The Toronto Maple Leafs fought back from two different two-game deficits in their opening round series against the Boston Bruins, but they ultimately fell short in Game 7 and saw their season end sooner than they would have liked.
The players cleared out their lockers on Friday afternoon and did some final interviews with the media before officially starting their offseason, and that also included the coaching staff. Head coach Mike Babcock joined Bryan Hayes, Jeff O’Neill and Jamie McLennan on TSN 1050’s OverDrive, where he discussed topics such as the positives he and the players took away from this past season, why he didn’t player Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner together more during the season and playoffs, and even touched on what his relationship with Matthews is really like.
Both Matthews and Babcock denied there being any tension in their relationship, despite what the media thinks, and the Maple Leafs’ bench boss described their bond more as a father-son relationship than a buddy-buddy relationship, but that doesn’t mean he gets the final say in everything that is done.
