On the 31 thoughts podcast, Friedman talked further about the Dubas/Babcock stuff.
Said for personal reasons, he finds it hard to criticize Babcock, but you can see he's unhappy and that he and Dubas have different philosophies. And while different philosophies can be a good thing, it's creating disagreements that is creating cracks.
Marek asked on a scale of 1-10, how serious is this getting, Friedman didn't really answer but says it is creeping up every day
Friedman says Dubas wants to win a certain way, and Babcock may not believe in it. Dubas believes the premium is skill, and no matter how minimal the improvement is, if there is an improvement on a skill basis, they are going to do it, even if it costs "grit" and "toughness" or a role player. (See, Petan for Lindholm)
Friedman said he asked Babcock about going to the Finals in 2003 with 6 LHD with the Ducks, and Babcock said it's too fast of a game now to expect players to play their offside.
Friedman said while Babcock doesn't believe in fighting necessarily, he still believes in grinding other players down, while Dubas thinks skill trumps everything.
Friedman says that Babcock, he says it a lot that you only have so many chances, and you can tell, that, for whatever reason, maybe it's the Sheldon Keefe extension coming, that even if there is 4 years left on his deal, that Babcock isn't sure how much shelf life he has left, which is why he's been calling out the composition of the team lately, trying to change the tone, essentially being political, so if things go south, it's a composition issue, not a coaching issue.
Friedman ended things by saying that since the Tavares-Islanders game, things have been very tense, and it's a question worth asking of whether a separation may happen.
