Mike Babcock Will Use Break To Think About Line Combos
"Heading into this week's back-to-back road games at the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars, Mike Babcock finally put Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri on separate lines; something many Leafs fans wanted to see for quite some time.
Not only did the Maple Leafs win both games, but Kadri scored three goals in the victories. Babcock was asked if putting Kadri, Patrick Marleau and Mitch Marner was a stroke a genius.
«I don't think so at all. I think, obviously, we had played Matty and Mitch together a bunch of times, whether that be 4-on-4 or whatever, and we thought it was okay,» replied Babcock, per Maple Leafs Hot Stove. «Naz was starting to come around anyway. He had gone on a bit of a spell and wasn't great, and then was really starting to play and that line was really playing good for us but hadn't scored yet. Getting Mitch on their line — he obviously made a nice play here tonight, but it gives is a different look. With Leo there, we could put him in on a d-zone faceoff and use him all over. That was positive, too.»
Babcock said when he made the change that the new lines would only be on the road and they would go back to the old combinations when the team returned home. Of course, he was asked if he was sticking to this plan.
«Obviously, they played good. I saw that, too,» he said. «We'll just kind of do what we did here a bit tonight. Got Leo a few times in the d-zone, put Leo with Bozak a few times, and just used people. The good thing about it is we've got a break and we've got lots of time to think about that.»
Do you want to see Mike Babcock keep the Kadri with Marleau and Marner after the All-Star break?"
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