The Toronto Marlies kept their playoff momentum going, completing a four-game sweep of the Cleveland Monsters with a 6-2 victory in Cleveland on Tuesday. Mason Marchment, Trevor Moore and Michael Carcone each scored a pair of goals for Toronto, who trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes and rallied to score four times in the first half of the middle frame and added a pair of goals in the third for insurance.
“We just got playing and we went out and were focused and we just got some good shifts by every line so it was two, three, four shifts in a row that you carry play.” Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “You get the other team on their heels and they can’t get off the ice in the second period there. We just took advantage of those opportunities.”
Toronto is now 7-0 in the postseason and will play in their third Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final in the last four seasons under head coach Sheldon Keefe, facing either the Charlotte Checkers or Hershey Bears. Charlotte leads Hershey 3-0 in the best-of-seven series and Game 4 is on Wednesday, but even if the Checkers sweep, the next round is not expected to start until next weekend.
One possible advantage for the Marlies is that while the Checkers have home-ice advantage and have lost only one game in the postseason, the parent Hurricanes are still active in the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Final and have recalled a number of players on an emergency basis due to a slew of injuries.
It did not come as a great shock that Leafs GM Kyle Dubas confirmed earlier this week that Mike Babcock would be back for his fifth season as head coach (which ironically happened the same day that rumors popped up connecting Babcock to Edmonton with former boss Ken Holland taking over as GM of the Oilers).
The question now is with his return confirmed, how will that affect some of the rosters decisions the Leafs make this summer.
Babcock could bring in some new blood to his coaching staff (especially if Ottawa or Edmonton hires DJ Smith as their head coach) and the hints of the club getting bigger up front have come to fruition with the signings of KHLers Egor Korshkov and Ilya Mikheyev.
According to the Toronto Star’s Kevin McGran, the Leafs head coach was involved in recruiting Mikheyev to Toronto, establishing a relationship with the winger at last year’s World Championships (something that Dubas did not acknowledge after the signing), but will Babcock have more of a hand in decisions on players to add or subtract from the roster.
One spot where the head coach’s preference was not followed last season was in goal, where Garret Sparks was given the backup job to Frederik Andersen over Curtis McElhinney and Calvin Pickard after winning the Calder Cup with the Marlies last season.
Sparks was inconsistent throughout the year, but his performance declined at the end of the season, losing eight of his last 10 starts and finishing with a below-average goals-against (3.15) and save percentage (.902). His play inspired such a lack of confidence that Michael Hutchinson was called up late in the season to backup Andersen in the playoffs.
In spite of Sparks being extended for next season, it is had to imagine Babcock going back to the 25-year-old with only young inexperienced options (Ian Scott, Joseph Woll and Kasimir Kaskisuo) available to him at training camp and with a need for Andersen’s backup to lighten the starter’s workload next season.
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