from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

If Mike Babcock’s job is on the line this season, you’ve really got to start wondering whether he’s got a fighting chance.

At this point, it appears more like his boss, Kyle Dubas, has tasked Babcock with the unenviable job of getting better results out of a roster that is no better than last year’s, and quite possibly weaker.

Coming off a collapse against Montreal, a tight one-goal defeat to the Stanley Cup champions from St. Louis and a walloping at the hands of talented Tampa on Thursday, the Maple Leafs are certainly looking a bit wobbly in the second week of the NHL season.

Against the Bolts, the same vulnerabilities that were there last spring when the Leafs went out in the first round of the playoffs against Boston remained. That’s not surprising, given that the major surgery done by Dubas this summer on the Leaf roster — the five players who started the game on Thursday weren’t in the opening night lineup a year ago — wasn’t about improving the team’s weakest areas.

Dubas didn’t set out to fix problems. He was necessarily and completely focused on controlling costs.

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