Early thoughts on Babcock

[teeder333*]

Love the guy. Just for getting rid of Phaneuf and snuffing the media the guy has earned his salary.

His way of coaching? Heck, every game but one or two has been competitive all season, and he truly is in charge of a team that might not win the AHL playoffs. Not for sure.

He has coached the worst talent ever in Leaf history. Even worse than the seventies teams because they had two great players in Sittler and McDonald. Turnbull, I don't consider a great player, he was the dumbest player in NHL history but yeah he did have Gardiner talent. But was even dumber than Gardiner.

 

[Pyrophorus]

With the exception of the Leafs losing 7-0 in San Jose and 7-2 in Chicago, Babcock has had them playing a lot better and even a lot of their other loses have been close games which could have went the other way.

6-1 Winnipeg, Ottawa
4-0 Detroit

Every 15g or so, the talent plays to their normal level.

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

underpaid

 

[Jeypic]

Feel like everybody's covered it. He's respected, honest, players are competing and accountable. Systems are in place. He handles media great. All we need to sub in is talent to the lineup.

Last years coaching was absolutely atrocious, so it wouldnt take much for us to be happy. But I feel like hes proven his worth.

 

[leafsfan1993]

It seems the players respect him and that he's a great leader. Having said that, theres only so much he can do. It is up to the players to perform the way he has continued to teach them to and if each player doesn't give 100% they will continue to lose.

 

[leafsfan1993]

Love the guy. Just for getting rid of Phaneuf and snuffing the media the guy has earned his salary.

His way of coaching? Heck, every game but one or two has been competitive all season, and he truly is in charge of a team that might not win the AHL playoffs. Not for sure.

He has coached the worst talent ever in Leaf history. Even worse than the seventies teams because they had two great players in Sittler and McDonald. Turnbull, I don't consider a great player, he was the dumbest player in NHL history but yeah he did have Gardiner talent. But was even dumber than Gardiner.

Agreed! No one else has been able to get rid of Phaneuf for whatever reason and Babcock had to do what was best for his team to succeed in the future.

 

[LeafFever]

Love Babs. He's done a solid job with nothing.
Are the Wings fans that happy he's gone? They're close to being outside of the playoffs right now.

 

[Morbo]

Best coach in the league. Now Hunter Lou and Dubas have to get the talent for him.

 

[Bullseye]

Amazing. Gives Clear instructions - gets clear results. Players are playing honest hockey now.

Teaches and teaches and teaches. With so many young players coming into the Leafs line-up - that is Babs best quality. Teaches our assistants and AHL coaches too - underrated benefit imho.

Best coach here since the Pats (to echo Mess).

Looks like Blashill is doing a great job for the Wings so all good for everyone.

Piano-pullers on Detroit are stars on the Leafs so you're talking apples and oranges. Ask us in 2-3 years.

 

[Wami]

Well what can I tell ya'... all I know is he's a good pro, he comes to the rink every day and does things right, and he's a good human being. If you wake up every day and take care of yourself and come ready to work well all I know is good things will eventually happen for ya, and right now he's not gettin' the results he wants but he sure is workin hard.

/babcock on babcock

 

[Sonny21]

I think it's the first time as a fan that someone (player or coach/management personal) has not only met but exceeded the hype/personal expectations with regards to their impact.

I truly think most gm's around the league didn't think he was this good either. I mean you can laugh in term of being last, but the HARDEST thing to change in any sports team is culture. I thought he was great and all but not to this degree.

I honestly believe there are some teams really kicking themselves for missing out. Anyways.

 

[WilliamNylander]

He is showing why he's the best at what he does.

Worth every dollar.

 

[stymie]

The Hunwick thing is bothersome.

The yoyo job on Leivo too.

Merit has to mean something soon.

 

[indigobuffalo]

He managed to pump a #5-6 string D's tires, getting paid $7M year... and trade him without retaining salary. Babcock gets an A+ for that, Fantastic!

Hopefully he can mentor Marner and Nylander into NHL superstars.

Phaneuf is not 5-6 on any depth chart in the league. He's a legit top 4 on every single team and top 2 on many.

He was moved out because the Leafs have a 3-5 year vision for the team and in 3-5 years Phaneuf will be past his prime years and the cap hit will be heavier and heavier a burden to bare.

Nonis/Burke saw themselves competing when they made the playoffs, hence the $7/7y deal. They weren't allowed to realize their vision, and Shanny hit the reset button again. So you have to move guys like Phaneuf out when you can to get value while there's value to be gotten.

But calling him a 5-6 d-man... Really?! Did you even watch him this year?

 

[indigobuffalo]

The Hunwick thing is bothersome.

The yoyo job on Leivo too.

Merit has to mean something soon.

What's bothersome with Hunwick? Do you not listen to the post-game and pre-game interviews?

Hunwick is where he is because he embodies the expectations for this team perfectly.

He gives 100% on the ice, off the ice, in the gym, in every aspect of his life.

They're rewarding that commitment, so that others, guys with more skill, more talent, can see that drive, passion, and commitment, and see the reward, and know where the bar is set.

Leivo is clearly not in the long-term plans and is just a back-up guy they're calling up as a stop-gap for this season.

 

[BooRadley]

I don't want to say how i know this but Babcock apparently negotiated exclusive use on the MLSE private jet on top of his salary (not sure about the cap rate). He flies his family around quite a bit privately. Bernier thinks he'll be traded next year and doesn't think Babcock likes him too much. Nothing ground breaking here, just some info I found out that's outside the normal banter.

 

[A1LeafNation]

He's giving the team noticible structure

 

[BM14]

Well what can I tell ya'... all I know is he's a good pro, he comes to the rink every day and does things right, and he's a good human being. If you wake up every day and take care of yourself and come ready to work well all I know is good things will eventually happen for ya, and right now he's not gettin' the results he wants but he sure is workin hard.

/babcock on babcock

You win the internet.

 

[LeafFever]

I don't want to say how i know this but Babcock apparently negotiated exclusive use on the MLSE private jet on top of his salary (not sure about the cap rate). He flies his family around quite a bit privately. Bernier thinks he'll be traded next year and doesn't think Babcock likes him too much. Nothing ground breaking here, just some info I found out that's outside the normal banter.

Am I supposed to get upset he uses a private jet? Those owners are making millions off of us the fans. It's things like that why we can get Babcock and Stamkos.

 

[BooRadley]

Am I supposed to get upset he uses a private jet? Those owners are making millions off of us the fans. It's things like that why we can get Babcock and Stamkos.

I don't understand your first line. I didn't address this to you. Someone on the team made a comment about it. You fill in the blanks with another name I wrote in my post.

 

[BM14]

Why would Babcock say that about himself?

 

[Optimist]

The fact that he makes more money than his players speaks volumes. No longer will we have the millionaire players (Kessel) snubbing their noses at the coach because they make more money. That, and his chiseled, scarred face are all good with me.

 

[Le Cobra]

Mike Babcock is the singular reason I watch the post game interviews.

The singular reason I have hope in this franchise.

We have the best coach in the league. He is teaching an undisciplined team how to be disciplined and he is doing it the hard way. Hiring Babcock is the best thing the Leafs have done in all my existence.

 

[hobarth]

That's an amazing amount of love for a coach that coached the Leafs to last place in the NHL. There's a phenomenal lack of talent on this team as there was last year, and the year before but in the previous 2 years TO made some noise and at times looked like the playoffs were possible, never a chance with Babs.

The OP noted Babs' propensity to play plugs with talent which is like his insistence on playing Grabner with Kadri, which is both ridiculous and stupid, and this is going to grate on us in time.

TO is an older team whose experience and hustle hasn't resulted in a better team just a different one. Babs has a team of players on their last legs whose performance this year will determine whether or not they will be in the NHL next year, an obvious incentive for the players to play better and harder than they have in years.

Babs is a shiny new toy who's shelf life will start to decrease next year, people will start to expect the hustle to be there, always, while also expecting far better results. Better results are going to be hard to provide if TO ever does actually promote the youth.

Babs is not rookie friendly, TO needs a coach that's willing to play the youth and endure the learning curve. He never had to endure any kind of losing in Detroit and he'll always turn to experience over youth.

I give him 3 more years, it's far easier to institute structure into an aging lineup, an experienced lineup but losing for the sake of structure will get old quick.

 

[rdawg1234]

That's an amazing amount of love for a coach that coached the Leafs to last place in the NHL. There's a phenomenal lack of talent on this team as there was last year, and the year before but in the previous 2 years TO made some noise and at times looked like the playoffs were possible, never a chance with Babs.

This team is significantly worse than anything we've had the past two years, it's literally a team of mercenaries, with maybe 2 top 4 d-men and a few mid-level forwards throughout the lineup.

it's like some of you guys expected babcock to come in and turn crap into diamond, he's put a great structure in place, but there is little to no skill on this team at all, which makes it near-impossible to consistently win no matter what.

start judging the guy truly in year 3-4, right now it's just silly, this team is barebones and will be injected with alot more skill starting next year(albeit in the form of inexperienced rookies).