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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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TORONTO – Consistency has eluded the Maple Leafs so far this season, and head coach Mike Babcock believes greater accountability amongst his players is a big part of the solution.

“If you do anything out of line in your family they keep you grounded, but they can,” Babcock said after practice on Wednesday at MasterCard Centre. “That same kind of love has to be in our room. We’re willing to share, we’re willing to stand up and say, ‘Hey, you’re not doing it right.’ And that’s all of us. I think that’s a real important thing, but I also think it’s a process, and we’re in that process now."

Having expressed frustration over how the Leafs were outworked again on Monday, Babcock tinkered with the lineup on Wednesday. He reunited Mitch Marner with John Tavares and Zach Hyman, and bumped Kasperi Kapanen to the Nazem Kadri line with Patrick Marleau. Kapanen was also removed from the top power-play unit in favour of Marleau, while Hyman slotted onto the second group.

Before Marner and Kapanen were flipped between lines, the Leafs’ top-six forwards finished a combined minus-7 against the Flames, a disappointing turn after they produced six points on three goals to complete a come-from-behind victory over the Winnipeg Jets only two nights prior.

“We look like a real good team some nights, and then other nights we’re not as good,” Babcock said. “We have to find a way to do it right every day. When you get on real good teams, as much fun as you have, sometimes those are grumpier teams because you make each other accountable, and we have to do that here.”

The Leafs players often talk about how tight-knit they are, what with young core pieces like Marner, Matthews and Hyman having climbed the ranks around one another. With prominent new faces in the fold and expectations continuing to soar, translating that closeness into on-ice success each night hasn’t been a simple task for the Leafs through 12 games.

“We’re not helping each other out on the ice enough as forwards,” said Marner. “There are times we’re not working as hard as we need to be. I think as a group we need to come together more, get some speed going, and get back to what we were doing which was successful, which was [being explosive], helping each other on one side and supporting each other.”

It’s easy for Marner to note teams have “tightened up a lot” compared to the beginning of the season, when the Leafs jumped out to a 6-1-0 record and sat near the top of every offensive category in the NHL. That type of adjustment is expected. It’s the Leafs who haven’t seemed to have a response.

Toronto is 2-3-0 in their last five outings while getting outscored 14-9. With as big a hole as Matthews leaves in the lineup, no single player is likely to replace his contributions (10 goals, 16 points in 11 games).

“I think our whole forward group has put more pressure on ourselves. It’s not just one guy,” said Marner, who is tied with Matthews for the Leafs’ lead in points at 16. “The person we lost is a big part of our team, big part of our offence. We all need to step up and fill that void by playing the way we know [leads to] wins, and that’s not giving other teams a lot of time and space.”

How long it takes for the Leafs to become a more consistent team remains to be seen, but the adversity they’re trudging through now may actually help get them there.

“It takes a number of games [to build an identity]; you have to find yourself,” Babcock said. “When you’re not a battle-tested team [like] Tampa and Nashville…they’ve been through it, they’ve been grinding. They’ve been doing it for a number of years. You get an identity, you can be more consistent. We’re trying to find our way.”