When did hiring angry dinosaurs become the new thing in the NHL. The Columbus Blue Jackets are making an utterly crazy move by hiring Mike Babcock to be their next head coach, even though the man is a vengeful dinosaur in the modern-day NHL.
If the Blue Jackets were looking to destroy a young core of players, they’re doing a great first step with bringing Mike Babcock in as head coach.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have decided that Mike Babcock, the former Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings head coach, is the perfect fit to turn their young, inexperienced, and raw core of prospect and players into Stanley Cup champions as they’re set to name the guy the next head coach of the team. And, as I’ve made perfectly clear, this might very well be the worst move in franchise history.
Now, if Babcock has truly changed into a more mellow, level-headed coach and ends up being a great fit for the Blue Jackets, I’ll hold my hands up and say I was wrong about the guy.
If he can turn the Blue Jackets into a respectable franchise that can actually make it out of the 1st round more than once in 22 years or can make the playoffs more than just six times in 22 years, then I vow to never say another bad thing about Babcock and his dinosaur ways ever again.
But, since that hasn’t happened just yet, I’m not holding back with this guy: he’s a terrible, nasty coach.
Yes, Babcock is potentially a Hall of Fame coach when all is said and done given the fact that he has 700 regular season wins, a .608% winning percentage, 90 playoff wins, a winning percentage of .520 or greater across all three teams he’s coached (Ducks: 2002-04; Red Wings: 2005-15; Maple Leafs: 2015-20), he’s won the Clarance Campbell trophy (Western Conference champions) thrice with the Ducks and Red Wings, and he won the Stanley Cup in 2007 with the Red Wings.
That’s all fine and dandy for the 2000’s and 2010’s era of hockey, but this is now the 2020’s and the modern day. And the way hockey and the players are treated are just totally different than how Babcock treated his players…which may be too disrespectful towards the old/post-modern school coaches and players (aka: 2000’s and 2010’s) as Babcock was simply an asshole.
I don’t like swearing or using derogatory terms like that, but you should read some of the stuff his former players, such as HOF Chris Chelios, HOF Mike Modano, Johan Franzen, Jason Spezza, Mitch Marner, said about the guy as it’s absolutely abhorrent stuff.
Whether it was viciously verbally abusing Johan Franzen to the point of giving him PTSD (I’m serious, read this article on CBC), insulting innocent arena workers according to Franzen and Chelios (again, article is linked below), scratching Mike Modano, arguably the greatest ever American-born skater, on his final game in the NHL so he couldn’t reach the 1,500 game milestone, scratching Jason Spezza when he made his Leafs debut against his former team in the Ottawa Senators, or making Mitch Marner make up a list of players who he didn’t work hard and then showing the list to his teammates, Babcock was a cancer in every locker room he coached.
It’s the sole reason why he was fired from Toronto back in 2020 and replaced with current-day Leafs HC Sheldon Keefe, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s the reason why the current Leafs roster is “soft” and “can’t get over the line” in the playoffs.
I don’t think he’s given them PTSD or anything like he did with Franzen, but I truly believe his vindictive coaching style ruined this team’s confidence and growth early on and has turned them into the “soft” team we see in the playoffs today.
So, pairing him up with young players like Patick Laine (who’s only 25…surprisingly), Kent Johnson, Krill Marchenko, Cole Sillinger, Zach Werenski (who’s also only 25…and also surprisingly), Adam Boqvist, and Andrew Peeke just seems like a recipe for disaster…which GM Jarmo Kekäläinen has been brewing these last few years.
Yes, he did a great job seeing the Blue Jackets make the playoffs for a franchise-record 4 times in a row between 2016-20 and making it out of the 2nd round for the first time in franchise history in 2018/19, but he’s now seen the team disintegrate into a laughingstock once again by missing the playoffs these last three years and finish dead last in the East.
I know he’s done good work as the GM of the Blue Jackets since he was hired in 2013, but even great GMs see their days in the sun come to an end. And I think that time may be approaching for Kekäläinen.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
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