The Stanley Cup doesn’t come easy, and if anyone knows that it’s Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock.
After losing Game 7 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final, it took the bench boss five more years to get back and eventually capture his first NHL championship with the Detroit Red Wings. If you look at some of the best players in NHL history, it took Hall of Famers such as Steve Yzerman and Ray Bourque nearly their entire career before they could hoist the trophy. Now with a young team, Babcock addressed the difficulty and patience that goes into winning Lord Stanley’s mug and praised Barry Trotz for leading the Washington Capitals to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
It’s early, but the 55-year-old has got to feel good about his team’s strong start. Toronto heads into Saturday night’s action with a lead-leaguing 25 goals in just five contests, with Auston Matthews leading the bunch with nine of his own. With his three-point effort against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, Matthews surpassed Gretzky as the youngest player in NHL history to have multi-point games in his team’s first five games to start the season.
The Leafs are scoring at a pretty insane rate right now and if they keep this up, some of their players might not have to wait too long before hoisting their first Stanley Cup.
