Head coach Mike Babcock was very complimentary of the effort put forth by rookie center Byron Froese in his brief stint with the Maple Leafs, but the young center has been returned to the Toronto Marlies on Tuesday and the club has called up winger Casey Bailey.
The 24-year-old Froese was pointless in two games with Toronto and was -4 in losses to Montreal and Arizona.
The 24-year-old Bailey was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State University in April and played six games for the Maple Leafs at the end of last season. The Anchorage, AK native was scratched for the first three games by the Marlies, but has registered two assists in three games last week for the Leafs AHL affiliate.
The frequency of call ups and demotions may be reflective the grace period running out for some players under Babcock, who was not pleased with the effort of his team in 4-3 loss to the Coyotes on Monday. Toronto has lost seven of their first eight games and all three games at Air Canada Center.
The Leafs were not able to develop any positive momentum until midway through the third period. Toronto trailed 4-1 as Max Domi, Shane Doan, Klas Dahlbeck and Kyle Chipchura scored for Arizona. James van Riemsdyk and Morgan Rielly narrowed the gap to 4-3 late in regulation, but Toronto could not tie the game before time ran out.
“We’ve played hard lots of nights, not had the result we’ve wanted, but when you don’t play hard enough and you are not organized enough and you don’t have the stick-to-itiveness enough, that comes back on me, so I take that very personally to say the least.” Babcock said on Tuesday.
Shawn Matthias registered his first goal as a Maple Leaf in the first period, but the club is still not getting enough secondary scoring and playing with enough consistency to earn victories.
“In an 82-game schedule, some nights you're not as pretty as you should be but when you win enough, it’s not as big a deal.” Babcock said. “The more depth you have offensively, some nights when some guys aren’t as good, other guys pick them up. We’re a team that we have to have all on board every night and we’ve got to do it right(to win).”
Babcock appears to be pressing some buttons in hopes of getting more effort from his depth players. After being healthy scratched on Saturday, center Peter Holland returned to the lineup because of an injury to Nick Spaling.
Holland registered two shots on goal in just over 12 minutes of ice time, but did not register a point.
Veterans Brad Boyes, Mark Arcobello and Michael Grabner are still without a goal and their spot in the lineup could be threatened by the promotion of Bailey.
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