By Damon Knight, Tribune Correspondent
On Wednesday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs decided to fire their head coach Mike Babcock after five seasons with the team. Babcock, 56, was 173-133-45 in his time with Toronto and that includes the three trips they had to the Eastern Conference finals, unfortunately, none of those trips ended in a Stanley Cup finals appearance or a cup win. Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and GM Kyle Dubas thought that having a great coach and a core of high-profile players who they paid big money for would solve all their problems and eventually achieve their ultimate goal which is to win the Stanley Cup. However, they decided to move on from Babcock and name Sheldon Keefe their new head coach.
Keefe, 39, takes over for a Leafs team that is in 5th place in the Atlantic Division and has a record of 9-10. In addition, he’ll be challenged with getting his team out of a rut that they put themselves in by playing horrible defense and their inability to put the puck in the back of the net. And what’s even worse is that they are 0-5-1 in their last six games. Despite their failed expectations and their horrible start to the season, Mike Babcock reflected on his time with Toronto on a more positive note by saying, “I thought we did an amazing job taking a franchise from where it was to where we had 100-point seasons, we set franchise records if I’m not mistaken, got into the playoffs,” Babcock said, per LeBrun. “I’m disappointed, we didn’t have the start to the year we wanted and that’s on me. I want to thank the fans, I want to thank the media, I want to thank the city, it was spectacular, I loved every second of it. And I wish the new group (coaches) nothing but success. Morgan Rielly has been here the whole time. I can’t thank him enough. And all the players I got an opportunity to coach. It’s been fantastic and I wish them nothing but success.”
Toronto plays its next game against the Arizona coyotes at 9 PM.
