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Coaching carousel in Atlantic; Leafs vs Islanders

February 14, 2017, 6:17 PM ET [828 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs look to break a two game losing streak in the final game of their four-game home stand against the red-hot New York Islanders at Air Canada Center on Tuesday.

New York has gone 8-2-2 under interim coach Doug Weight and have moved to within one point of Toronto, who are under .500 since the All-Star break with a schedule that sees the club playing every other night.

Head coach Mike Babcock deviated from the normal routine on Tuesday, as the club did not take to the ice for a morning skate on game day after a full practice at MasterCard Center on Monday.

“We got a bunch of young guys, we thought we were doing a real good job getting ready every night and obviously (we) haven’t been quite as good of late.” Babcock said. “(We’re) just trying to handle our situation, we have a back to back against two teams that are heavy teams and we just thought it was the best thing for us. “

The Leafs still hold the final Eastern Conference wild card spot with 61 points, but are tied with the Philadelphia Flyers, lead the Isles by one, Florida by three and Tampa Bay by four points.

It is expected that Babcock will stick with the same line combinations and defensive pairings used in recent weeks, with the only possible change being the return of Nikita Soshnikov on the fourth line with Ben Smith and Matt Martin.

Frederik Andersen is expected to be in goal for Toronto, with Curtis McElhinney making the start in Columbus in the second of back-to-back games on Wednesday.

Thomas Greiss will be between the pipes for New York, who has a 4-1-1 career record against Toronto, with a 2.45 GAA and .926 save percentage.



The Maple Leafs in the span of two seasons have transitioned from a club in utter chaos to one of the most stable franchises in the Atlantic Division. A sure sign of that is the coaching carousel that has occurred over the last 12 months.

Ottawa hired Guy Boucher last summer, Tom Rowe replaced Gerard Gallant in late November and in the last week, Bruce Cassidy replaced Claude Julien in Boston last week and Julien replaced Michael Therien in Montreal on Tuesday.

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper (3 years, 11 months) is the longest tenured bench boss in the division. Mike Babcock, who was hired by Toronto in May 2015 is second.

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