Leafs’ Kadri back excelling at both ends of the ice after tough stretch
TORONTO — When Toronto Maple Leafs centre Nazem Kadri was in the midst of recording just two points over a 20-game stretch earlier this season — including 12 straight outings where he was held entirely off the scoresheet — his head coach refused to call it a slump.
That opinion hasn’t changed.
“I didn’t know he had a slump,” Mike Babcock quipped earlier this week. “I kept hearing about the slump, and he’d be playing against the best players and we’d win and they’d get no goals.
“So to me, that’s what he’s paid to do right there. He’s paid to make sure that someone else can win the matchup in the lineup, and then the rest of it is a bonus.”