TORONTO — Mike Babcock is genuinely thrilled to coach Auston Matthews and the youngest current roster in the NHL, especially when No. 34 launches his career with four goals.
With that comes the mistakes of youth, but the Maple Leafs coach was more concerned his veterans were culpable a few times in Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime loss in Ottawa. Toronto has its home opener on Saturday against Boston and can’t expect a multi-goal game every night from its teenage centre and wingers Zach Hyman and William Nylander.
“Nice to see how good our kids can be,” Babcock said after a Thursday practice with a large media presence covering Matthews. “We have a lot of veterans who can be a lot better, we have to keep the puck out of our net.
“There were too many mistakes (overall, including a flub or two from goalie Frederik Andersen), but we controlled most of the game and had the puck most of the time.”
Centre Tyler Bozak badly wanted the win for Matthews, fellow rookie Mitch Marner and a few others playing their first Leafs game.
“We think we have the ability to score, but have to tighten it up a bit, block a few more shots, make better decisions at the blue lines and not turn pucks over. But it’s early in the year. The full chemistry isn’t there yet to break out and make plays.”
Matthews’ four goals made NHL history for a newcomer and thus he had to handle electronic media and print in separate scrums to satisfy the demand on Thursday.
“It took me a while to finally settle down and get to bed,” Matthews said of the game, having his parents present, flying home and reading a deluge of texts and tweets. “There were a lot of congratulations from a lot of guys. It’s just one game, but your first one is always special.”
Friends on the U.S. development program let him know they’d chosen him on the Draft Kings hockey pool website and a list of former and current NHLers also contacted him. Where most young players get one souvenir puck for their first NHL goal, Matthews was holding up four afterward.
“I’ll probably give them to my mom (Ema), she usually does something nice with them.”
She had enough to fashion a necklace. Matthews noted how much it meant to have both parents in the crowd in Ottawa and back for Saturday at the ACC.
“They’ve been a huge part of my career, it was only right for them to be there for the first one.”
Brian Matthews will often have a post-game word with his son.
“When the moment’s right, he does a pretty good job separating hockey from life in general,” Auston said. “It’s not always hockey, hockey, hockey. That helped when I was younger, to let go a little bit. I can only imagine how emotional my mom was getting up there. I saw a couple of videos of them.
“Your first is pretty memorable, but that’s in the past, we have a big home opener coming up.”
Babcock had blue-liner Matt Hunwick back on ice after a bone-jarring hit from Chris Neil and a bloody forehead cut. Winger Seth Griffith, picked up from waivers on Boston, was also working out, Babcock stating “there’s always a chance” he’ll be used in the game against his old team.
Defenceman Martin Marincin was culpable on a couple of Senators goals, but Babcock might not go back to Roman Polak or Frank Corrado just yet.
“We made mistakes, but not any (too) dreadful that you can’t fix,” Babcock said. “We can get way better as a team and part of that is growing your mind set to win every night. That’s a learning curve.
“It’s nice (fans) can go to a game now and buy some (Matthews) sweaters and a whole bunch of guys’ sweaters and you know they’ll be here for a while. Last year, it was tough that way. If you’re a hockey fan watching the Leafs, there’s promise.”