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Mike Babcock none too pleased with officiating in Philly

Somebody get Mike Babcock a drink.

It was a very salty evening for the Maple Leafs head coach, who once again watched his club get outshot and outplayed while going down to the Flyers 4-2 on Tuesday. Though many of the team’s skaters likely felt the wrath of their commander-in-chief in the dressing room after the game, it was the officials and particularly the linesmen who were stuck in the crossfires of Babcock’s verbal rifle.

The game was goalless in the first period when Patrick Marleau was kicked out of a defensive zone face off on a very borderline call. In the aftermath, Sean Couturier dominated winger Zack Hyman on the draw and won the puck back as clean as a whistle to Claude Giroux who promptly buried to put the Flyers up 1-0.

A snarling Babcock wasn’t thrilled with how the situation shook out, and in his fury delivered an exceptionally fine sarcastic clap towards the officials.

Oh, yeah, he mumbled a little something during his theatrics, too. In case you’re no lip reader, he addressed the performance of the officials and even saved a word or two for himself.

It was that kind of night for coach and club as the Flyers out-skated and out-played Toronto for the third period and a majority of the contest. Philly also out-shot the Leafs 38-22, including an 18-9 edge in the final frame.

Babcock’s team has now been outshot — several times by a wide margin — in 15 of its last 20 contests.

He had a very quick postgame scrum as well, lasting only a short, un-Babcock-like 90 seconds, in which he bit his tongue when asked about the performance of the officials. “Have you looked at the faceoff? It doesn’t much matter. It’s over with. No official tries to be involved with anything. I didn’t like it.”

His superstar sophomore centre Auston Matthews is out for who-knows-how-long with an undisclosed ailment. Ref-dudes are kicking his guys out of defensive-zone faceoffs at will, and it’s damn cold in Toronto right now. Babcock’s got all the reasons to show a little pre-holiday salt.

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