This is such a myth. Tatar has had a ton of really, really bad giveaways and attempts to deke past players as the last man on the powerplay, and not once has Babcock reduced his icetime for it. Same goes for Jurco who had bad turnovers and rough defensive plays last year, but never got benched and remained a fixture on the Sheahan-Tatar line.
Hudler had a relatively hard time getting icetime, but he still spent basically his entire last season with us on a line with Z and Filppula. Smith is not given any favors but he was on the 1st pairing last playoffs and rarely rides the pine, his play just hasn't been screaming "needs more icetime" either.
Some of you are acting like Smith/Babcock is a Subban/Therrien situation. It's not.
No one is comparing Smith to Subban, nor would anyone compare Montreal's media to ours or Smith & Babcock's personalities to Subban & Therrien's, all of which are significant factors in that situation. Smith has been misused though. He's been put in roles he's not suited for, paired with partners that bring out his worst qualities and not given a chance to do the things he excels at.
Then there's Jurco. At one point late last year I remember Jurco trying to dangle around a few people and getting burned. He hasn't tried anything like it since. The problem is, his game has always been skill based, which is why we took him when we did. Yet Babcock insists on putting him on the fourth line with Stone Hands Luke and a guy who you may as well call a 3rd defenseman, and we wonder why Jurco's offense has regressed?
As for Hudler, well there are years worth of archived threads that discussed how Babcock didn't use Hudler properly. There were also arguments that suggested his system limited Filppula's offense. Given what both of them have done since moving on, it seems maybe those arguments weren't too far off. But their usage isn't even the real issue here, the real issue is that neither wanted to play under Babcock anymore. I mean, does it take losing a Datsyuk quality player before we've finally had enough of him driving talent out of town? And may I add, based on a few rumors, we're pretty close to that.
And finally Tatar. This is one instance where I can't argue. I can point to him being one of, if not the most dynamic offensive players we've had since the cap was instituted and say maybe that buys him a little leniency. I can point to him being a great personality in the locker room and say maybe that buys him a little more. Who knows, as that is just speculation, but he is most certainly the exception, not the rule. And lets not forget, he was benched early last season and there have been articles suggesting that he and Babs haven't exactly had the perfect relationship.
I've always said this thing is about personalities. Certain people don't jive well with certain personalities, and if you can't handle Babcock's domineering approach and don't play his game, there will be issues. You say it's a myth that Z, Dats, Filppula, Hudler, Commodore, Shanny (and possibly Stevie Y, thought I heard that somewhere but maybe wrong) have had issues with Babcock. I strongly disagree.