‘Our work ethic, our preparation, our execution, our determination, our stick-to-it-ive-ness wasn’t worthy,’ said Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, centre, about his team’s effort against the Arizona Coyotes on Oct. 27.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The Toronto Maple Leafs have seen the carrot.
Now it appears time for the stick.
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock is known for being hard on his players at times. He is very blunt and rarely sugar-coats anything, and that can wear on athletes – especially in this era of player-friendly coaches in professional sports.
It certainly wore on the Detroit Red Wings veterans, some of whom played for him for a decade and probably popped champagne when he went to Toronto in May. But throughout his first month-plus here, Babcock had been rather warm and encouraging to a roster filled with players who were beaten down and insecure after last year's debacle of a season.
After losses, he continually pointed to positives and suggested they had deserved a better fate. (In many cases, he had a point.)
That wasn't the case Monday night, after the Leafs lost 4-3 to the Arizona Coyotes. Or the next day at practice.
After seven losses in the Leafs' first eight games, their coach had had enough.
"I'd never seen us compete at that level," Babcock said of the Leafs folding the tent briefly in the second period, before a rally made the game close in the third.
Babcock was particularly miffed with goaltender James Reimer's play. When the Coyotes scored their third goal – a slapper from the top of the circle by rookie Klas Dahlbeck – the Leafs coach was so aghast he grimaced and spun around angrily on the bench.
"You can't give up four [goals] on the amount of chances we gave up tonight," Babcock said of Reimer's play. "It's impossible. You just can't do that."
"They can't get those goals on that many chances," he later added. "They can't go in the net. Period."
The goalies have got it the worst in the early going. Starter Jonathan Bernier has been pulled, challenged and sat – and the season is only three weeks old.
Reimer, meanwhile, had the better preseason, but was relegated to backup duty regardless. He had started only twice before Monday's poor showing.
In fairness to Babcock, his goalies haven't been all that good, with the sixth-worst team save percentage in the NHL.
And this all could well be a motivational tactic, with a bad-cop routine for the puck stoppers serving as a show of support for the effort of his other players.
But that's not what it looked like Monday. It looked as though the losses were weighing on the coach already.
He seemed to allow as much the next day.
"When you don't play hard enough and you're not organized enough and you don't have the stick-to-it-ive-ness enough, that comes back on me," Babcock said grimly. "So I take that very personally, to say the least. I want our players to take it personally.
"Our work ethic, our preparation, our execution, our determination, our stick-to-it-ive-ness wasn't worthy. That hurts when you get up in the morning."
And the goalies?
"They can both be way better," he said.
Babcock has earned his reputation. He is a good coach, and this isn't his first go-round with adversity in the NHL. What this year will be, however, is a unique test of his patience and his endurance in the face of a lot of losses, a lot of questions and a lot of – potentially – sullen players.
It's not that none of the Leafs deserves to be called out; they do. It's only that everyone knew, coming in, that this would be a long season, and there's an awful lot of it left to go.
If the losses start to really pile up here, one wonders where this goes.
Will Babcock take them all personally? Or can he find the good in the bad, avoid utter exasperation and continue to coax positive outcomes out of the few players who will be here long term?
We know what Babcock is behind the bench of a winner. This season, we'll see something else entirely.