TORONTO – Mike Babcock didn’t mince words following his team’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

“We played seven minutes great than it was the worse 13 minutes I've seen in a long time from a competitive standpoint,” said the Maple Leafs head coach of his team’s slow start, an all too familiar sight.

The Leafs were outshot 12-5 in the first period against a Flyers team that played the night before in Montreal. They allowed a pair of goals 39 seconds apart mid-way through the period. 

"I thought our fans were real nice to us after the first. I wouldn't have been as nice to us, I can tell you that.

“You need competitive people to have success and we're going to end up with lots of competitive people, but we don't have enough now.

Jonathan Bernier struggled in his second straight start allowing three goals on 13 shots. He was pulled 57 seconds into the second period after Brayden Schenn scored on a shot Bernier should have stopped.

“I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t make the big saves,” Bernier said after the game.

“You got to battle every day and you got to fight for what’s yours,” said Babcock. “It’s the same for your job, if you don’t do your job someone else is gettin’ her. That’s just the way it is. That’s the way life is.”

Meanwhile, Peter Holland took blame on the Shayne Gostisbehere game winning goal that was set up by Jakub Voracek.

 “The first shift in overtime, I let Voracek get on the wrong side of me there,” said Holland. “I’m not really happy with my performance. 

“We have the puck, we’re in a good spot, just stay on the high side,” said Babcock.

The Leafs have lost 15 of the past 19 games.

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Leo Komarov insists he will not change how he plays.  

“My style is tough,” said the Maple Leafs forward Saturday morning reacting to his three game suspension for his hit to the head of Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh Thursday. “I have, somebody said, over 600 hits (in NHL career). Not everyone can be a clean one.”

“I feel bad, I want to play hockey that’s the thing,” added Komarov, the Leafs points leader. “Three games to sit and watch the boys play, it’s not easy.”

Komarov hasn’t reached out to McDonagh: “I hope he’s ok. I had a pretty busy day yesterday.”

Will he contact him? “Yeah, if I got a chance. We’ll see.”

Komarov went through a phone hearing with the NHL's department of player safety on Friday afternoon.

The 29-year-old Komarov drew a match penalty for the hit and was ejected. The Rangers captain did not practice Saturday, suffering from jaw and neck injuries.

Komarov has 245 hits in the NHL this season which ranks third in the league. He plays the game with an edge, agitating his opponents. This is his first suspension of his three-year NHL career, although there have been some close calls in the past.

“Leo’s a good player, he plays real hard for us. It’s unfortunate that it happened,” Babcock said. “He’s got to serve his time. That’s the way it should be. Someone is going to get a good opportunity.”

Peter Holland started the game filling in for Komarov on a line with Nazem Kadri and Michael Grabner. That lasted a period before Daniel Winnik took over from Holland on the line.

Shawn Matthias returned to the lineup to face the Flyers, after missing five games with a neck injury. He scored his sixth of the season 1:29 into the game. 

“I just need to keep hitting and play the same way and try to be even tougher,” said Komarov. “Sometimes it’s going to happen. I’m disappointed about it but there’s nothing you can do.”

"Sometimes it happens like that," he said. "Nothing you can do. It's not my first time (making a borderline hit), probably not my last time either."

He will forfeit $47,580.66 US to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund and will be eligible to return for Toronto's Feb. 27 game at Montreal.

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The Maple Leafs honoured the armed forces before the game, something not lost on the players - especially 33-year-old Brad Boyes

While with the Florida Panthers, Boyes got to visit a hospital in Germany where wounded soldiers were being treated.

"It was not only eye-opening, but it was perspective, it was admiration, it was a lot of things," Boyes said. "You looked and you see these guys having jars beside their bed with shrapnel that they pulled out of the back of their head. It's powerful, it really is. It hit me pretty strongly, pretty hard. To talk to them. These guys are 18, 19 years old.

“My grandfather fought for Canada. You see that and you hear the stories," Boyes added. "But to see it up close to see what kids ... it's really tough to put into words. You can’t describe it to be honest."

Boyes picked up an assist on Bryon Froese’s goal. For Boyes it was his 500 career NHL point.

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Before the Leafs-Flyers game, the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies beat Portland 3-1 at the Air Canada Centre thanks to a pair of goals from Brendan Leipsic.

As an emergency call up Leipsic scored his first NHL goal for the Leafs in a 5-2 win over the Canucks last Saturday.  

“I was trying to be a sponge up there, soaking it all in,” said Leipsic when asked what he learned in his first call up to the NHL. “Playing without the puck is a huge thing up there and taking care of the puck too.

“I got a taste of it for a couple of days. I left with a good feeling.”

Leipsic has 16 goals in 49 AHL games this season. He was a player the Leafs acquired in the Cody Franson trade last year to Nashville.

With the win the Marlies improved to 40-9-4-0 on the season, first in the Eastern Conference.

“We got a lot of skill and we are learning to play with structure,” said Leipsic of the Marlies. “We don’t expect to lose at all, we expect to win every game and we expect to win convincingly too.”

The Marlies play has impressed Babcock.

“They have a ton of skill down there. They have the puck all the time. I saw more plays in four shifts than I saw in a week here," he said.

Making the jump for the likes of Leipsic and William Nylander to be consistent and regular NHL contributors isn’t an easy one.

“Until you get them on the ice and until you see them every day in the National Hockey League with the speed and tempo of the game you don’t know 100 per cent for sure,” Babcock said ahead of the game against the Flyers.

With the trade deadline over a week away, some Marlies players will likely get a chance to play with the Leafs.

“I think the whole season our guys have recognized they are part of the plan and part of the process here,” said Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe. “I think our players recognize there is a reason to come to work and be excited and if they continue to progress and develop, opportunity will be there for them.”