I think he wants the team to be more responsible defensively. Its better he teaches the team a lesson now, so later in the season, it doesn't cost them a lot of points.

I'll disagree with your premise that the Leafs. " now hes got the entire team scared to do anything offensive," they way they play now sux. Last year the Leafs learned to be bulldogs on the puck in the offensive zone. Their puck retrieval was amazingly good. This year, they just aren't aren't hemming teams in their own end. As a result the puck is the Leaf end a lot more. And the Leafs haven't been effective of retrieving the puck in their own zone either.
Until the Leafs regain the form of retrieving the puck in their own, moving their neutral zone and then controlling play in the offensive zone, they are gonna to lose more games than they win. It's not that Babcock has changed his method of playing, it's just that the team isn't playing in a winning way.

Hi Price_is_the_goat, I get what you are saying, and I understand the concept, what am having trouble grasping is this team isn't set up for defensive responsibility, they are set up to roll over you and embarrass you offensively, let them be who they are, first 7 games 6-1, scoring , exciting hockey, next 5 games 1-4, cant score, cant defend any better than they did in the first 7 games and the most important stat of all, is they are not winning, and its ugly to watch. Grant Fuhr with the Oilers had a GAA close to 4 every year, Save Percentage never higher than .895, but do you know what was high? his winning percentage. all I am saying is let the boys play, who cares if they win 8-7, a "W" is a "W", and if they make the playoffs, win by 5-4 scores lol., Babcock wants 2-1 scores with under 20 shots a game, does he not realize the talent this team possess? let them play free and at the end of the year lets see where they are.

grandview17, I know the Leafs are playing poorly. But your premise"Babcock wants 2-1 scores with under 20 shots a game". is just so wrong. No NHL coach wants to scrape by winning games 2-1. And Babcock does realize the talent he has on the team, more than any CapFriendly GM. You're building false arguments for the reason the Leafs are playing poorly. Your statement "Let them play"....means nothing about how a team has to play to and win in the NHL.

I hate defensive hockey. The game would be in such a better place without this stigma of games having to end 2-1 for it to be a good game in the coaches mind........

Fans are paying to watch goals and saves and at the bottom line effort. Not how many times player x was able to bounce the puck off the glass to get a change in without causing a turnover or boxed out player Z from the other team.

Babcock is not the problem .

You realize defense is important right? He’s not taking the “fun” out of the lineup. He’s teaching them how to play hockey instead of basketball.

yes everyone, I realize that defense is important, im not saying don't play defence, but the Leafs management has drafted high skill guys to put the puck in the net, how bout making a system that encourages that a little bit more than the defensive side. if you wanted a defensive team, than why haven't they drafted and or traded for defensive minded players who can grasp that aspect of the game quicker than some and or most. That's what im trying to say here, you think the 80's Oilers would have won all those cups if they were defensive minded? maybe? probably not, if you are going to build an offensive team, preach offense, teach defense of course, but dance with the ones that brought ya. Babcock in my opinion is so bloody worried about defense right now the kids look lost, id rather them win games 7-5 than lose games 3-1.

I agree that the team is built for offense, but in the playoffs, teams are built on defense. u dont win games 5-1, u win 3-2, or 2-1. and the 80's era was muccch more diff then todays era. that was all about offense. now teams focus on defense. no matter how much offense you have, as soon as u run into a defensive heavy team, esp with a good goalie, its hard to win. look at the 2011 cancucks. they had the best offense in the league. they finished with 262 goals scored, but the bruins finished 8th in scoring, but 3rd in goals allowed. and the canucks ran into a ridiculously hot goalie in tim thomas. yeah fans want scoring, and the nhl is trying to increase scoring by these new slashing penalites and faceoff penalties, but coaches dont want to be allowing a lot of goals against either. thats the only reason y, i believe babcock wants them to play better defensively. once u play good defensively, that ultimatley means that the puck is in ur posession and in the offensive zone.