Toggle sidebar

Babcock fired by the Leafs discussion

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
Judas Tavares said:
If the hiring of Keefe means too much change in the way you are used to the game being, well then learn to deal with change.

I used to not care about picks, prospects and youth. I used to love fighting and couldn't imagine the game without it. Times have changed and I have adapted to it because this is my favourite sport and I knew I'd have to change with the game.

I am now all about youth, development and skill. Seeing a hockey fight now makes me cringe as its so out of place. It is what it is.
Click to expand...

Same here. More and more as time goes by I'd like to see fighting eliminated from the game for many reasons. I get that people like to watch fights but there's boxing, MMA and whatever else so people that like it have tons of options. I have no interest in watching MMA fighters play hockey and in the same way, I have no interest in watching NHL players fight.


CantLoseWithMatthews said:
yeah and not only Franzen, but according to O'Neill he talked with 5 former players who all said the same thing. Babcock clearly has crossed the line from being a demanding coach to being a rotten person who is abhorred by all who cross his path. I can't overstate how good it is for the organization to be done with him
Click to expand...

Amen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Judas Tavares
stickty111 said:
More stuff from Chelios.

Chris Chelios has made his feelings on Mike Babcock known before, but he's going into more detail now that the former NHL head coach is coming under fire for his handling of players.
The Hall of Fame defenseman, who played for Babcock with the Detroit Red Wings for four seasons near the end of his career, opened up about his former bench boss on the "Spittin' Chiclets" podcast.
"What's come up here in Toronto … it's coming back to haunt Babcock for not so much his coaching as the way he treated people,” Chelios said.
“What he did to (Mike) Modano was incredibly disrespectful," he added. "What he did to, just recently, (Jason) Spezza in Toronto, those were the things that are so unnecessary."
Last week, just days after Babcock was fired as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was revealed that he had shamed Mitch Marner in 2016 by asking the then-rookie to make a list ranking his teammates by work ethic before Babcock shared it with the players at the bottom of the list.
Babcock said last week that he apologized to Marner at the time.
The longtime bench boss made Modano a healthy scratch with 1,499 games played and the forward ultimately never reached the 1,500-game milestone. Earlier this season, Babcock made Spezza a healthy scratch for the season opener against Spezza's former team, the Ottawa Senators.
Chelios said that after one disagreement with the coach early in his Red Wings tenure, Babcock told him, "If you don't like it, you can go see (general manager) Kenny Holland. I'm sure he'll trade you."
The legendary blue-liner also called it "so unnecessary" that Babcock tried to make him a healthy scratch for the 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago because he knew it was Chelios' hometown. Babcock eventually relented, but he benched Chelios after the opening shift.
Chelios said in 2017 that no veteran free agent would "want to come in and play for" Babcock.

I have officially lost all respect for Babcock if I even had any left. He tried to scratch Chelios in an outdoor game in his hometown? Then instead he benches him after 1 shift?
Click to expand...
I do find the statement though, no veteran would want to come in and play for him, when we have multiple examples of UFA's who could choose where they want to sign to play for him. Notably Tavares, but to a lesser extent Marleau, Spezza, Modano, etc. All of them knew his rep but chose to sign where Babs was coaching.

Babcock did a lot of questionable things. But, Chelios also seems to think that veterans are entitled to special treatment when it comes to sit/scratch decisions. Didn't people complain for days because they thought Marleau got special treatment to extend his streak?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ignatius Reilly, al secord and hullsy47
Now the MLSE thing to do will be having everyone be too soft on the players. From one extreme to another. There’s never a middle ground ie going from Burke’s testosterone pugnacity to Dubas soft Soviet offence.
 
Myopic said:
That's simply not true. There were a lot of examples including the Modano story, Chris Chelios, and lot of rumors out of Detroit that the players hated him. Commodore wouldn't have been so angry if it was not true and yet the foks in here had every excuse to defend Babcock and sh*t on the evidence.

Ignorance is bliss.
Click to expand...
Benching players in important games is hardass for sure but you could still make the point that he was sending a message, even if you don't like it. The Marner story took it to an altogether new level, that's pretty much hazing and borderline abusive and was a shock to many. After that, all the earlier stuff gets seen from a new perspective.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stickty111, hullsy47 and Loosie
If nothing else, Babcock has lost a lot of power on any future team he coaches. With this dirt out there, players are going to be a lot quicker to call his shit and tune him out knowing the media is primed and ready to attack him.
 
Myopic said:
I remember 2 months ago when I started that Commodore thread, at least 80% of the folks in here defended Babcock and trashed Commodore.
This was before the Marner stuff.
Click to expand...

Conformity and group think are powerful. Do a search on the Milgram experiment. There's a saying I've always liked: "Fashion is the race to see who can conform the fastest".

We have a lot conformers in here because its fashionable. They always back management and disdain more critical thinking because they perceive it as being anti-management/Leafs versus critical thinking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: weems, CelticDruid, Teeder Keon and 1 other person
LeafSteel said:
R’uh oh!!!!

Zoinks!!!
Click to expand...
upload_2019-12-2_15-5-9.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: stickty111, saffronleaf and LeafSteel
93LEAFS said:
I do find the statement though, no veteran would want to come in and play for him, when we have multiple examples of UFA's who could choose where they want to sign to play for him. Notably Tavares, but to a lesser extent Marleau, Spezza, Modano, etc. All of them knew his rep but chose to sign where Babs was coaching.

Babcock did a lot of questionable things. But, Chelios also seems to think that veterans are entitled to special treatment when it comes to sit/scratch decisions. Didn't people complain for days because they thought Marleau got special treatment to extend his streak?
Click to expand...

Yup, true enough. Obviously statements like no veteran would ever play for him are simply not true. It'll be interesting to see what happens to him going forward, that's for sure.
 
93LEAFS said:
I do find the statement though, no veteran would want to come in and play for him, when we have multiple examples of UFA's who could choose where they want to sign to play for him. Notably Tavares, but to a lesser extent Marleau, Spezza, Modano, etc. All of them knew his rep but chose to sign where Babs was coaching.

Babcock did a lot of questionable things. But, Chelios also seems to think that veterans are entitled to special treatment when it comes to sit/scratch decisions. Didn't people complain for days because they thought Marleau got special treatment to extend his streak?
Click to expand...

Surely there's a significant difference between playing Spezza for 10 minutes on opening night instead of Gauthier or playing Modano for literally one game vs. gifting Marleau a free spot in the top 6 with PP time for months when it's clear he's completely out of gas and needs to sit and rest before the playoffs start. The Modano/Spezza situations have next to no impact on the team's success that year, a tired Marleau getting big minutes in a game 7 does have an impact.
 
93LEAFS said:
I do find the statement though, no veteran would want to come in and play for him, when we have multiple examples of UFA's who could choose where they want to sign to play for him. Notably Tavares, but to a lesser extent Marleau, Spezza, Modano, etc. All of them knew his rep but chose to sign where Babs was coaching.

Babcock did a lot of questionable things. But, Chelios also seems to think that veterans are entitled to special treatment when it comes to sit/scratch decisions. Didn't people complain for days because they thought Marleau got special treatment to extend his streak?
Click to expand...

All easily explained:
-Tavares & Spezza chose the hometown team and we were willing to put up with his bs.
-Marleau was given a third year when no other GM in their right mind would do it.
-Modano wanted another crack at the cup with an a top five team.
 
You're a mean one, Mr. Babcock
You really are a like Brashear
You're as cuddly as a Zamboni , you're as charming as Marchand , Mr. Babcock
You're a bad Pastrnak with greasy black hockey tape !
You're like Peters , Mr. Babcock
Your heart's an empty 5 hole
Your brain is full of egos you have hunting in your soul, Mr. Babcock
I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot Chara pole
You're on Grindr , Mr. Babcock
You have termites in your stick .
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick Mike Keenan , Mr. Babcooooock
Given a choice between the two of you I'd take the seasick Mike Keenan
You're not a gud pro , Mr. Babcock
You're a nasty wasty Tie Domi
Your heart is full of unwashed babsocks , your soul is full of pucks , Mr. Babcock
The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote,
"Stink stank, fu*****
You're steady on the rudder Mr. Babcock
You're the king of stubbornness
Your heart's a sick Bruin splotched with moldy purple spots, Mr. Babcock ,
Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful
assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable mangled up in tangled up knots!
You nauseate me, Mr. Babcock
With a nauseous bad Powerplay
You're a crooked jerky hockey poke and you drive a crooked Chevy , Mr. Babcock
You're a three decker Regina born and Laforge with Marner shaming sauce
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rocker13
sxvnert said:
All easily explained:
-Tavares & Spezza chose the hometown team and we were willing to put up with his bs.
-Marleau was given a third year when no other GM in their right mind would do it.
-Modano wanted another crack at the cup with an a top five team.
Click to expand...
So, Vets still are willing to sign with teams that employ him. It is not like Chelios added qualifiers.
 
To the many that believe hockey players need to 'man up', that coaches are supposed to be tough... please view the Franzen interview. That's a guy who would dummy every last one of us, on the ice, in the ring, in life generally. Everyone has a breaking point.

Very glad Babcock is gone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SwissLeaf, klmdg, Walshy7 and 4 others
He was a specialist at handling the media. He creates teams that are very hard to beat, you can’t take that away from him. But he makes his players very anxious, they are scared to death of making mistakes, and his teams rarely gets past the first round of the playoffs.
Click to expand...

Just to touch on this one bit:

I remember when Sandin was up to start the season, he was awesome the first few games then he made a couple bad errors in that St. Louis game and it really did seem like he went completely to shit in the following couple games after that, then he got sent down.

Not too hard to put two and two together. I'm gonna go ahead and guess Babcock was a complete dick to him about his off-game in St. Louis.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stopclickbait, stickty111 and saffronleaf
hockeyes said:
If nothing else, Babcock has lost a lot of power on any future team he coaches. With this dirt out there, players are going to be a lot quicker to call his **** and tune him out knowing the media is primed and ready to attack him.
Click to expand...
Who will hire him besides he cant get out of the first round
 
  • Like
Reactions: Teeder Keon
IPS said:
Just to touch on this one bit:

I remember when Sandin was up to start the season, he was awesome the first few games then he made a couple bad errors in that St. Louis game and it really did seem like he went completely to **** in the following couple games after that, then he got sent down.

Not too hard to put two and two together. I'm gonna go ahead and guess Babcock was a complete dick to him about his off-game in St. Louis.
Click to expand...
I hear what your saying
But......
I hope we don’t over analyze and micro view every move made by a coach ..
If your up and homing rookie is only going to play 5-8 min per game on a 3rd pairing then it is wise and just to have him go down to your farm team and play blights our in terms of ice time and PP and SH and continue developing ..
Babcock or not .
 
Why would Shanahan let such a Monster prey on this young team for as long as he did?
Maybe he was in on it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: MyBudJT
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom