The Zetterberg Era
Ball Hockey Sucks
Babcock is one of the best coaches in hockey.
But even though he'd sort of lost his team and his message had gone stale, and it was time for him to find a new place, he got the team in the playoffs.
In Blashill's first season he finished in the same spot as Babcock.
In fact if the rumors are true, Datsyuk leaves if Babcock returns and we likely aren't in the playoffs Blashill's first year with the team like we were.
The real decline was when Kronwall was no longer capable of playing at a high level for this team. He was shouldering a tremendous amount defensively and when his wheels feel off we became a bottom feeder. Now maybe Babcock is DeKeyser's magic elixir, not sure but I seriously doubt he is getting a ton more out of a bunch of these guys because they aren't very good.
But lets use your logic in terms of Babcock's horrendous first year in Toronto. I mean Blashill took a team with bottom three talent and perhaps the worst D-core in the league with inconsistent goalies and pushed them into the playoff race until the organization decided to fall apart over the second half. Oh no that isn't what happened with Blashill only Babcock can come out of a second half fade with that was intentional. Babcock is a very good coach, he delivers to the expectations of his team. Including when you give him one of the worst teams in the league he has finished out of the playoffs in both Anaheim and Toronto. There is absolutely no reason to believe Babcock could bring this team into playoff contention. I think that is an outlandish assertion. Babcock over his longer years got more out of some teams and thudded out with teams that should have gone deeper. However, by in large I think the most impressive thing about Babcock is you know what to expect when you give him a certain kind of roster. You give him a first round loser and he goes to the first round and loses. You give him one of the better teams and he goes deep. You give him the worst team in hockey and he finishes dead last. He has a consistent approach and that is huge in professional sports. But he isn't polishing this turd either in my opinion.