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The Toronto Maple Leafs return to Air Canada Center as one of the NHL’s hottest teams, but head coach Mike Babcock spent considerable time on Monday talking about keeping his club grounded in reality and not getting to far ahead of themselves.
“Let’s not get carried away here, Ottawa outchanced us (on Saturday)and (we) won the game. We gotta a lot of work to do here, we’re getting better understanding what’s expected of (us),” Babcock said at the Leafs practice facility in Etobicoke, ON. “We’re good enough to win every night if (we) play right, those things are positive.”
The 4-2 victory over the Senators moved the Leafs into a tie for third place in the Atlantic Division at the halfway mark, but the Leafs coach knows that things will only get tougher for his young squad as they enter the second-half.
“It is game #41, I’ve been in the league a long time. Lots of things can go good and lots of things can go bad, it’s just real important that we just focus on our five-game segment and keep trying to win.” Babcock said. “It wasn’t that long ago that one of the teams in the league was on an eight-game winning streak and suddenly you go the next 10 and you don’t win. That’s the thing about consistency, experienced teams seem to just ride the ups and down longer.”
After struggling the first two months, the Leafs have gone 8-0-1 in their last nine road games, thanks to good goaltending, an offensive attack averaging more than three goals-per-game and the NHL’s top ranked special teams away from home.
The Leafs return to the ACC to begin a four-game home stand against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.
After starting the season 8-3-0 at home, Toronto has not won in regulation since November 26, in part because their power play and penalty killing are in the bottom third of the league.
“I thought we were going really good at home and now we haven’t gone as good at home and we got to get that back. Just a really simple structure game plan (and) being prepared.”Babcock said. “When things are going good, you better work even harder (because) in life, things have a tendency to turn, so you just want to keep grinding.”
Defenseman Martin Marincin participated in practice on Monday, but is still on the mend from the injury that occurred in Boston on December 10, while forward Ben Smith is scheduled to have the pins removed from his broken hand later this week.
Frank Corrado returned to the Leafs from his two-week conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies. The 23-year-old defenseman had three assists in seven AHL games, the same point total he had in his conditioning stint with the club last year.
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On this week’s Blue N’ White Tonight podcast, the round table looks at another successful week for the Toronto Maple Leafs and an interview with the Toronto Sun’s Mike Zeisberger.
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