was right: hitting is all but gone from the league now. It's a completely different game than it was just 20 years ago. The league will tell you the players are faster and more exciting, but they're basically "soccer" players now. It's a no-touch game. Anyone can skate fast if there are no repercussions to doing so. Nobody checking you and nobody hitting you. I'm surprised the league hasn't passed a rule that the defencemen must spread apart and allow forwards a clean breakaway to the net lol. When I remember those playoff games from the early 2000's, I remember a tough, physical game where you still had the skill, but you also had the big hits and the intensity. I just don't see that any more. The players today are soft.

I can remember when a Leafs vs Flyers game usually meant a bench clearing brawl, crazy amounts of hitting, etc... I remember Domi spraying the fan who fell into the penalty box, etc... Good times.

A much needed rebound because the team was under-performing with Babcock. Now they're playing more like what they are... which is a playoff bubble team that may/may not make the playoffs. If they do make the playoffs, it will no doubt be thanks to the incredibly weak Atlantic division, and I don't envision anyone from the Atlantic division (other than the Bruins) making any noise next spring. The Flyers and Leafs are equally matched I think.

I'm sure they hate you too.

Normally this Leafs team would be dead and buried by now with their performance in October and November. Giving up 3 points to the Sabres recently while capturing only 2, another example of losing ground to a division rival...... but look at this: Despite the Leafs being stuck in neutral, and on an 82 point pace, the Atlantic division is SO BAD that the Habs have lost 8 straight, the Red Wings are at 9 straight losses, and even the Lightning have lost 3 in a row now. Nobody wants this division other than the Bruins it seems, who are on cruise control to a division title. Seeing the Leafs in third place again is baffling. If this were any other division, the Leafs would be gonzo.

I listened to Detroit's commentator for the game against the Leafs and it sounded like he was ready to give up on life lol.

I guess it just goes to show my hunch that the players quit on him. Based on what I'm hearing, he probably created the most toxic locker room in the NHL. No wonder this team has been underachieving. I'm sure there will be additional fallout from Babcock's "mind games" that probably force other trades to happen as well.

If it were up to me, Babcock would never get another coaching job in the NHL. He should be black listed from the league.

Wow. That's the first of heard of that. I'd say that's probably one of the worst coaching decisions in history.

A couple nice victories by Toronto against the Coyotes and the Avalanche, although the Avs really dominated the second half of that game. While many of the defensive miscues are still happening, the effort seems to be there and the group looks more energized after the coaching change. Some huge games coming up against Detroit and Buffalo (twice) that are must win games for Toronto if they want to get back in the playoff picture in the East, although I still think a big trade is coming (probably involving Nylander or Tavares) to fetch another defender. Unfortunately, when you play .500 hockey and then go on a 6-game losing streak, you have no margin for error when it comes to getting back to where you were -- which was a precarious position at best. The upcoming games against Buffalo, not so much Detroit, need to be regulation wins for Toronto. I guess it's a question of whether or not Leafs management feel this group is one coaching change (done) and maybe one big trade (coming soon?) away from being a legit Cup contender or whether this is the "step back" season that I predicted it would be, where the team needs to re-evaluate what they have, get back to the draft, and continue to develop new stars because maybe the "core group" just isn't quite the right core group yet. If you can't trade for the missing pieces, you need to develop them yourself.

I don't have anything against the guy personally. The bottom line is that the team wasn't playing well on his watch and hadn't been playing well since FEBRUARY of the previous season. Whether his strategies no longer work, or the players tuned him out, he wasn't getting the team to play as a team. All of the metrics for how coaches are evaluated were a fail.

I'm not going to do this (because my photo editing stuff sometimes gets me in trouble hehe)..... but you put the Rogers/SportsNet/Leafs logo and blue colored media background in there, put a PhotoShopped cap on the head, stick a plastic water bottle in there somewhere... and that's MIKE BABCOCK!!!!! The image is perfect! You nailed it.

Alright, we'll drop Bruce Boudreau.

I'd be happy to see Dubas get fired next. I think he's in way over his head. He needs to go back to school, learn what makes a good hockey team, put some glass in the frames he's wearing, and come back to the NHL at a later date. Every trade Dubas has made thus far is questionable. He strikes me as one of those guys who is only looking at "advanced" stats and isn't looking at any of hockey's most obvious and prized traditional stats when evaluating players. Take Tyson Barrie for instance. I would have never acquired a guy like him when my team already has Morgan Rielly and needs to have a DEFENSIVE defenceman. He went out and traded for something he already has in abundance. Makes no sense. Also, Cody Ceci was plucked from the last place Ottawa Senators and was ~ -24 last season. Why would we be picking defencemen off the 31st best team defensively? Doesn't make any sense. That's dumpster diving. We'll see how that one pans out but neither of these guys are what Toronto needs on their blue line.

In 23 games, he's now at 0 goals, 7 assists, and -11. How low can it go? Will he break his record in Colorado of -35 (or whatever it was)?