Calder: Not in defence of Mike Babcock
This should be fun, James Mirtle is a writer for the Athletic, a wonderful subscription sports site with lots of great writers. I am going to be honest, Mirtle is the reason I first subscribed and he’s still my favourite there. So no disrespect James if you’re reading this.
This article is a counter argument to Mirtle’s defence of Mike Babcock (The Athletic is not free, so you may not be able to read this, but if you’re a sports fan… subscribe, it’s worth it). Disclaimer the subscribe link is a referral link you get 40% off and I get a $25 Amazon credit if you use it.
We’re 13 games into the season, and that is very early, perhaps too early, into a season to be questioning whether or not to fire a coach. Especially a coach with the pedigree (and matching salary) of Babcock. A coach that made a last place team actually play decently, they were in a lot of those games they just couldn’t score, and took them to the playoffs the next year and every year since.
Let’s look at the first points in the article (I will not be pasting any text here, pay for the subscription)
A brutal schedule, while this is very true, the issue with that brutal schedule has been (as always) with player, and specifically goaltender, deployment. Babs believes in playing his starter in the first of back to backs, regardless of opponent. Many people, myself included, feel this is a flawed strategy and so far has notworked out once this year, a 6–5 SO loss vs Montreal following a 4–1 win over Columbus Oct 4–5. Oct 15–16 they played Andersen vs the weaker Wild, Hutch against the stronger Caps, losing to the caps. Oct 21–22 he played Andersen against the weaker Blue Jackets, and Hutch vs the stronger Bruins (a divisional rival making it worse) and losing both albeit the fist game in OT, and finally played Andersen against the weaker Sharks, and Hutch against the stronger Canadiens (another divisional rival).
Out of a possible 16 points the Leafs managed 9. Every single second game was a loss gaining 1 point in that Montreal game. One out of a possible 8. Every time the stronger opponent, and TWICE the divisional rival, in the second game.
Inconsistent goaltending, while this is a fair point, see above. When your starter and backup are not comparable goaltenders you do not give your backup the harder opposition.
Injuries, again a fair point, this is something out of Babcock’s control and is certainly a contributing factor.
Dumb Penalties while again a fair point, the fact that calling his players out does not appear to be working makes me question if some of them aren’t tuning him out. I have no facts on this but it does make you wonder
Their offensive stars have struggled defensively, this isn’t new. And unlike James I don’t think this lies as much with the players as many do. The Leafs have struggled with this for as long as Babcock has been coach. I do not believe for one second that 5 years of at least one forward blowing the defensive zone looking for a stretch pass the second he Leafs even look like they’ll gain possession isn’t being taught. This is a coaching thing, he can talk responsibility to the media all he wants but these are his systems that are failing.
As to the long standing criticisms that he’s fixing. The long bomb passes are still there, albeit somewhat less now than before, but again see above. The defensive zone bolting still happens regularly.
The reliance on slow players who are poor puck movers is not Babcock improving, it is Dubas taking his toys away. Other than Marancin which slow moving players that aren’t good puck movers does he have left?
Justin Holl getting a chance is out of necessity, not choice. Short of Gravel who is the option? And Holl has actually been good, Babcock isn’t high on my list of favourites, but the man isn’t stupid.
Marner and Matthews have never had good chemistry in my opinion. Splitting Nylander and Matthews was, at least in my opinion, not an improvement.
Let’s tackle not starting on time. These players are young. Many people argue “it’s their job they shouldn’t need motivation” but at the end of the day anyone that says they’ve never been motivated by an employer to do better is either lying or has never had an employer. It is literally his job to get his team up for games. Is it a hard job? Yes. But you generally don’t get paid $6.25 million dollars US to do easy jobs.
Another thing he hasn’t improved on is his favouritism. Marner has struggled this year, I don’t think many would disagree, but he still somehow gets ice time over Nylander in situations that no one but Babcock seems to understand. In situations that have cost us games, now of course we can’t know if that decision mattered, but when one is playing significantly better in a specific game, you don’t pick the other with a minute to go down one.
Babcock did a lot for this team, I firmly believe that. But I do believe the time has come to move on. I still wonder where we’d be if the Leafs had held on and hired Gallant instead.
This isn’t about the Leafs performance over just 13 games, it’s a bit disingenuous to frame it that way honestly. This is about doing the same thing over and over for years and getting the same results. This is about our GM having to not give him the Komarov and Polak options so he’ll stop playing the “gud pros” in important situations their skillsets don’t fit (I still cringe at how often Komarov and Kadri started overtime a couple years back).
Babcock is a highly decorated coach, but those accomplishments came quite some time ago, with stacked veteran teams. I personally feel we’ve cut him enough slack for that.
Are the Leafs doomed? Are they going to miss the playoffs? No, it’s way too early to be concerned about those things, and I do believe all the things James mentioned in that regard are true, they’ll pull out of this.
Is Babcock the coach to take us to that next level? I am pretty sure the answer to that is no, and the sooner the Leafs come to the same conclusion the better in my opinion.
