There has never been this much losing in Mike Babcock’s life. At least not at the NHL level.
He once guided the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs through a 19-win season, but as he pointed out the day he was hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs: “Won the league the next year.”
Absent divine intervention, that kind of turnaround isn’t in the cards with his current employer. No, Babcock signed up for a project when he signed a $50-million, eight-year contract with the Leafs and it’s made his demeanour all the more interesting during a season unlike any other.
There has been no presidential aging process here. The man speaks with the same burning intensity he would if this weekend’s agenda included playoff preparation rather than exit interviews. From all accounts, Babcock is anything but beaten down in the final days of his first 50-plus loss season ever.
“I think that might be one of the most impressive things about him, is that he hasn’t changed a thing since Day 1 of training camp,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly.
“He’s been pretty good about (the losing),” added veteran P.A. Parenteau. “He’s been kind of like us – a good pro even if it’s not always easy to be out that early from the playoffs. He’s getting the best out of us, still.”
Indeed, a young injury-ravaged Leafs team walked into Philadelphia on Thursday night and pulled out a 4-3 overtime victory.
The lost point could end up costing the Flyers a playoff spot. The two points gained by Toronto might cost them 30th overall and the best odds in the draft lottery.
But if we’ve learned anything about Babcock in his first 10 months on the job it’s that he’s got a deft touch when it comes to balancing short- and long-term objectives.
“Drafting for our organization is very, very important,” he told reporters after the Flyers win. “We’ve taken it on the chin all year to be set up. We’d like to have the best chance we can possibly have (to get the No. 1 pick) – at the same time we have to respect one another and the game.”
The Leafs are putting a tremendous amount of faith in Babcock’s ability to build something meaningful out of this teardown of a season. They appealed to his love of overcoming obstacles during an intense courting process last spring, and saw him turn a patchwork roster into a remarkably structured unit.
There is a belief at the management level that this group is a little closer to beginning its ascent up the standings than originally expected because of Babcock; that plugging more talent into his system could make next season interesting.
However, it would be a sharp change in direction if any moves were made this summer in an attempt to speed things up. He surely won’t support it. One of the assurances Babcock received from president Brendan Shanahan and the team’s board of directors before signing his record-setting contract last year was that they were committed to taking things slow.
That has always proved difficult in Toronto, undoing many men with aspirations of ending the NHL’s longest Stanley Cup drought.
But as Babcock himself recently pointed out, there is a canyon-sized gap between a 69-point team and one that just knows in training camp it will be in the playoffs. And then there is another big leap from standing on that platform to winning a championship.
The 52-year-old has been reluctant to disclose what he’ll do with the extra time off this month – time he has spent coaching playoff games in all but one of his 13 NHL seasons – but you can be sure he won’t be putting his feet up.
“Anybody who’s hoping for a vacation at this time of the year shouldn’t be in hockey,” said Babcock.
Even with the Leafs officially eliminated from playoff contention for three weeks, and knowing they wouldn’t be part of it long before that, he hasn’t eased off on the group.
More than one veteran player pointed out that the team’s practices remained intense.
“He’s all business when he’s at the rink,” said Parenteau. “It hasn’t changed since Day 1 – I think that’s why he’s been so successful in his life.”
“He’s just a machine,” said Brooks Laich, acquired from Washington at the trade deadline. “Somebody that’s like that, I just think he just absolutely loves the sport. You can’t artificially manufacture that because of a pay cheque; that’s somebody who just is here because he absolutely loves it and it means a lot to him.
“The competitive desire to win and the will to win are the two things that will always stick out in my mind about coach Babcock.”
And so as the Leafs head into their final game of the season, a visit to New Jersey on Saturday night, don’t expect any letup from the cellar-dwelling team or the man standing behind the bench.
There have already been a lot of losses this year, sure, but Babcock will be doing everything in his power to see that there isn’t one more.
