Monday Morning Leafs Report: Mike Babcock’s changing tactics with Auston Matthews, Goat’s growing importance
By Jonas Siegel
Mike Babcock is running the Maple Leafs’ bench differently this season. That much is clear even after only nine games.
One very notable change: how the Leafs coach is deploying his forwards.
No doubt with the numbers firmly behind him, Babcock is loading up Auston Matthews and John Tavares, before he got hurt anyway, with more offensive-zone starts — and fewer starts, not by accident, in the defensive zone.
“We just find that otherwise, your best players are always starting in your zone,” Babcock said last week. “Any way you look at it, the math doesn’t add up as good as if you start in the O-zone.”
....
Matthews’ 71 percent offensive zone-start percentage is among the highest in the league for a forward and a more-than-noteworthy uptick from 58 percent last season and 49 percent a year before.
It’s a pretty simple concept: Stick the offensive guys in the offensive zone right off the hop rather than have them slug it out in the defensive zone for a bit.
...
Before the broken finger that has him out until November, Tavares was at around 60 percent himself in offensive zone-start percentage, up from 51 percent last year. Instead of worrying about matching Tavares with opposing top lines, Babcock said the focus instead is “more about O-zone and D-zone start.”
What’s changed?
Cue the emergence of Frederik Gauthier and a fourth line Babcock feels like he can finally trust, because as the Leafs coach said, “I gotta have someone else to do the other part.”
,,,,
Gauthier has already lined up for 58 five-on-five defensive-zone draws so far, among the most in the league, right up there with other defensive dudes like Radek Faksa, Nick Bonino and Luke Glendening. Matthews has been out there for only 23 and Tavares, by contrast, has taken 27.