The Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings renew their Original Six rivalry on Hockey Hall of Fame night at Air Canada Center on Friday.
The 2015 class, which includes former Red Wing greats Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov, defensemen Phil Housley and Chris Pronger, US Olympian Angela Ruggiero, Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos, former Calgary Flames President and CEO Bill Hay, TSN’s Bob McKenzie(Elmer Ferguson Award) and LA Kings radio voice Nick Nickson(Foster Hewitt Award) will be honored in a ceremony prior to the game.
The contest concludes the club’s four-game home stand and marks the second regular season meeting between head coach Mike Babcock and his former team. The first meeting was a 4-0 Detroit domination at Joe Louis Arena on October 9 with Justin Abdelkader scoring a hat trick and rookie Dylan Larkin tallying his first NHL goal.
The 19-year-old Larkin has filled in for injured star Pavel Datsyuk (second in team scoring behind Henrik Zetterberg) and will likely be in the mix for the Calder Trophy, but the Wings are just one game over .500(6-5-1) under rookie coach Jeff Blashill.
The Maple Leafs are 2-8-2 and have fallen into 30th place in the NHL standings after a Columbus Blue Jackets victory in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The club made roster moves on Friday, activating defenseman Scott Harrington from injured reserve and placing forward Rich Clune on waivers.
The 28-year-old winger was signed to an NHL contract and played in back-to-back losses to New York and Pittsburgh last weekend, but was a healthy scratch the last two games after taking an undisciplined boarding major against the Penguins last Saturday.
Frank Corrado was recalled from the AHL Toronto Marlies on Thursday, but it will be Harrington inserted into the lineup in place of Martin Marincin, who is scoreless in 10 games and saw the least amount of ice time(15:45) of any Toronto blueliner against the Jets.
James Reimer will make his third straight start for Toronto with goalie Jonathan Bernier on injured reserve. Bernier skated briefly prior to Friday’s morning skate and will be eligible to come off IR on Sunday, which could mean back-to-back starts for Reimer or rookie Antoine Bibeau getting his first NHL start in Washington on Saturday.
Petr Mrazek will be in goal for Detroit, who is 3-3-0 with a 2.67 GAA and .921 save percentage in six starts.
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In his first few months with the Maple Leafs, Mike Babcock has struck a distinctly different note towards his own players than Ron Wilson and Randy Carlyle did during their tenures.
Both former coaches never hesitated to call out individuals for misdeeds on the ice, although Wilson comments about the defensive miscues of Nazem Kadri in post-game media scrums were more scathing for Carlyle’s “just ok… comments towards James Reimer.
Babcock has been over-the-top in praising Dion Phaneuf and Kadri in particular, in spite of some evidence to the contrary.
The Leafs team captain is tied for the club scoring lead with eight points and is one of the few plus players on the roster, but has seen a significant decrease in ice time and responsibilities from previous seasons.
Kadri leads all Toronto forwards in average ice time (18:23) and has played on the first line with wingers James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov since Tyler Bozak’s early-season injury, but has just one goal in 48 shots.
“I read something, someone handed to me about Kadri having a slow start, I think he's having the best start of his career." Babcock said. “"He's been phenomenal so what I see & what you see are sometimes not the same thing."
The Leafs coach seems to be acting as part motivational speaker and part salesman regarding certain players.
The question is whether Babcock is doing this to draw the best performance he can out of them, extolling their positive virtues publicly to increase their value for future trades or doing a little bit of both.
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