“He’ll make them accountable”.
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New Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock’s practices are fast-paced and force players to think quickly as they would in a game. “I’m as excited as I’ve ever been to be a Toronto Maple Leaf”. And they feel like they can’t go anywhere and do anything. They’re going to know how to play.
“I was just outside and some guy slept in his auto with his kid so they can be the first ones in the rink”, said 24-year-old centre Peter Holland.
Who knows if any of this is going to work, but with Lamoriello and Mike Babcock at the helm, you have the sense that there’s a plan, a vision, a blueprint in place.
What Babcock has here, entering his first camp with the Leafs, is flexibility.
But it may be the Leafs who win in terms of securing value.
He also resisted predictions or promises of where the team was going in the short-term. It’s tough to name just one player I think will have an impact under Babcock. “And to me that’s what it’s about”.
“I was pretty pumped, I’m not going to lie”, Brown said on Sunday as the Leafs three-day training camp stint here came to an end. A simple question about the background of his assistant coaches, for example, stretched on and on, as he detailed his hiring process and each coach’s skill set at length.
“I might have to make it up on the weekend, but it’s worth it”, he said.
“I like the plays he makes”. It was the middle of November and there were probably some thoughts, at that point, that this team was not going to succeed. At only 21, it will take a few years for Rielly to morph into the prime superstar he is, but once that happens he will become the number one d-man, fan favorite, and everything else you expect from the face of an organization. He’s bullish on the Leafs log and he’s even bullish on the media, the witch’s chorus in so many Leafs dramas over the years.
Though substantially more talented, Babcock’s Detroit teams were consistent in their ability to control the puck. “Obviously there’s been more changes here than any other season (in the) past that I’ve been a part of”.
The Red Wings, by contrast, sat 11th, ninth and eighth in that same span.
“I don’t even know how old they are”, Babcock said. “You see a lot of teams that emulate their systems there and I think, having a chance to play for Mike, that’s what everybody’s excited for”.
If they decide Kadri is not the player they want him to be, they will get a strong return for him.
Their situation at right wing alone now that Phil Kessel is gone means any one of Grabner, Joffrey Lupul, Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, Brad Boyes or Richard Panik could theoretically get time on the top line, whatever it may be. That was when he was at his best and was consistently scoring. The math didn’t add up so well in a similar attempt with the Leafs. “And they’re not as proud as they should be”, said Babcock.
“Moving past the past is a good feeling, we’re going to leave previous year in the rear view mirror”. The Leafs are still likely to be among the worst teams in the conference. It’s impressive in today’s National Hockey League to average 25 goals over three seasons.
He said he’s in favour of starting training camp in a different location every year, as long as there’s a good facility with at least two ice pads. Let’s say hypothetically that captaincy position is vacated for whatever reason.
Babcock made his legend in a dreamy idyll in, pointing to Pavel Datsyuk in times of need; relying on Nick Lidstrom or Nik Kronwall when things got tense.
Murray believes the Ducks would have won multiple Stanley Cups had he and Babcock both remained in Anaheim through the 2004-05 lockout. And that’s what you’re trying to find out.
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“I think he’s got great intentions”, Babcock said Thursday at the MasterCard Centre, where the Leafs held the first day of training camp with off-ice medicals and fitness testing.
