Toronto Maple Leafs: Constant Line Juggling Doing Damage

Line juggling is starting to cost the Toronto Maple Leafs points.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost three of their past four games. A major reason behind the struggles has been the coach juggling his lines far too often. Mike Babcock can’t seem to find any line combinations he likes. Over the past week, he has been relentlessly switching players on different lines. To make matters worse, when Babcock switches his lines, he never allows for enough time for chemistry to develop before switching them again.

It’s hard for players who have never played together before to magically discover exactly how their new line mates play. Sometimes it can take multiple games to truly work out all the kinks. However, Babcock seems to have a hard time allowing his players half a period before throwing names into a blender and seeing what comes out.

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Since Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner made the Maple Leafs, many have wondered what the pair would look like on the same line. Babcock had refused playing the two together, instead preferring a more balanced approach by separating them on their own lines.

At the start of last week, the coach finally put Matthews and Marner together. Only if someone blinked, they likely missed it. The combination hardly survived a game before William Nylander was back with Matthews and Zach Hyman on the top line.

Fast forward to Toronto’s recent 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday and Nylander was replaced by Connor Brown after the first period.

Babcock has one of the best players in the game in Matthews and refuses to find him a permanent right winger. It is one thing to punish a player who is struggling. However, it is an entirely different approach to constantly juggle who Matthews is playing with simply because the coach didn’t like a single period of play. A team’s best player shouldn’t see three different right wingers in three different games.

The constant juggling hasn’t just impacted Matthews. Josh Leivo scored his first goal of the season in only his sixth game but was then scratched the following game. Far too often has the young forward been left to sit in the press box while veteran players are given opportunity after opportunity even when outplayed by him. It’s been a puzzling move by the coach, as Leivo is only 24-years-old and needs the playing time to evolve as a player.

Questionable decisions haven’t just been at forward. Defenseman Roman Polak seems to be the closest thing to a teacher’s pet possible in the NHL. He has looked slow and two-steps behind on defense in every game he’s played. Which is understandable considering Polak’s coming off a horrific leg injury that ended his season a year ago. However, the coach is clearly showing favoritism towards Polak by continuing to play him despite his struggles while players who are performing much better seem to be punished for far lesser mistakes.

For the Maple Leafs to succeed they need more stable line combinations. Combinations should be switched up from time to time to help ignite offensive potential but those combinations also need time to grow. The coach can’t put players who have never played together before on a line and expect instant success then switch the entire line when it doesn’t happen.

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Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, constant switching with minimal results is exactly what has been happening. It’s time Babcock sets his lines and allows for chemistry to grow. It’s also time Babcock accepts his over-coaching has been hurting the team.

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