Was Mike Babcock right all along about this Leafs core?

[EdmFlyersfan]

Mike Babcock is an old school hard ass-type coach and the Leafs quit on him in 2019. Sure he's an ass and used questionable methods, but 6 years and multiple EMBARRASSING playoff exits and breakdowns later it looks like the same core players still can't get it done. They are slowly earning the crown as the biggest collection of chokesters in NHL playoffs history.

For all his faults, Babcock knew this Leafs core was rotten to the mushy soft core, and almost a decade later they still haven't matured and grown up. The more time passes, the more it looks like this rotten core was the problem in Toronto.

Well he did have intimate knowledge of the players after going through all their phones...

 

[3074326]

He was mean to Mitchy, his hard ass methods were tuned out by the team and he was fired shortly after. He was too "tough" for this marshmallow soft core and basically got blackballed from the league as a result.

He got blackballed from the league for being a total f***ing weirdo, let’s not re-write history. What a shitty post.

Love that since the team lost you have concocted this stupid ass narrative that invading peoples’ privacy and holding it against them is something acceptable to do. f*** outta here.

 

[Dolemite]

This is the silliest thread I’ve ever read.

Here’s the Leafs MO for years:

Put all the money into your scoring lines and nothing into the depth.

Come playoff time, opponents shut down the scorers while the depth pylons fail to even tie their own Velcro shoelaces let alone put a puck on net.

This is why Shanahan was fired/let go/whatever. He couldn’t fathom what was needed to make a winner.

Meanwhile Florida and Edmonton invested in depth.

 

[Fatass]

Babs, Keefe, and now Berube were (are) all wrong.

 

[Dolemite]

Babs, Keefe, and now Berube were (are) all wrong.

No, Shanahan was wrong. See my post above.

 

[Fatass]

No, Shanahan was wrong. See my post above.

Everyone working with that Leafs core four was wrong. Those four aren’t the problem; it’s everyone else.

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

Mike Babcock is an old school hard ass-type coach and the Leafs quit on him in 2019. Sure he's an ass and used questionable methods, but 6 years and multiple EMBARRASSING playoff exits and breakdowns later it looks like the same core players still can't get it done. They are slowly earning the crown as the biggest collection of chokesters in NHL playoffs history.

For all his faults, Babcock knew this Leafs core was rotten to the mushy soft core, and almost a decade later they still haven't matured and grown up. The more time passes, the more it looks like this rotten core was the problem in Toronto.

"Let me look at your phone, unlock it. Now, make me a list of the laziest players on this team"

 

[Dolemite]

Everyone working with that Leafs core four was wrong. Those four aren’t the problem; it’s everyone else.

Shanahan prevented them from making moves. Look it up on the Athletic. He was completely incompetent in his decisions

 

[Stephen]

Isn't that more of an indictment against the core than a gold star for him? I don't know how anyone can apologize for them at this point.

You can be a bad person and have the correct read on a situation, those aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

I do think he had the right instinct about Auston and Mitch though. He always kept them apart, preferring to put Auston on a line with a blue collar dirty work Hyman (who was deemed unworthy for many years) and speedy Nylander, while Mitch was originally played with JVR and Bozak, and then later Tavares.

I think Auston and Mitch aren't a good pair together and fall into bad habits and are extremely stale and lazy. Marner is more freewheeling and dynamic when he isn't tasked with running with Matthews, and Matthews is a chameleon who plays the game to the environment vs having any real true style for himself. Babcock was insightful to a degree to never put this duo together.

I dunno if he could have been right in predicting a couple of 21-22 year olds would never figure it out though.

 

[Kamus]

I'm as mad as any Leafs fan about another early exit. But what does that have to do with Babcock?

Babs never said "this core can't win."

They tried a harass coach. They tried a new age coach. Now they tried a defensive coach. All of them failing doesn't prove any of them right.

Ahhhhh doesn’t it though… different approaches….same result…..

 

[NYRnine94]

I remember when they made a Detroit roster image where all the players' names were mashed up with "Babcock".

Babtin Abdelcock. Babrik Zettercock. Babel Datscock. Etc. It was funny.

Alrighty then

 

[Rabid Ranger]

The problem with the Leafs core is 1) you have a ton of cap tied up in just a few forwards, which hurts the depth 2) these guys are cut from the same cloth personality wise. Not much fire.

 

[Beneven Stanciano]

I'd be fine with him as my coach. Everyone who has ever said he is a terrible human also said, "was an amazing coach though, most prepared guy ever" etc. That's the coach i want. You don't need to be friends with him, he wants to win more than anything else. He didn't out them publicly i don't think, but he clearly knew the way they wanted to play was not going to get it done when it mattered most.

It's not day-care, it's a multimillion dollar paying job. If you want the payday you better want the responsibility. "Oh poor mitch, someone was mean to him" Marner looks like a D-head anyway, yelling at his teammates to 'Wake The F Up' when HE needs to wake up, homie makes so much money he needs to be doing something outside of no-look backhand spin-o-rama from inside your own zone to the middle of the ice. And repeatedly these types of plays when the stakes get higher.

PPG player who gives a shit, he does nothing when you NEED him to. It's like Matthews with his 69 goals. He only scored a goal(s) in 38 games that year. That's not even half the games. It's not like he was on some mission just dominating. He just shows up when he wants to, or when it's easy. And he's the Captain. At the end of the season, how many games did it take him to NOT get one more goal? To not hit 70? There is ZERO determination from the leadership of this group. The proof is right in front of you. Of course there are 31 teams upset every year because only one can win it. But damn, Toronto thinks they are the best, they get paid like they are the best, so why do they get beat the worst? It's not the losses, it's HOW they lose.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Yes.

also you can tell who has incriminating things on their phone based on their reaction in this thread. lol


(I'm not saying it wasn't a weird and inappropriate thing for him to do)

 

[NVious]

You can be a bad person and have the correct read on a situation, those aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

I do think he had the right instinct about Auston and Mitch though. He always kept them apart, preferring to put Auston on a line with a blue collar dirty work Hyman (who was deemed unworthy for many years) and speedy Nylander, while Mitch was originally played with JVR and Bozak, and then later Tavares.

I think Auston and Mitch aren't a good pair together and fall into bad habits and are extremely stale and lazy. Marner is more freewheeling and dynamic when he isn't tasked with running with Matthews, and Matthews is a chameleon who plays the game to the environment vs having any real true style for himself. Babcock was insightful to a degree to never put this duo together.

I dunno if he could have been right in predicting a couple of 21-22 year olds would never figure it out though.

It's hard to say to what extent Babcock is just an abrasive individual who has problems with basically everyone and if he truly saw something that could've changed the Leafs future (as opposed to him being an ahole).

At the end of the day the core failed because of their own faults;
Greed
Non improvement
Not adapting
Softness
Non performance

At this point it's blatantly obvious they should've been broken up, minimalistically Marner should've been traded last year. Ultimately the core, Shanahan and management are all to blame in their equal parts, not sure how much Babs or his insight could've changed anything really. Shanahan was a true believer in the core to the end and management were true believers in Shanahan, Babs even saying something would've been like "yeah whatever Babs you hate everyone"

 

[Crosby2010]

your going to try and argue that Babcock wasn't an issue? he got another chance and didn't even make it to coach a single game before being fired by Columbus.
he 100% was an issue, however the team would do doesn't matter, he wasn't fit to coach anymore

The guy literally requested to see family pictures on the phones of players - most likely to see a face of people he would get to know. Period. That's it. This is the reason he apparently couldn't coach in Columbus. In all honesty, I am sure Babcock who has won everything he needs to win in his career just sort of washed his hands and said "Screw it" after that nonsense became an issue.

 

[PanniniClaus]

Babcock was right.. He's an asshole, but he knew it before anyone else really did.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

The guy literally requested to see family pictures on the phones of players - most likely to see a face of people he would get to know. Period. That's it. This is the reason he apparently couldn't coach in Columbus. In all honesty, I am sure Babcock who has won everything he needs to win in his career just sort of washed his hands and said "Screw it" after that nonsense became an issue.

NHLPA investigation into claims that he violated players' privacy.....
this is the person your trying to defend? maybe do a couple laps pal

 

[Arthur Morgan]

It's hard to say to what extent Babcock is just an abrasive individual who has problems with basically everyone and if he truly saw something that could've changed the Leafs future (as opposed to him being an ahole).

At the end of the day the core failed because of their own faults;
Greed
Non improvement
Not adapting
Softness
Non performance

At this point it's blatantly obvious they should've been broken up, minimalistically Marner should've been traded last year. Ultimately the core, Shanahan and management are all to blame in their equal parts, not sure how much Babs or his insight could've changed anything really. Shanahan was a true believer in the core to the end and management were true believers in Shanahan, Babs even saying something would've been like "yeah whatever Babs you hate everyone"

hard to disagree with what your saying but also the flat cap took it role in the overall struggles as well
they should have been broken up after they blew it against Montreal

I also dont think Babcock seen anything about the teams future, Babcock was just who he was

 

[MCR74]

Well he did have intimate knowledge of the players after going through all their phones...

That certainly doesn't hurt.

 

[Harvey Birdman]

Mike Babcock is an old school hard ass-type coach and the Leafs quit on him in 2019. Sure he's an ass and used questionable methods, but 6 years and multiple EMBARRASSING playoff exits and breakdowns later it looks like the same core players still can't get it done. They are slowly earning the crown as the biggest collection of chokesters in NHL playoffs history.

For all his faults, Babcock knew this Leafs core was rotten to the mushy soft core, and almost a decade later they still haven't matured and grown up. The more time passes, the more it looks like this rotten core was the problem in Toronto.

 

[Fatass]

You can be a bad person and have the correct read on a situation, those aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

I do think he had the right instinct about Auston and Mitch though. He always kept them apart, preferring to put Auston on a line with a blue collar dirty work Hyman (who was deemed unworthy for many years) and speedy Nylander, while Mitch was originally played with JVR and Bozak, and then later Tavares.

I think Auston and Mitch aren't a good pair together and fall into bad habits and are extremely stale and lazy. Marner is more freewheeling and dynamic when he isn't tasked with running with Matthews, and Matthews is a chameleon who plays the game to the environment vs having any real true style for himself. Babcock was insightful to a degree to never put this duo together.

I dunno if he could have been right in predicting a couple of 21-22 year olds would never figure it out though.

I think Babs definitely could tell if a younger guy has the compete to play through the physicality of big boy, playoff hockey. Can’t really teach that. A guy either has that in his dns or he doesn’t.

 

[MCR74]

What's Babcock up to these days? Shouldn't a man of his caliber be coaching in the major leagues?

 

[Fatass]

What's Babcock up to these days? Shouldn't a man of his caliber be coaching in the major leagues?

Band is certainly a great coach who can identify when a player lacks the jam to play the right way in big boy hockey. But he’s a dinosaur in his methods of dealing with players.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Babcock was a huge asshole. Didn't deliver results to justify it.

Dick to Modano in Detroit. Dick to Spezza in Toronto. Was a dick after in Columbus and got immediately shitcanned.