It's fascinating to ponder the wealth of forwards Babcock can play with in the post-trade-deadline Leafs lineup. He's got so much room to move that he sent Kasperi Kapanen and Brendan Leipsic back down to the Marlies, replacing them with new left-winger Milan Michalek and back-from-injury Brad Boyes. Babcock showed that despite the Leafs' record, he can afford to teach the rookies in the right way. (Check out our post-game interview with Kapanen here.)
Babcock's message to the Toronto Sun reinforced the notion that nowadays, rookies have to work hard to break the lineup, no matter who's currently in it: "They have to figure out how to be consistent every day and work hard and how to compete at a high level and be involved in the game.