First, from the Twitter wire:
Bozak skating with Matthias and Parenteau today. Other lines: van Riemsdyk-Kadri-Komarov; Grabner-Arcobello-Boyes. Winnik-Froese-Lupul.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) October 27, 2015
Quick edit to those lines: Grabner with Froese and Boyes; Winnik with Arcobello and Lupul.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) October 27, 2015
Leafs will have roster move to make this week as both are expected back. Someone could be waived. https://t.co/BgZlejPiLU
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) October 27, 2015
Mike Babcock after the game last night:
I’m optimistic that Bozak and Spaling will make us a better hockey club; Froese is going to be in the lineup. We’re different down the middle already. We’re a better team.
The positive in tonight’s game to me is 56. Just faceoffs alone and compete alone. You’re going to be competitive if you’re going to be here. That’s it. It’s that simple.
If Spaling and Bozak are back in the lineup, and Froese is staying, someone just lost a job and is about to be waiver exposed.
Uneasy times for Peter Holland, to be sure.
Tuesday Links:
- Jonas Siegel: Babcock frustrated; Leafs stuck on one win (TSN.ca)
here have been many nights early in this Maple Leafs season when, despite the losing score, Mike Babcock has been pleased with his team’s process and progress. Monday was not one of those nights. “We weren’t good enough – period,” Babcock said after a 4-3 loss to the Coyotes, the club’s fourth straight defeat.
I - Chris Johnston: Change coming as Babcock looks to shake up Maple Leafs roster (Sportsnet)
It can’t be a comfortable time for 24-year-old centre Peter Holland, who appears to have lost his spot in the lineup to unheralded journeyman Byron Froese — a player with 135 fewer games of NHL experience that was taken 104 picks behind him in the 2009 entry draft.
I - Justin Bourne: Getting players to play, not think, a major challenge for new NHL coaches (The Score)
After a few weeks of the 2015-16 season, teams with new coaches are a combined 24-29-5, with only the Sharks holding down a top-three spot in their division. And that’s roughly what you’d expect.
I - Elliotte Friedman: 30 Thoughts: Flames willing to deal, but is anyone else? (Sportsnet)
Morgan Rielly: “When the puck is going up the ice, am I there supporting it? In our zone, am I boxing out the opposing forwards? Or, if someone is coming out of the corner with the puck and gives it to someone else, am I preventing him from getting to the net? That’s the kind of thing he wants me worrying about.”
I - Travis Yost: The Babcock Effect in Detroit (TSN.ca)
You are reading that correctly. Detroit’s possession through the first eight games of this season is 45 per cent, good for 29th in the NHL. The only team they’re ahead of right now is Colorado, but that low bar is cleared very easily.
