Babcock Interview (Since being hired by Saskatoon) "Something doesn't add up"

[leafsfan5]

Exactly. Players hate him, fine.
My problem is that he got out coached in every playoff series.

That 2019 series against the Bruins will forever piss me off, if we get even half decent coaching we win that and potentially go on a run. He had the PK operating at like f***ing 65% and we still ended up 3-2 going home with a chance to close out

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

Would need other folks to speak up to certify that story. possible scenarios are:

• Franzen and Babcock both have massive ego; they clashed. Was Franzen going through something else in his private life that this clash broke the camel's back? Franzen probably wasnt playing up to 100% and got called out and thought "OMG nothing is going well in my life...."
• The only corroboration on this story comes from chillios and franzen himself; may be others should speak up including every player he has ever coached I guess to really get a consensus
• Franzen took Babcock's "hard treatment" as bullying
• May be Babcock was really bullying him and of course that is not acceptable
• Who really knows?

you see there are many layers to a story. If this case was in a court it would require many proofs and evidence. So far folks in media and social media have been judge, jury and executioner. Which I think is a bit unfar. If babcock really is a dick then sure call him out; if these are isolated cases of clashing egos then perhaps character assassination is not a good way to go about.

Didn't Zetterberg and Kronwall also verify the story?

 

[The Masters]

He is right. Once lou was gone, dubas was going to bring his own guy eventually. We all knew what babcock was and how he coached. They were polar opposites on how they wanted their team built.

 

[MSZ]

Leaf fans still trying to fire Babcock. You can't be anymore fired then being fired.

Funny how no one hated Babs when he coached Canada in international play.

Did you actually watch those games? Yes Sid's goals in those gold medal games were exciting stuff, but the on ice product was literally unwatchable in 2010 and 14.

 

[Martin Skoula]

Did you actually watch those games? Yes Sid's goals in those gold medal games were exciting stuff, but the on ice product was literally unwatchable in 2010 and 14.

He somehow took arguably the most well rounded top-to-bottom team of all time and almost had to go to OT against Latvia. 1 goal in 53 minutes.

 

[MSZ]

He somehow took arguably the most well rounded top-to-bottom team of all time and almost had to go to OT against Latvia. 1 goal in 53 minutes.

The games against the US and Finland in 14 were just as bad. They scored two goals in both games combined.

 

[Steve776]

And you came from where?

From the feed shed for a bucket of cracked corn.

 

[saffronleaf]

“You can't have the wife I have and the kids I have and the family I have without being a good human being. I don't have any problem with that whatsoever."

What an unbelievable lack of self awareness from a real piece of garbage

Typical Egocock

 

[stickty111]

Lol at Babcock thinking he got fired for a change of GM. I'm sure it wasn't being outcoached in the playoffs, and playing washed up players over your star player plus not adapting to the roster

 

[Nylanderthal]

Leaf fans still trying to fire Babcock. You can't be anymore fired then being fired.

Funny how no one hated Babs when he coached Canada in international play.

Mike commodore, Chris chelios and mike modano would all disagree with you. It’s just no one would listen at the time.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Han worked for the Leafs so this is legit. What a stubborn ass.

 

[frog]

I mean if Steve Yzerman loves this guy how the f*** is he that bad of a person?

 

[TheDoldrums]

Maybe if you weren’t a combative, vindictive, and uncooperative prick you’d still be Leafs coach.

It would be so easy for Babcock to do a redemption tour about being a new person and growing. But his ego won't allow him to do anything but make excuses and play the victim. It's pathetic.

 

[stickty111]

Han worked for the Leafs so this is legit. What a stubborn ass.

Wow just was about to post it. You have got to be kidding me.

 

[nuck]

I'd bet he's unemployed less because of Franzen/Marner and more because of throwing Dubas under the bus & openly trying to show him up (not playing his guys like Holl, Spezza, etc).

Babcock was more invested in a power struggle with Dubas and ended up fired and made other GMs worry that he'd do the same to them.

Unemployed because he is still being paid almost $6M a year more likely. He doesn't need to look at any club in the bottom half of the league. Not that the best opportunities are necessarily being offered but you make it sound like he is unemployable. Gallant can't find work either and he walked away with a lot less then Babcock.

He isn't the first coach to be at odds with his GM over roster building and the coach is usually the casualty. Other GMs will want to win first and foremost and that will probably drive their hiring. He didn't undermine Holland so I think you may be reading too much into what was a discord between two individuals.

As far as Holl this has been brought up before and I'm not really sure why. In 18-19 they had Zaits and Hainsey and had just brought Oz over so there was no opening, plus he really didn't show anything at all in his 11 games up. Next year they added Barrie and Ceci so he wasn't playing ahead of them. Barrie and Ceci were Dubas decisions, not Babcock's and they had to be played, this would not have been the coach's option. Eventually Holl plays himself into a top 4 role but that wasn't in spite of Babcock or because of Keefe. More like Barrie and Ceci eventually lost any support from Dubas to own top 4 spots. He just earned it.

No argument about Spezza. Babs probably asked for some lineup changes and didn't get them and he overplayed his hand. Spezza would likely have been the tipping point, not the actual problem. We don't know the players Babcock was asking for or how close they came to different deals but I think the Spezza situation was the culmination of a much bigger disagreement and a club can have only one GM. It seems petty to use Spezza as the exclamation point.

 

[Menzinger]

Han worked for the Leafs so this is legit. What a stubborn ass.

Was just about to post this. And worth noting Han has posted a few humorous/positive stories about woeking with Babcock in the past.

This story is definitely not a good look lol

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Wow just was about to post it. You have got to be kidding me.

I wanna know what the first two stories are.

 

[IPS]

Han worked for the Leafs so this is legit. What a stubborn ass.

What an absolute turd my god

 

[IPS]

He isn't the first coach to be at odds with his GM over roster building and the coach is usually the casualty. Other GMs will want to win first and foremost and that will probably drive their hiring. He didn't undermine Holland so I think you may be reading too much into what was a discord between two individuals.

Of course he never undermined Holland. He brought back the most useless player in the league for him in Dan Cleary because Babcock had a hard on for him.

And no - there's absolutely no defending benching Holl for almost an entire season, no clue how you're even attempting to defend that. That's pure incompetence.

 

[Guy Boucher]

Unemployed because he is still being paid almost $6M a year more likely. He doesn't need to look at any club in the bottom half of the league. Not that the best opportunities are necessarily being offered but you make it sound like he is unemployable. Gallant can't find work either and he walked away with a lot less then Babcock.

He isn't the first coach to be at odds with his GM over roster building and the coach is usually the casualty. Other GMs will want to win first and foremost and that will probably drive their hiring. He didn't undermine Holland so I think you may be reading too much into what was a discord between two individuals.

As far as Holl this has been brought up before and I'm not really sure why. In 18-19 they had Zaits and Hainsey and had just brought Oz over so there was no opening, plus he really didn't show anything at all in his 11 games up. Next year they added Barrie and Ceci so he wasn't playing ahead of them. Barrie and Ceci were Dubas decisions, not Babcock's and they had to be played, this would not have been the coach's option. Eventually Holl plays himself into a top 4 role but that wasn't in spite of Babcock or because of Keefe. More like Barrie and Ceci eventually lost any support from Dubas to own top 4 spots. He just earned it.

No argument about Spezza. Babs probably asked for some lineup changes and didn't get them and he overplayed his hand. Spezza would likely have been the tipping point, not the actual problem. We don't know the players Babcock was asking for or how close they came to different deals but I think the Spezza situation was the culmination of a much bigger disagreement and a club can have only one GM. It seems petty to use Spezza as the exclamation point.

1 - Babcock hasn't been hired because no one wants to hire him. The issue of his salary is a red herring. Teams can negotiate it out with MLSE. If the team said they wanted to hire Babcock and were willing to pay him $3M a year, MLSE would definitely agree so as to save themselves half his salary. And anyways, there are reports that Babcock's contract was frontloaded, so its highly doubtful that he's still owed $6M a year.

2 - There's no reason Oz should have started so many consecutive games when it was clear pretty early on that he wasn't an NHL defender. Babcock refused to use Holl the same way he refused to use Leivo and others. On purpose. Feschuk reported it was to slight Dubas, which is pretty obviously frankly. He also scratched Holl to open the 2019 season, but ultimately had no choice to play him because Ceci/Barrie/Marincin were subpar.

There's plenty of other slights that can be mentioned beyond just Holl/Spezza. Heck, the day Dubas traded for Muzzin, Babcock openly slighted him by saying he was disappointed they didn't acquire a right handed defender.

Yes, lots of coaches disagree with their managers. But none openly slight them the way Babcock did Dubas. And those kind of shenanigan's are really shunned and despised by GMs around the league. In fact, GMs who don't even like Dubas would be upset because of the principle of it all.

 

[ottomaddox]

Mike commodore, Chris chelios and mike modano would all disagree with you. It’s just no one would listen at the time.

Commodore, Chelios, and Modano never ever never ever played for Team Canada.

Never ever...

 

[Not My Tempo]

Han worked for the Leafs so this is legit. What a stubborn ass.

2019 trade deadline we were running who as the 6th?

Rielly - Hainsey
Muzzin - Zaitsev
Dermott - ????

Was it Marincin? Ozhiganov? For sure wasn't Holl as he was in the press box. Gardiner was injured and the team was really uncertain about his situation. Did this guy really put his ego above team's success?

 

[ottomaddox]

Did you actually watch those games? Yes Sid's goals in those gold medal games were exciting stuff, but the on ice product was literally unwatchable in 2010 and 14.

Now he's accused of winning? Oh the humanity! What bad bad bad person he is!

 

[Nylanderthal]

Commodore, Chelios, and Modano never ever never ever played for Team Canada.

Never ever...

They all played for him in Detroit, what’s your point? Mine is that there are people who were outspoken about Babcock being a piece of shit.

 

[stickty111]

2019 trade deadline we were running who as the 6th?

Rielly - Hainsey
Muzzin - Zaitsev
Dermott - ????

Was it Marincin? Ozhiganov? For sure wasn't Holl as he was in the press box. Gardiner was injured and the team was really uncertain about his situation. Did this guy really put his ego above team's success?

It certainly looks like he did. Imagine having that kind of arrogance, and hurt your team to show up the GM.