More Babcock Shenanigans

[potatowejj]

I wonder if Babcock was just accidentally a successful coach and primarily a psychopath first and foremost.

Mike Keenan would say absolutely.

 

[Brookbank]

Guy was always someone I disliked as a player. I am surprised he did as well as a coach, but having that era detroit can certainly pad ones numbers. Torts seems sane by comparison and boobcock reminds me of michel therrien. Tormenting your players for some "psychological" reason they justify as team building.

I heard that Vignault did some sh** too. Same school of coaching as Therrien

 

[Number8]

I always thought Mike Babcock was a major league asshole.

But now I find out that he targeted Nazem Kadri and I have a different perspective. Just goes to show that it's not always wise to jump to conclusions before you have all the information.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

How was this guy coach for so long?

Success. And by "success" I mean having stacked teams in Detroit and with Team Canada that I could have coached to victory.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

One of my first purchases through the scholastic book fair. Anyone else remember those?

Absolutely. The first book I remember buying from there was a book about Jim Marshall, a Defensive End who played 19 seasons for the Minnesota Vikings. I wanted to be a professional football player at the time, so I read this book every day lol.

 

[BlueSeal]

Mike Keenan would say absolutely.

I don't even think Keenan would stoop this low.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I don't even think Keenan would stoop this low.

He would, and then some. This was their shtick and was overlooked until their teams stopped contending and they ultimately wore out their welcome.

 

[TS Quint]

I miss the good old days when the Leafs hired Babcock and he was THE BEST COACH IN THE WORLD! Hot damn, he won a single Cup in 10 years of having a stacked team with the Wings and don’t forget the Gold Medal that any of us could have won as coach. He was so great back then. Suddenly in his last year with the Leafs the media remembered he’s always been a piece of crap. Weird how that worked. The typical TMLSE goodbye, you’re protected while you’re here but we will throw you to the wolves on the way out because we need an excuse for failure. And yet failure keeps happening.

I don't even think Keenan would stoop this low.

Keenan was a health nut in his day! He made the players smoke OUTSIDE the dressing room.

 

[hamzarocks]

How many guys can make it to the NHL while being lazy in the gym? If there were some, why would they need to be ripped by trainers?

- Wouldn’t their on-ice performance be the primary indicator of laziness?

Kyle wellwood was maybe a guy wh9 was lazy and not willing to work hadd enough despite a lot of talent and abilities which led to poor fitness/conditioning and early retirement.

Daigle wasnt fat/out of shape but he apparently didnt even like hockey outside of the pay that came with it so he was a guy most coaches would hate.

Babcock was a dummy though. If you feel certain players are lazy/not working hard enough you discuss with them and let them know that a lazy attitude and lack of effort will result in you not playing much.

Power tripping and targetting a rookie is a dick move and hurts roster chemistry which is as important as individual players work ethics

 

[danny90]

How many guys can make it to the NHL while being lazy in the gym? If there were some, why would they need to be ripped by trainers?

- Wouldn’t their on-ice performance be the primary indicator of laziness?

Even Kessel was praised by teammates and trainers for his work in the gym, and a lot of people considered him lazy

 

[danny90]

Kyle wellwood was maybe a guy wh9 was lazy and not willing to work hadd enough despite a lot of talent and abilities which led to poor fitness/conditioning and early retirement.

Daigle wasnt fat/out of shape but he apparently didnt even like hockey outside of the pay that came with it so he was a guy most coaches would hate.

Babcock was a dummy though. If you feel certain players are lazy/not working hard enough you discuss with them and let them know that a lazy attitude and lack of effort will result in you not playing much.

Power tripping and targetting a rookie is a dick move and hurts roster chemistry which is as important as individual players work ethics

To be fair to Wellwood he was coming off 3 groin surgeries and a broken leg, it wasn’t laziness as he struggled to put on weight generally before that.

 

[Cup or Bust]

I don't mind if a coach is tough. When I was younger I played for a really tough coach everyone on our team hated, I actually liked him though. He wasn't a complete A-hole like Babcock is, he just wanted guys to play as hard as they could. I would say it is a lack of intelligence on Babcock's part thinking some of these idiotic strategies he used would actually improve the performance of the players. Straight forward honesty works much better. I guess Babcock is a weak and insecure man though because straight forward and honest works when players respect a coach and Babcock must have had no confidence in himself to gain respect from players so he had to play these moronic games to try and push players.

 

[BB79]

I've always felt that Badcock always has this miserable look on his face. Just seems like a depressing person to be around.

 

[ponder]

I don't mind if a coach is tough. When I was younger I played for a really tough coach everyone on our team hated, I actually liked him though. He wasn't a complete A-hole like Babcock is, he just wanted guys to play as hard as they could. I would say it is a lack of intelligence on Babcock's part thinking some of these idiotic strategies he used would actually improve the performance of the players. Straight forward honesty works much better. I guess Babcock is a weak and insecure man though because straight forward and honest works when players respect a coach and Babcock must have had no confidence in himself to gain respect from players so he had to play these moronic games to try and push players.

I think most NHLers are with you - for example Torts is a total hard ass coach, but players don’t really speak badly of him. They’ll say he pushes you, but is straightforward, honest and fair. The quotes about Torts from MSL and Josh Anderson in this article are pretty typical NHLer opinions, from what I’ve seen: Kindness shown by John Tortorella not a surprise to Canadiens coach

But Babs is different, he plays head games with people, is nasty for the sake of being nasty, and destroys players/careers out of spite. Sounds like he’s regularly a ginormous asshole to random arena staff too, which obviously has nothing to do with team performance. Dude is just a shit human being, hopefully he never coaches in the NHL again.