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Mike Babcock’s post-game comments following the Maple Leafs’ 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets on Wednesday night.


I have to ask about the penalty kill there, Mike.

Babcock: Oh, I’m doing better now. Can you just imagine if you had done that… I mean, we laughed on the bench. It’s all my fault. Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s me, and I’ve got two assistants on the bench and two in the video room, and you’ve got 15 players sitting on the bench. And we can’t get that done right. Often it happens and you just fire a guy in. Obviously, it went the whole time and we didn’t do anything about it. In hindsight, if that had cost you, it’d be terrible. That will never happen in my life time again, I can tell you that. I will never wait to put a guy in, or any of that. You’re going whether you like it or not.

Anyway, our penalty kill was real good, Andie was real good. I thought our team played real good here today.

Can you kind of imagine what the players go through now, sitting in the box just waiting for that to end?

Babcock: I’ve been that player when you’ve taken a penalty, especially when you take a dumb one and the game is on the line. I’ve been that guy before. I know what it’s like to sit there and suffer. You go in there and feel shame a little bit. But our team played good. We got ourselves a big win on the road here. We go back and we’ve obviously got to get prepared now for Jersey because that’s a big game for us tomorrow.

Your club’s ability to bounce back after they score two in the second… obviously a source of their evolution, their maturity maybe?

Babcock: I thought, the shift after they got the second goal, Matthews’ line came on and we dominated in the offensive zone and kind of got our feet underneath us again. You know, they’re a good team. If you give them time in your own zone, it’s going to go in your net. I thought we played a good game here tonight against a good team. We scored some timely goals. I thought Naz’s line was really good. I thought Fehr played well. It was unfortunate to lose him in the game, but that’s the way it goes.

You’ve been to the playoffs enough to know so many things have to go your way. In the past three games, have you seen a lot of those elements from this team?

Babcock: I mean, to be in the playoffs all the time you have to have good players and you’ve got to play good. That’s just the reality of it. For a team like us that’s trying to find our way and figure it out and learn… I don’t know if you remember the play in the game where the puck came up the wall to Fehr, Boyle stayed underneath and popped it in and gave it to Hunwick. It was a poised play by veteran players in our zone that allowed everyone on the bench to say, “it’s okay just to make plays.” I thought that was an important part of today’s game.

To me, when I look at our group, we’re coming and improving every day. The guys’ confidence has got to be growing. We’re going to enjoy the flight and then get some rest. It’s a big game for us tomorrow.

Is the level of physicality part of the message tonight, or did the game kind of just go that way?

Babcock: We wanted that because last time we came in here and they abused us. We didn’t like that, so we thought it was important to respond.

30 goals for Nazem Kadri… has he kind of earned that right this season?

Babcock: I just think Naz has gotten to be a better player. I think I say it all the time when you guys ask me about Naz: He’s got a long way to go to be as good as he can be. But the spot on the power play really helps him. He can score. He’s brave. He can score from in tight and around the net. So that helps him there. But him, Leo and Brown, or him, Leo and Willy — or whoever; Leivo, whoever we play there – that’s a good line for us.

Willy has points in nine straight. What have you seen from him?

Babcock: Well, obviously he’s getting better. I mean, he’s a young player and we still want him to get a lot better. We want to get him way more competitive without the puck and to do more without the puck so he has the puck more, but he can flat out shoot it. Tonight he got the two points. He made the nice play to Matty on the power play, and obviously shot the puck real well on the third goal.