from Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun,

Sure, it’s just a modest two gamer, but with points in five of the past six games, the Leafs no longer are pointed towards the bottom of the NHL standings.

Released from the dead zone of being a healthy scratch just two days earlier, Toronto forward Peter Holland scored the lone goal through five rounds of a shootout here Thursday night to give the Leafs a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators....

“When you have success, you feel like you’ve earned it and you feel better about yourself,” Babcock said. “Two nights in a row we were down one in the third and found ways to win games. To me, we’ve got points in five of our past six games and you’ve got to start feeling better about yourself.”

The teacher in Babcock will certainly have a more captive audience now that points are starting to result from the effort and buy-in to the structured system he has advocated. With 12 points in 16 games, suddenly the Leafs aren’t so far off the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference.

The recent success doesn’t mean the Leafs coaching staff will stray from the patient learning curve it has mapped out. In fact, earlier Thursday Babcock outlined how he meticulously plans to develop offensively talented defencemen such as Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner.

“What my theory is and what I’m doing right now are two totally different things,” a candid Babcock said when asked what he expects from his defence as it continues to develop. “When we learn how to play, I want my left D to be like my left winger and my right D to be like the right winger. But we’re going to learn how to play first and then cut them loose.”

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Watch the game highlights below...