Mike Babcock is set to stand on the other bench from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night in Edmonton, the first time the reunion has come with him coaching against the team he once led. Morgan Rielly said he was a little bit surprised to see his former coach across from him, a simple reaction that fits a game loaded with memory.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. ET, with Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ carrying a meeting that has drawn attention because both clubs arrive feeling good. The Edmonton Oilers were 8-1-1 to start, Connor McDavid was logging an average of 23:46 in October, and Evan Bouchard was tracking what could become his biggest campaign under Babcock. Toronto, meanwhile, had won three straight under a Babcock protégé, which only sharpens the sense that this is more than an ordinary regular-season stop.
Rielly said he had talked to a couple of people around Edmonton and heard they wanted to bring Babcock in. He added that the coach was passionate about making players better and making the team better, which is part of why the reunion lands with more weight than a routine rematch. It is also a reminder of how many current names on the Toronto side were shaped during Babcock’s earlier run, including Auston Matthews, whom he called a home run when the lottery landed him, and William Nylander, who he remembered as the player out with the kids for hours, doing everything asked of him.
That past is where the friction lives. Babcock said he loved his time with the Maple Leafs and was proud of it, even while acknowledging the team lost in the first round three times when he was there. Jim Hiller, now part of the Edmonton side, said Babcock gave him his chance and pulled him out of junior when others may not have, a line that shows how the coach’s reach still runs through both benches.
For Toronto, the night also carries a measure of history from another angle. Rielly pointed to the 2018-19 season, when he posted a 20-goal, 72-point year under Babcock, as proof that the relationship produced results as well as memories. Edmonton is chasing its first regular-season divisional crown in the McDavid-Draisaitl era, Toronto is trying to keep its strong run going, and the next answer comes fast once the game starts: whether the reunion stays mostly ceremonial or turns into the kind of night that changes how both sides feel about their place in the standings.
