It was short, definitely not sweet, and for certain, to the point.

The Maple Leafs’ practice Friday lasted about 24 minutes — the shortest on-ice workout of the season — and it was meant to be that way, after Thursday’s unacceptable effort in a 6-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

“They (players) understood, it was drawn up for 30 minutes, it was done in 24 or whatever,” Babcock said afterwards.

“We didn’t want anyone wasting any energy or fooling around out there, we want it (saved) for the game.”

The Leafs will try and get on track again Saturday when they host the Flyers at the Air Canada Centre, but they may be doing it without James van Riemsdyk, who missed his second straight practice despite playing Thursday against the Hurricanes.

“I don’t know, he wasn’t available for practice today,” Babcock said, regarding van Riemsdyk’s status.

Van Riemsdyk was seen after practice, walking with a bandage and either an ice pack or a therapy device, wrapped to his upper right leg area.

Babcock indicated Josh Leivo, who has yet to play this season, could make it into the lineup Saturday.

“Leiv’s (Leivo) has been dying to play anyways,” Babcock said.

With a short practice, Babcock unveiled new forward units, partly because van Riemsdyk was unavailable and partly because he’s looking for more balance between offence and defence from his forwards.

The coach had Tyler Bozak between Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau, and Nazem Kadri with longtime winger Leo Komarov and newcomer to the line Connor Brown.

The fourth line saw Dominic Moore between Matt Martin and Leivo.

The top line — Auston Matthews, Zach Hyman, and William Nylander — remained unchanged.

While the practice was short, it focused intensely on line drills in a short space at the end of the ice. Each line went all out against another line in a space confined to the distance between the faceoff dots and the end boards.

“It was something where we wanted to make it hard for the offence to get to the net,” goalie Freddie Andersen said.

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When practice ended, the players all left in unison; the coaching staff stayed on the ice and picked up the pucks before exiting.

Babcock could be heard with one parting comment to his players just as they completed the final drill: “Everybody know how to backcheck.”

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