I admit that some moves Babcock makes, makes me wonder, but I still think he is one of the best coaches on the planet.
Imo there is a huge teaching factor going on that is forcing some of these decisions he's making. These guys he seems to favor even though we have more talented players in the wings waiting seem to make the 'safe' plays, or at least try to.
Last game Hyman entered the O zone with Matthews trailing him. Hyman ran into the defense and instead of a drop pass to Matthews, which I personally yelled at him through the tv for not doing, at the blueline (high danger zone for a turn over) he dumped it softly into the corner and went and fought for it.
Babcock sees that and says yes! That's the right play there. Not flashy, less chance that we get a scoring opportunity than the drop pass option, but also a lot safe than the drop pass option.
Babcock has said over and over that the team needs to learn how to keep the puck out of our net and plays like that make it hard for us to score but even harder for the other team to score. Also that we need to learn how to score off the cycle and generate offense from defense.
Imo that's why he is sticking to his guns with his line selections.
When Willie and Matthews start to do that, hopefully we see Sosh on their line instead of hyman?