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The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to their young group to rise to the occasion over the next 18 games, but head coach Mike Babcock is also looking for veterans such as Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk to step it up down the stretch.
“(Bozak and van Riemsdyk) got wounded twice this year. Once with the Islanders (they were each -4 in Brooklyn on October 30) and the other night, they got touched up good.” Babcock said after practice on Monday. “We gave (the Ducks) three goals, two of them were defensive mistakes and the other was a turnover. The bottom line is you can’t outscore your mistakes in this league.”
The pair have combined for two goals since February 6 (both from Bozak) and were on the ice (along with linemate Mitch Marner) for four goals in the 5-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.
Winger Leo Komarov has just two goals in his past 22 games, Morgan Rielly has not scored in his last seven games and has a club-worst -21 plus/minus, due mostly to being matched against the opposition’s top line.
Jake Gardiner leads Toronto blueliners with 32 points and the club in plus/minus (+22), but his defensive deficiencies have begun to pop up with more frequency.
During their recent California road swing, Gardiner was chiefly responsible for Thomas Hertl’s game winning goal in San Jose and was caught pinching at the blueline on Rickard Rakell’s first goal on Friday.
Just as Babcock built up the value of players last season to get more in return at the trade deadline, it is very possible that the Leafs have been putting Gardiner in more favorable positions to inflate his value for the offseason, where he could possibly be included in a trade to bring back a top pairing defenseman.
New additions Brian Boyle and Eric Fehr have been brought in to have a positive influence than to be difference makers on the ice.
Boyle centered the Leafs fourth line unit with Matt Martin and Nikita Soshnikov on Monday, while Fehr was an extra skater along with Josh Leivo and is unlikely to get into the lineup when the Leafs play Detroit on Tuesday.
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