Last week, the Toronto Maple Leafs had a 6-1-0 record and were determined by the online gambling website Bodog to have the best odds of winning the Stanley Cup.
After consecutive home defeats to the Hurricanes and Flyers, the offensively dynamic club has been given a dose of reality that they cannot outscore their defensive miscues and have to play a more complete game to earn victories going forward.
“Things were easy for us early," Leafs coach Mike Babcock said following Saturday's 4-2 loss to the Flyers. "You've got to find a way to win games. We've got to dig in. I think a little reality therapy is probably set in for us – everything was great and everyone was telling us how great we were. We probably weren't as great as we felt at that time and right now we're probably not as bad as we feel at this time.”
Toronto is now a solid 7-4-0 (3rd in the Atlantic Division behind Tampa Bay and Ottawa) and is tied with the Lightning for the league-lead in scoring with 45 goals. However, the Leafs allowed 40 goals in the first 11 games (26th in the league). When the club is held to three goals or less, they are just 2-4; a 2-0 shutout victory in Washington on October 17 and a 3-2 win over the LA Kings last Monday.
“I don't think we're going to find ourselves in these 7-5 games. It's going to be tighter and tighter, teams' structure is going to get tighter and tighter. We've got to make sure ours does too.” Leafs center Auston Matthews said Saturday. “There's going to be these little slips during the season, but we believe in ourselves, we believe we're a good team and we want to make sure we limit those as little as possible.”
Babcock has shown more willingness to make changes with his young club if he does not get the performance he wants out of them, unlike last season when he mostly stayed with the same line combinations and defensive pairings.
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For example, after an extended audition for rookie Calle Rosen and fellow blueliner Connor Carrick, the Leafs re-signed veteran Roman Polak to solidify the bottom defensive pairing.
Unhappy with the effort of winger Mitch Marner, the Leafs head coach demoted the 20-year-old to the fourth line with Matt Martin and Dominic Moore. Not pleased with the club’s overall effort in home losses to the Canes and Flyers, Babcock shook up all of his forward lines except the top unit of Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews and William Nylander, shifted veteran Patrick Marleau to center, moved a struggling Tyler Bozak down in the lineup and moving up winger Josh Leivo in his first start of the season.
“The biggest thing when it goes bad is confidence. We've got to help them find their confidence (and) we've got to dig in.” Babcock said. “The first thing is you come to work every day and then you've got a way better chance of finding your confidence. That's an area we've got to get fixed. I've got to figure out what to do. That's the beauty of the game tape and a deep breath. I'll take a look at it.”
The Leafs hope to get things in order as they embark on a four-game road trip this week, highlighted by Patrick Marleau’s return to San Jose on Monday.