Babcock or Eakins for this team?

[Anaheim4ever]

Any NHL coach would have won the 2008 Stanley Cup with that Red Wings roster.
Top3 Dmen were
Lidstrom
Rafalski
Kronwall
Had two 90+ point forwards in Datsyuk & Zetterberg, Datsyuk who was also a Selke type player
Then they had a ton of depth scoring from: Cleary, Hudler, Holmstrom, Samuelsson, Franzen, Filppula.
They were Team Sweden pretty much.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Isn't there also a culture change in the NHL ? With younger teams maybe it isn't as good to have a 'Boomer' generation coach anymore unless ur Trotz. Eakins is Generation X.

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

Not sure I agree with that. But I wouldn’t swap Eakins for Babcock right now

Old school, stuck in his ways, does not communicate well with players. Also living off an old reputation. I'm sure there are some differences, but bottom line is this guy's time has passed and he has no clue how to change or adapt to changes.

 

[AngelDuck]

Old school, stuck in his ways, does not communicate well with players. Also living off an old reputation. I'm sure there are some differences, but bottom line is this guy's time has passed and he has no clue how to change or adapt to changes.

His time has passed, maybe. I need to see poor play for longer than 20 games though. They were a contender last season that lost to a loaded Bruins team that is their kryptonite. Right now it’s not looking good

His next job will determine a lot for him

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Coaches don't seem to stay around as long anymore. If he loses the next lets say 5-6 games and doesn't make any adjustments I guess you still look upon it as a year to play the youth. But the ownership group is looking to fill the seats sell merchandise and make the franchise successful. Look at the Ottawa rebuild are the Ducks willing to wait that long?

I feel like there's some daylight between ~25 games of Eakins versus the years of dysfunction in Ottawa. Just me?

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

His time has passed, maybe. I need to see poor play for longer than 20 games though. They were a contender last season that lost to a loaded Bruins team that is their kryptonite. Right now it’s not looking good

His next job will determine a lot for him

Well I do believe Dubas did a poor job of constructing the team. Too top heavy in talent. That might sound funny but in a cap league you need enough money for some decent depth. They don’t have it and that’s all on Dubas. He caved and folded like a cheap tent in signing those guys.

That said, there’s a lot to be said for the poor quality of play they are getting. And Babcock doesn’t seem willing or capable of doing anything to change any of that. He’s apparently never heard the definition of insanity.

He may get another job in the league but I wouldn’t be too sure. He hasn’t really done squat in Toronto.

 

[AngelDuck]

I’m going to have to agree to disagree with a lot of that.

I’m willing to bet anyone here that Mike Babcock will get another Head Coaching job in the NHL within 6 months of being fired.
The fact is there are a lot of bad coaches in the league. Last year you had Carlyle and Yeo coaching teams in December.

I find it hard to believe Babcock is on that level of awful all of a sudden. I think the odds are he’s probably mediocre as a coach these days

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

I’m going to have to agree to disagree with a lot of that.

I’m willing to bet anyone here that Mike Babcock will get another Head Coaching job in the NHL within 6 months of being fired.
The fact is there are a lot of bad coaches in the league. Last year you had Carlyle and Yeo coaching teams in December.

I find it hard to believe Babcock is on that level of awful all of a sudden. I think the odds are he’s probably mediocre as a coach these days

You may be right that he gets another job. But the comparisons to RC are there. Barrie has been awful in TOR. He hasn't really been used in offensive situations (including no 1st PP time) which everybody know is his strength. Babcock's answer was to recently say, Barrie needed to reinvent himself. Really? That's why the team acquired him? More square peg round hole type of coaching.

Not to say the players should get a free pass (they shouldn't), but the game and the players have changed. Old school coaching is out. Babcock may last a little longer but if the Leafs don't turn it around soon and he gets fired, I don't see teams lining up to pay him $6M.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

I never understood why he was never extended here in the first place.

Was his contract up in '05, or was he let go?

 

[Paul4587]

I never understood why he was never extended here in the first place.

Was his contract up in '05, or was he let go?

IIRC his contract expired at the end of the lockout year and Burke only offered him a one year contract. Babcock opted to leave as he wanted security and a vote of confidence from the FO.

It was basically a token offer from Burke that he knew would get rejected.

 

[Frosted Tips]

I never understood why he was never extended here in the first place.

Was his contract up in '05, or was he let go?

He was not Burke's guy. He made him an insultingly low offer which was turned down as expected. At least that's what I remember reading.

 

[McDonald19]

No on Babcock, he hasn’t exactly been successful in Toronto.

I also don’t want the Ducks to become the softest team in hockey. (The Redwings have become a lot tougher in the post-Babcock era and the Leafs are pathetically soft.)

 

[McDonald19]

He was not Burke's guy. He made him an insultingly low offer which was turned down as expected. At least that's what I remember reading.

I think it was term (1 year extension) not dollar amount that was the issue. Burke wanted to see how it went and not throw a 3-5 year deal at him.

 

[Dirk316]

Babcock is the most anti fighting coach in the league.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Title and premise of this thread are ridiculous.

All three I'm disappointed with as they're not doing much this year to help us win by scoring a often.

Ritchie: Games = 20, Scoring: 2g +6a = 8 pts, Plus/Minus = -4
Kase: Games = 16, Scoring: 1g +6a = 7 pts, Plus/Minus = 2
Terry: Games = 21, Scoring: 2g +2a = 4 pts, Plus/Minus = - 6

I'm more disappointed with both Ritchie and Kase as they're the older youth group contingent who are supposed to be established NHL'ers.

To be disappointed with Ritchie and Terry for not scoring more is unreasonable. Ritchie is about on par what he should get points wise, and Terry was, and still is, unproven at NHL level. To expect more from either was never reasonable. Kase is talented for more, remains to be seen how his career wil evolve, he's been injured a lot.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

IIRC his contract expired at the end of the lockout year and Burke only offered him a one year contract. Babcock opted to leave as he wanted security and a vote of confidence from the FO.

It was basically a token offer from Burke that he knew would get rejected.

He was not Burke's guy. He made him an insultingly low offer which was turned down as expected. At least that's what I remember reading.

Yup yup yup. Essentially, Burke wanted RC to be his coach. RC was offered a three year contract as his first NHL head coaching gig.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

I’m going to have to agree to disagree with a lot of that.

I’m willing to bet anyone here that Mike Babcock will get another Head Coaching job in the NHL within 6 months of being fired.
The fact is there are a lot of bad coaches in the league. Last year you had Carlyle and Yeo coaching teams in December.

I find it hard to believe Babcock is on that level of awful all of a sudden. I think the odds are he’s probably mediocre as a coach these days

I doubt it'll take six months. I could see this being closer to a Boudreau situation.

I find it funny some think hes a dinosaur, he was actually very ahead of the curve on puck possession and I'd honestly say he did pretty good in Toronto all things considered.

As for the thread premise, I actually think he'd be a fine fit here but ownership would likely never pay for it and Eakins is doing well, so theres zero reason to make that change.

 

[Mr Rogers]

Can Babcock be brought in to be the PP/fwds assistant coach please?

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Any NHL coach would have won the 2008 Stanley Cup with that Red Wings roster.
Top3 Dmen were
Lidstrom
Rafalski
Kronwall
Had two 90+ point forwards in Datsyuk & Zetterberg, Datsyuk who was also a Selke type player
Then they had a ton of depth scoring from: Cleary, Hudler, Holmstrom, Samuelsson, Franzen, Filppula.
They were Team Sweden pretty much.

Anaheim almost beat that exact same team the next year and that bullshit goal that Cleary scored was allowed to stand only because it happened in Detroit

 

[wraparound]

Can’t see anyone rushing to hire him, especially if he couldn’t get it done with a roster that has the likes of Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander, Reilly, et al.

But then again this is an Old Boys Club™ league if there ever was one, so I’m sure someone will hire him—probably in the offseason, though.

I’ve seen some people mention Seattle as his next stop but given how much focus that organization is putting on analytics & “new school” hockey philosophy, I would absolutely put money down on them not hiring him as head coach.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Can Babcock be brought in to be the PP/fwds assistant coach please?

Lmao c'mon man

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Can’t see anyone rushing to hire him, especially if he couldn’t get it done with a roster that has the likes of Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander, Reilly, et al.

But then again this is an Old Boys Club™ league if there ever was one, so I’m sure someone will hire him—probably in the offseason, though.

I’ve seen some people mention Seattle as his next stop but given how much focus that organization is putting on analytics & “new school” hockey philosophy, I would absolutely put money down on them not hiring him as head coach.

This isn't an old boys club thing, the guy was probably considered the best coach in the league as recent as a year to 18 months ago. I never really agreed with that, but it was the case and probably for good reason. The guy's clearly a good coach and this recent narrative mostly just shows how lazy some people are.

 

[Bergey37]

Eakins is and will be the Ducks' coach. He earned his chance and the org will give him a fair one. This talk about firing him to get Babcock after 20 games is just silly pants. I swear, some folks around here spout nonsense just because they like to hear themselves talk it seems.

Babcock a dinosaur? Why, because he's been around a while? About six years ago I read an article about how he was getting his players to purposely use the middle of the ice on breakouts when such a thing was nearly unheard of. Now LOTS of teams do it, including the Ducks when we can. Some complain about his stretch passes, but that's often what you have to do when your FWs aren't doing anything constructive in the d-zone.

Analytics? I would wager that EVERY coach and GM in this league pays one helluva lot of attention to the data, WAY more than anyone here does. But some are more reserved about it than others; Bob Murray explained that of course they look at data, and they're still figuring out the parts that are truly useful. I remember when PDO was supposed to be the big indicator; now nobody talks about it, and when they do, it's always breaking it down into one of it's two component parts. Nobody talks about it because it doesn't say anything that you can't see from the components. I also remember when they said that shot location didn't matter - it was just getting shot attempts. Now they acknowledge that shot location DOES matter, they differentiate between scoring chances and "high danger" scoring chances; there are even disagreements about what constitutes a "HDSC." The analytics are evolving, and I personally respect those organizations that are being cautious about their implementation. Dubas went all-in with the high-end, high-priced skill, and they're paying the price.

Babcock is a good coach. As Pierre LeBrun noted in the Athletic, he may not even want to coach anymore. If he does, he'll find a home. But this talk of Dinosaurs and "old school" is pure garbage. LeBrun noted that he was known as a "hard-charging" coach, which may not go over well with the kids in the "new" NHL. I don't know if that's a good thing, but the world doesn't always change in a good way.

 

[goosemooseduck]

Anaheim almost beat that exact same team the next year and that bull**** goal that Cleary scored was allowed to stand only because it happened in Detroit

Anaheim beat that team the year prior. Wings 2007 and 2008 were essentially the same team.