Babcock era slogan removed from Leafs’ dressing room

If anyone was looking for even further evidence that the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to move on as quickly as possible from the Mike Babcock era, look no further than the steps taken to remove Babcock’s slogan from the team’s dressing room. The saying, which read It’s a privilege, not a right, has been removed from the wall above the stalls in the home team’s dressing room at the Scotiabank arena. As pointed out by reporter Justin Cuthbert, it’s a change of messaging in a very literal sense for Toronto. 

So far, Toronto has looked like an entirely different team under new head coach Sheldon Keefe. There seems to be a major sense of relief among players, and a reinvigoration to win games while having fun. Of course, two games is a very small sample size, but Toronto has managed back-to-back wins against teams that have had very good starts to the 2019-20 season in Arizona (14-8-3) and Colorado (13-8-2).

No Leaf fan, or hockey fans in general, needs a rehashing of the issues that have been brought to light since Babcock has been shown the door. The tales of questionable moves and the dislike for Babcock from Toronto Players and players with other teams who have played under him are numerous and very public. It’s easy to pass some of them off as bitter players attempting to blame their shortcomings on someone else, but when so many people have similar stories, they become difficult to ignore. Even Morgan Reilly, who seemed to be one of Babcock’s favourites in Leaf Land, has made it clear he hasn’t spoken much to the former head coach since his dismissal, telling reporters his conversations with Babcock since that fateful day on November 20^th have been “More than none. Less than a lot.”

And for even more evidence that Keefe’s coaching style is much different than Babcock’s, at the end of yesterday’s practice he had a long, encouraging chat with Dmytro Timashov, who had been a healthy scratch the previous game. He then moved on to Zach Hymen and William Nylander. It’s pretty clear the lines of communication in Toronto are now wide open under Keefe. Toronto will try to go 3-0 under Keefe tonight as the team faces Babcock's old team, the Detroit Red Wings (7-16-3)

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