Toronto Maple Leafs: Mike Babcock will be tested by Nazem Kadri’s injury
The Toronto Maple Leafs were dealt a big blow with Nazem Kadri sustaining a concussion against the St. Louis Blues and now Mike Babcock has some adjustments to make.
While the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to salvage a point against the St. Louis Blues to end their six-game road trip, they were dealt a big blow with Nazem Kadri leaving the game with a concussion.
Losing a centreman to injury isn’t uncharted territory for the Leafs or Mike Babcock, but he knows that it will be difficult to game-plan for. In the 3-2 overtime loss to the Blues, Babcock already made his first adjustment by putting William Nylander between Andreas Johnsson and Connor Brown.
The trio finished the game with a 75 CF% and a 83.33 FF% in the second and third period at even strength. You have to think that line will stay together against the Washington Capitals on Thursday night, considering they didn’t seem out of place against St. Louis.
Looking back at the ice-time from Tuesday night, you would think Auston Matthews and John Tavares would get a bump in playing time. At the end of the game, Tavares finished with 18:49 while Matthews had 16:52.
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St. Louis rolled out Ryan O’Reilly out for 21:12, with Tyler Bozak second on the list at 15:33; the Blues made it a point to put out their best centre to win the game. The fact that Matthews played just under 17 minutes in a game where the Leafs could have won in the third period or overtime is tough to comprehend.
Babcock prefers to spread out the minutes but in situations when the score is close, Matthews should be getting more playing time, especially when the team is down a centre. Hopefully, the coach realizes from watching the Blues that when you play your game breakers, they can have an impact.
This doesn’t mean playing Matthews well over 20 minutes a night; this is just a case where he shouldn’t be getting around the same minutes as Zach Hyman. The Leafs will also have to hope Kadri’s concussion isn’t very serious, but at least the team has options as long as Babcock is willing to go to them.
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What did you think about the game? Is the Kadri injury going to be a big problem for the Leafs moving forward? Let us know in the comments below.