The Frank Corrado situation boiled down to a single word – awkward.
Corrado has now played four games, and the team has lost all four while allowing 20 goals against in the process.
That’s a small sample, but the effect of having a defenceman who the coaching staff doesn’t trust with more than 10 or 11 minutes – only 2:30 in the first period tonight! – is that it creates a jumbled mix-and-match situation with your defence pairs. For Leafs defencemen, who you played with last shift may not be who you’re playing with the next.
I acknowledge I could have been reading into this what I wanted to read into it given it’s something I’ve been monitoring since Corrado first entered the lineup. But it felt to me that the Leafs, on many shifts, didn’t have the same structure that’s been fairly consistent in their game of late, and that some of it stemmed from the D pairs not always being on the same page.
The pairings for the even strength goals against, for those curious: On goal one it was Phaneuf and Gardiner on the ice; goal number three, it was Gardiner and Corrado on the ice; goal four, it was Hunwick and Polak; goal five, it was Hunwick and Corrado; goal six, it was Gardiner and Polak, and on goal seven it was Hunwick and Polak.
I have a hard time believing that simply giving Corrado Marincin’s assignment, keeping the other pairs constant, and living and dying by the result would be worse than what took place tonight. It gets even more awkward, however, when you consider that Marincin’s spot puts Corrado on his off-side, and Babcock has understandably been trying to find him some shifts on his strong side.
That wasn’t the full story for tonight’s game, of course. After coming on strong to end the first period, it was a comedy of errors in the second period that undid the team when it mattered – first, Kadri’s fly by in the neutral zone allowed Burns to break the blueline at full speed and round Dion, followed by the back-breaking shorthanded goal on a horrible change, followed by a few brutal decisions with and without the puck by Gardiner on goal #3, followed by Nazem Kadri abandoning his man on goal #4. Then, it was the team mailing it in that made the scoreline as bad as it was at 7-0 — just look at how the Leafs‘ shot attempts and scoring chances charts below totally flatlined in the third period.
When this team’s attention to detail and work rate isn’t at ‘Babcockian’ levels, it’s going to get exposed, and exposed badly by a team with the Sharks’ offensive repertoire – as much as the Sharks are underachieving this season, that’s a roster that can wage damage on any given night, especially if an opponent mentally packs it up early as the Leafs did. The Sharks were in no mood to be taking it easy with a lead given their recent form, especially at home.
The Leafs have earned the right to forget about this one with some strong and consistent play since November 1. Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner and Dion Phaneuf, all three of whom have been earning plaudits of late for some of their best play of the season — if not in a Leaf jersey (at least in Gardiner’s case) — had arguably their worst performances of the year. It’s not worth getting into a tonne of detail about, really.
The other talking point worth mentioning is Jonathan Bernier being left in the net, which was less than ideal, and hopefully doesn’t set him back confidence-wise after three great starts previously. It’s hard to blame Babcock when James Reimer, just now appearing healthy again after a lengthy “is he or isn’t he ready?” process, reinjured himself the last time he jumped in the third period of a game cold.
Also worth considering is that the Leafs were playing their third game in less than four nights (this was a late-afternoon start time locally). The scheduling element to this shouldn’t be lost on fans, as it’s bizarre that the Leafs were off from Saturday to Wednesday before embarking on this always-gruelling three-game series, although it’s not inconsistent with the strange scheduling arrangement the team has been dealing with throughout the first half of the year.
Let’s see how the Leafs respond on — you guessed it — Wednesday, when they follow up a three-day break with the first of three games in four nights (again).
Even Strength Shot Attempts
Even Strength Scoring Chances
Leafs Player Stats — San Jose 7 vs. Toronto 0
| PLAYER | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | S | HITS | BKS | FO% | PP TOI | SH TOI | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. Hunwick | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | 0:00 | 4:58 | 22:08 |
| D. Phaneuf | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 1 | - | 2:48 | 2:30 | 18:41 |
| P. Parenteau | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | - | 2:48 | 0:00 | 16:24 |
| J. Lupul | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | 2:02 | 0:00 | 11:31 |
| F. Corrado | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | - | 0:00 | 0:00 | 11:23 |
| J. van Riemsdyk | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | - | 2:48 | 0:00 | 15:55 |
| S. Matthias | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 0:01 | 0:00 | 13:11 |
| P. Holland | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 50% | 3:11 | 0:49 | 13:31 |
| D. Winnik | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0% | 0:01 | 4:12 | 13:17 |
| B. Boyes | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50% | 2:24 | 0:00 | 13:19 |
| M. Grabner | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | - | 0:00 | 4:12 | 14:29 |
| T. Bozak | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 50% | 2:28 | 0:09 | 15:34 |
| N. Kadri | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 53% | 3:31 | 0:00 | 16:47 |
| M. Rielly | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | - | 1:34 | 3:52 | 23:18 |
| R. Polak | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | - | 0:00 | 4:40 | 22:37 |
| L. Komarov | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0% | 3:11 | 2:39 | 15:44 |
| J. Gardiner | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 3:12 | 0:00 | 17:38 |
| B. Froese | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 54% | 0:01 | 3:59 | 17:08 |
Mike Babcock Post Game
Leafs vs. Sharks Game in 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94X6wWayrgs
