Re: Forget winning a playoff round, at this rate Babcock won’t last the year
Dubas had it written into his contract he had the authority to fire the head coach. The rumour was Dubas wanted to fire Babcock in June/July but Shanahan talked him out of it. Big difference than "not allowed too".
We can't comment on it really because we don't know where the disconnect is. I've thought hard on this since Friday and there's a couple of points I've thought of:
- Is it the players not listening to what the coach wants?
- Is it the coach not listening to what the GM wants?
- Is it the coaching style in general?
- Is it the roster constructed?
- Is it how the roster is used?
- If you fire Babcock, how easy is it for the new coach (Keefe) to implement his system mid-season?
- Is Dubas willing to disturb the success of the Marlies (10-2-3) to promote Keefe? It is his baby since he started GM-ing there
- How much of the Assistant Coach Hiring was on Dubas? The PP is terrible but nothing changes, so if Babcock didn't hire them, maybe he's just letting it go out of spite? But really who would ruin a teams success/their reputation over spite?
I dunno. The fact on the PP I can see issues and nothing changes makes me question Hakstol's thinking on the PP. Leafs try the cross-seam pass from Marner to Matthews as their Primary option. With Rielly being up top, the PK forwards don't need to defend his shot so they sit back blocking the cross seam pass. When Marner or Matthews get the puck the PK-er is really close to them also due to sitting back deep in their own zone so they can't do much with it. Employ a defender who can shoot (Barrie) on the point, it pulls the PK forwards up enough to possibly open up the cross-seam pass from Marner to Matthews.
The PP is so bad, that I'm not even opposed to bringing up Bracco and sending Timashov down for 5 games and telling Bracco, "just do whatever you want on the PP". The PP is so complacent I'm was honestly hoping Babcock would send the 4th line out for a powerplay to send a message. Let Matthews hop the bench and yell at him to come back and send out the 4th line.
If they continue this run though, Babcock won't make Christmas. That's my feeling on this. However, Leafs are able to rattle of 6 wins and put this discussion to bed quick.
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Horvat, Trocheck
LW: J. Robertson, Byfield (C), Guenther
RW: Pavelski (C), Giroux (C), Svechnikov (LW)
D: Fox, Makar, Bouchard, Morrissey, Gudas
Util: Meier (LW, RW)
G: Oettinger, Georgiev, Samsonov, Woll