Mike Babcock addressed the media following the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 6-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
On James van Riemsdyk’s big night alongside Marner and Bozak:
Mike Babcock: I saw him work real hard in practice yesterday. I saw him skate. He’s been skating better. He wasn’t skating as good at the start of the year. Obviously, with that, comes confidence, and good for him. Marner is a real good player who makes plays, and Bozie was passing the puck.
That line — have they surpassed what you hoped for when you first put them together at this point?
Babcock: I don’t know. You put them together and you’re hoping things will work out. Marner is a special player. If you go to the net with the stick on your ice, and compete to get the puck back, he’s going to make lots of plays. He does that each night. Bozie is a real good faceoff guy. So that’s a good line for us tonight. They played against Fisher, who I think is, on their team, the most competitive center. Fisher was out for the whole second, so that took away from them. Obviously, Pekka Rinne wasn’t in net, which you normally expect. That makes a huge difference to any team.
As you coach these young guys for the first time, were you surprised by many elements of Marner’s game?
Babcock: He’s a really talented guy. You look at all the kids in our lineup — Carrick and Zaitsev and Hyman and Brown, and then the three guys that have elite skill — he not only has the skill but he competes every night. He competes with and without the puck. That’s really positive. Obviously, some of those other guys have to compete — that’s why we like them so much. But when you’ve got that much skill, you can float around a little bit and still be in the league. You’re not going to be good, but you’re going to be in the league. So he’s that competitive, he’s on the puck, he’s smart. Easy to talk to. Enjoys the game. Wants to get better.
It’s pretty rare though, isn’t it?
Babcock: I’ve never coached a kid that good that young just because I’ve never been in that situation before. [Stanislav] Chistov, when I was in Anaheim, had an unbelievable first year playing with [Samuel] Pahlsson and Stumpy Thomas. He was an unbelievable player for us there in the playoffs, but he still wasn’t at this level.
You talked about working on the defensive game this week in practice. Did you see some of the fruits of that practice tonight?
Babcock: Yeah, for sure. I thought we did, but I didn’t we were very good on the rush tonight sorting it out. They were very active. They play an open game. Sorting it out on the rush, we weren’t as good. We were better in the D zone but not as good off the rush and they got some cycle because of that.
Leo Komarov started really impressively last year. He put up some unbelievable numbers and went to the All Star Game. Not quite up to that level this year yet. Do you think his role changed slightly because of all the young guys that came in?
Babcock: Not really. I just think last year he got off to a hot start and got believing. This year he was ordering new sticks. When you don’t score, you do different things. He was probably eating in different restaurants. But just keep doing what you do. He’s a good player. He plays hard. He’s got two in three games, or something like that. Suddenly he’ll get going. Same with Hyman. He didn’t have any goals; suddenly you have two. Just relax, play. You’ll be fine.
Coming into your first season here last year, what did you know about James van Riemsdyk and what have you learned in the time you’ve coached him?
Babcock: Big, talented guy, obviously. Played at the Olympics and had been a good player. James’ game is still, in my opinion, young. He can be a way better player than he is because he can add a cycle game, a heavier game. He’s always been a rush player but he can be more than that because of his hands and his skill set. We work with him every day trying to evolve that part of his game. What I like about James the most is that James wants to be great. He lives that way. He thinks about hockey all the time. He wants to be a hockey player first. I think it doesn’t matter how old you are; if you think like that, you can get better.
