Toronto’s Babcock makes first National Hockey League coach’s challenge

Babcock’s positive impact on the Maple Leafs’ style of play was evident in Wednesday’s season opener, even though it was a 3-1 loss to Montreal.

“We’re not going to lose games 6-1 and [blow out] games like that”.

While that’s a harsh criticism of the team assembled by Marc Bergevin and the product iced by Michel Therrien, it’s also a massive complement for last season’s Vezina and Hart Trophy-winner, goaltender Carey Price.

Make no mistake, they had plenty of looks on this night. What expectations do you have for the Toronto Maple Leafs this year? I was impressed with his work ethic and puck handling skills overall. Another plus, he was physical and involved in the play. Canucks goalie Ryan Miller made 29 saves. Desharnais’ ideal pass to Dale Weise should have had the Canadiens up 2-0.

After landing with the Sharks via a pair of offseason trades, Jones won his regular-season debut against his former club.

What should be encouraging for Leafs’ fans is the fact that young defencemen are getting their chance to impress with Rielly and Gardiner earning the trust of Babcock. It feels like they were given the green light to jump up into the rush and generally play to their strengths. “We all know it will take time and patience, but we’re three impatient people”. I know it’s the first game back, but didn’t look like a number one goalie. Subban continues to prove that he is a superstar, on and off the ice. We need better from him, or the Habs may want to try Greg Pateryn in his place.

The Leafs have the same goal. Torrey Mitchell lost the faceoff and the Canadiens were not able to pressure the Leafs. The penalty killing units consisted of Plekanec/Pacioretty/Markov/Subban and Mitchell/Smith-Pelly/Emelin/Petry. However, even if he is not 100% Pacioretty is still the best scorer on the team. The referees agreed and waived off the goal. Him not being exhausted by the middle of the 3rd period allows him to be much more of a factor in late game scenarios. This will be the first game of the season in the National Hockey League.

“This is something new for everyone, and we’re going to learn through the course of the season”, Therrien said after the morning skate. It was fast-paced but we were used to it. Here, things are going quick and Mike is trying to do stuff, he doesn’t go to the board as much; he’s going on the fly and he wants you to think as you go.

But with the Jays emerging as perhaps the story in baseball this year and the Leafs in the early stages of a deconstruction and subsequent build, attention has been turned over entirely. Tonight will be a ideal opportunity for them to do so against a Maple Leafs defense and goaltender that is sorely lacking in talent. But he does it every night.

“Much tougher to play against”. Emelin was physical at times but noticeably slower compared to his partner Petry.

They manage that, and they should hang in more games than a year ago. It’s just the first game but Beaulieu needs to be playing closer to 16-18 minutes a game.

“I think things are positive: I like our group and I like what we’re doing”.

– Alex Semin dipped his toes in the water last night. “It seemed like it was the right call from what I saw”. The 21-year-old Galchenyuk has shown improvement over his three seasons in Montreal and last season set career highs in goals (20), assists (26) and points (46).