Leafs top Jackets for 1st win of Babcock era
Mike Babcock’s first win as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs is in the books.
After an 0-2-1 start, Toronto went on the road on Friday night and took advantage of a struggling Blue Jackets team and rolled to a 6-3 win to pick up the first win of the Babcock era in Toronto.
Just as important as the Leafs getting their first win of the season is the fact it extended Columbus’ season-opening losing streak to five games, and with an away game in Chicago looming on Saturday the road is only going to get tougher, and that is not going to do anything to get coach Todd Richards off of the hot seat.
Here are three things you need to know about Friday’s game:
1. Toronto played well and was rewarded for it
Even though they entered play on Friday night without a win, the Maple Leafs haven’t really been awful this season.
Yes, that’s setting a laughably low bar, but the only expectation for this team coming into the season was for it to be one of the worst in the league. Even so, they have had stretches in just about every game where they’ve carried the play. But because they don’t really have a ton of individual high-end talent, they don’t really have anybody that can capitalize on that strong play when they get it and turn it into goals. You’re probably going to see a lot of that from this team over the next few months. A lot of shots. Some chances. And no goals to show for it.
On Friday, they were rewarded for their hard work. Maybe they just needed a game against a slumping Blue Jackets team and a goalie lacking in confidence to get the desired result.
After giving up the first goal of the game for the fourth game in a row, Toronto stormed back in the second period with three goals in seven minutes to take a 3-1 lead. Columbus rallied with a late second period goal and a power play goal from Scott Hartnell to tie the game early in the third period. Just as it looked as if the Leafs were going to Leaf their way into a come-from-ahead loss, they were able to come back strong and get a three third period goals from Joffrey Lupul and Leo Komarov (two) to come away with their first win of the season.
2. Sergei Bobrovsky looked bad … again
Bobrovsky admitted after Columbus’ most recent loss that he had no confidence at the moment. It showed on Friday.
Not only did he surrender five more goals, he didn’t look particularly good on any of them with the worst coming on Komarov’s goal late in the third period when the Blue Jackets were still only trailing by one.
Columbus was trying to get a too many men on the ice call on Toronto (and they were probably right) and just seemed to stop playing as Komarov jumped off the bench and skated in alone. Bobrovsky seemed to make the save and then … well … this happened.
After Friday, his save percentage for the season is only .834 on the season.
3. Columbus is in trouble
A lot of trouble.
After Friday’s loss they are now 0-5 on the season and have failed to record a single point in the standings. If you assume that it takes 95 points to make the playoffs, that means Columbus would need to go at least 45-27-5 the rest of the way just to reach that. That’s a .616 points percentage (Columbus’ best points percentage over a full season in franchise history is .573 during the 2012-13 lockout shortened season). That’s asking a lot.
Making matters worse? They have to come right back tomorrow and play the second half of a back-to-back on the road in Chicago against a Blackhawks team that was off on Friday. In other words, it’s not getting any easier.
Some of their problems can be solved by Bobrovsky playing like anything other than the worst goalie in the league, but he is far from the only issue right now. They are not scoring, the defense was a question mark coming into the season (and so far the group has done nothing but validate those concerns) and they have had stretches in three different games where they’ve given up at least three goals in less than eight minutes. That stuff just can not happen.
They spent a lot of money and gave up a lot of assets to put this team together and this group isn’t even close to meeting even the lowest of preseason expectations.
Mike Babcock picks up his first win as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night. (USATSI)
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