It’s a brittle thing, trust.Players in their coach, coach in his players.But these Maple Leafs have a covenant of faith with Mike Babcock, like never before. As he does with them, like never before.Three playoff years it’s taken to reach this point: Toronto holding the hammer against Boston, entirely capable of eliminating the Bruins in Game 6 Sunday afternoon. A year ago they were fighting for their lives, chasing, catching up, chasing.They’ve not always been on the same page. They haven’t even been on the same page within this series. Because the players, with tremendous speed and skill, want to go, fly. While Babcock wants them to play commandingly without the puck. And that’s so often been the rub since Babcock took the reins in Toronto — although we’ll ignore year one of the Babs era, which was merely a prologue, before the arrival of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner profoundly altered the team’s dynamics.Babcock hasn’t relinquished his stubbornness. But he’s proven himself right, a wise mastermind, more frequently than not. And frankly, he’s changed too, evolved.“You grow each and every year,” Babcock said Saturday, and he was talking about himself. “Once you want to be good at your craft, you’re always trying to get better. There’s lots of situations you like to think you handled well, there’s lots of situations you didn’t handle very well. Also, there’s a trust process. You build a relationship over time based on trust.“You’re a coach, they’re a player, but there’s still an important caring process there. Your job’s to help them help themselves get to be the best they can be.”There’s no doubt Babcock has altered how he relates to the players. “From year one to now, yeah, for sure,’’ agrees Morgan Rielly, among the few Leafs who predate Babcock in Toronto. “His approach the firs ...
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