TORONTO – The internet dubbed them "Hunlak" and it wasn’t meant to be a term of endearment.

Yet Mike Babcock’s faith in veteran defencemen Matt Hunwick and Roman Polak has never wavered. The Toronto Maple Leafs head coach appreciates the team’s passionate fan base and recognizes its right to an opinion, but indicated "I don’t live in that (Twitter) world."

"We like Polie," Babcock said. "We didn’t tend to worry about what everyone else says. We decide what we like, and Polie and Hunny have been great. They’re veteran players. They know where to stand."

That is of particular importance to the coach with his team attempting to nail down an unexpected playoff berth. The Leafs are fresh off a pair of tightly contested games against Chicago and Boston, and have been repeatedly instructed about how to limit the kind of mistakes that turn into five-alarm chances against.

Polak and Hunwick might as well be fitted for a fireman’s helmet.

Unspectacularly, and without much fanfare, they’ve been helping keep the blaze at bay.

"It might not be a surprise for everyone that Chicago keeps bringing back these ‘D’ that are 30 and 34 and 35," said Babcock. "Why? Because they know where to stand. They’ve had enough minuses in their career by chasing the puck around, they know where they should be.

"Veteran players are important."

The more skilled puckmovers on Toronto’s back end are relatively young, with Jake Gardiner, 26, and Connor Carrick, 22, the best at driving possession. Morgan Rielly, 23, and Nikita Zaitsev, 25, boast those abilities as well, but have faced a stiffer challenge for much of the year while being deployed as a shutdown pairing.

Hunwick and Polak are the greybeards tasked with handling the meat-and-potatoes minutes.

They didn’t perform well on shot-based metrics early in the season – accounting for much of the criticism – but have shown considerable improvement in that area. Since Feb. 1, the Leafs have controlled 49.48 per cent of even-strength shot attempts with Hunwick on the ice and 49.11 per cent with Polak out there.

Each also plays a front-line role on the penalty kill.

It was especially telling how Babcock responded in the wake of an ugly 7-2 loss in Florida last week.

He’s mixed and matched the pairings in all three games since – shifting the heaviest defensive responsibilities to Gardiner and Zaitsev while giving Polak several shifts with Rielly. That’s like trying to pair a drummer with a member of the strings section, but teammates believe it works because of the way the 30-year-old Czech positions himself in the defensive zone.

"He’s good at identifying areas of the ice that are really important," Carrick said of Polak. "Like where is a scoring area? Where is somebody going to score on me next? And then put the fire out, you just stand right there. … Those guys are good at what they do and there’s a reason why teams sign them and play them and want them around their team.

"He gets to areas of the ice that are defensively sound, where goals can happen, and they don’t because he’s standing there."

Added Rielly: "Playing with him, just keep it simple."

While Polak and Hunwick clearly remain bottom-pairing options on the organization’s depth chart, the coach’s faith in them suggests that one or both could be back in a similar role next season. The Leafs will be looking for upgrades at the position and each is an unrestricted free agent this summer, but there is still value in what they bring.

That should be underscored with the most important games of the season at hand.

Polak made a Stanley Cup final appearance with San Jose last spring and is confident the Leafs will qualify for the playoffs now.

"I’m dialled in that we’re going to make it," he said. "I just look around the team and (see) progress from the beginning of the season. I see the progress in the young guys, too. I just have a confidence that we can do it."

Should that happen, perhaps there will be some change in perception about the pairing known as Hunlak.

"I don’t know why exactly people might feel the way they do," said Carrick. "I don’t know what they’re basing it on, numbers-wise, whatever. But a lot of good teams have guys like him. Teams that play in the playoffs. Boston’s got a big guy in (Zdeno) Chara, Washington has (Brooks) Orpik, Pittsburgh just traded for (Ron) Hainsey – these guys that eat up the minutes that you hope you don’t notice.

"The PK minutes, things like that."

Fortunately, Polak has been blissfully unaware of the season-long discussion about his role in a segment of the fanbase.

"I have no idea," he said. "I don’t have a Twitter, I don’t have anything. I have a Facebook, but it’s a private Facebook. That’s it, I’m staying off it, I don’t read anything and I’m happy.

"I’m happy this way."

So, too, is his coach.