The Toronto Maple Leafs and head coach Mike Babcock have too much talent to be performing this poorly. A change behind the bench is necessary if they want to snap out of their slump.
Toronto Maple Leafs bench boss Mike Babcock was once the consensus number one head coach in the NHL. However, that title has faded away from him with each passing year. That’s because a Babcock-coached team hasn’t won a playoff series since 2013 when he was with the Detroit Red Wings.
He deserves credit for taking a last-place Toronto team from 2015-16 to the playoffs in each of the last three years, no doubt. But the Maple Leafs aren’t here to simply qualify for the postseason. Their window to compete for Stanley Cups opened up last year, and right now, Babcock isn’t showing the necessary leadership to get Toronto to the next level.
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Yes, John Tavares has been sidelined with a finger injury. Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews aren’t performing at their usual levels. The goaltending has been brutal so far, but it can only get better from here.
Still, there aren’t any excuses for the Maple Leafs to be a mere 6-5-3 on the season with 49 goals against. It’s on Babcock to find a way to make things work without Tavares, and he hasn’t been able to do that.
The line combinations aren’t working. The defense already looks a lot worse than last year, even though they added top-pairing blueliner Tyson Barrie in an offseason trade with the Colorado Avalanche.
Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy has managed to get the most out of a roster that simply isn’t as star-studded or skilled as Toronto’s. Boston is atop the Atlantic Division, and they eliminated Babcock’s Leafs in each of the past two postseasons.
Babcock has made plenty of questionable coaching decisions, such as giving Matthews inexcusably short ice time in Game 7 against the Bruins last year. His handling of the goaltending for Toronto’s back-to-backs in October was a disaster, too.
You might ask, who will the Maple Leafs hire instead of Babcock? Well, Mike Sullivan wasn’t exactly a household name when he replaced Mike Johnston as the Pittsburgh Penguins head coach during the 2015-16 season. And all Pittsburgh did was win back-to-back Cups under Sullivan.
Craig Berube also wasn’t the biggest name in the coaching industry when he replaced Mike Yeo last season, leading the St. Louis Blues to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
The moral here? Sometimes, a team just needs a fresh voice and new leadership. When the same coach runs the same message and the same system time and time again, it takes a toll on the players.
The Maple Leafs simply need to stop wasting time and fire Babcock. Thank him for his services, pay out the remainder of his contract and move on. At this point, a change behind the bench is what Toronto needs most if they want to emerge as a true Stanley Cup contender.