Heres my 2 cents....
On McLellan vs Babcock: McLellans system feeds off a good PP and inflates shots on net and possession by increasing shot attempts, essentially what Eakins was doing trying to raise Corsi, but McLellan actually knows how to execute it. The issue is while this makes his teams deadly offensively it doesn't lend itself to the playoffs, the results level out over a full season to win more game but a 7 game series tends to cause a lot of variation. Scrivens ~60 save shutout last year showed that if you block shots and your goalie stands on his head its easy to counter that, its worth mentioning that SJS had attempted like 88-90 shots that night. Also of note that from my time watching his teams that this has always been his system.
Enter Babcock. Hes played multiple different systems, from team canada, to various systems in detroit his tight checking(Forecheck, back check and finish your checks) has never gotten him a presidents trophy since he had ample skill and depth on his roster to work with, but it has gotten them into the playoffs, even when the roster shouldnt have sniffed the playoffs. It wears opponents down and his offense through defense system actually creates just as much offense as any other. Look at how Ovechkin has reacted to a similar system in WSH, take into account the good work hes done with youth in Detroit. I wouldn't have any doubt that our young guys could learn how to play right and theyd finally have that coach that you respect too much to not listen, similar to Pat Quinn.
As for Nelson, hes been a positive influence since coming in, he should be on this coaching staff, if McLellan is hired hes bringing his guy in so its Ramsay vs Nelson, id guess in that situation Nelson gets a job from another team or goes back to our AHL affiliate. I can see Babcock letting Acton go and putting Nelson in that position but its hard to know.
