Sabres Should Get Back In Touch With Mike Babcock

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Sounds like a great idea, bring in the guy who is widely considered to be a bully and watch a guy like Eichel run as soon as he can.

He might do that regardless

 

[cyris]

I hate this take because it makes it sound like he held us back his entire time. He held us back when the team was ready to take the next step and he wasn't willing to let them. But he was 100% instrumental.. Like what we have today does not happen without Babcock. He came into a team that had missed the playoffs for a decade. The culture was rotten. Losing was accepted.

The first season behind the bench, the Leafs iced 50 something different players. He made a team that took a lot of nights off work their asses off each night that tanking year. Then he kept it going and formed good habits in the kids. They eventually came to hate him, and so will the Sabres.. But they absolutely need a big ego type to go into that room and straighten it out.

If Babcock had a few years and could turn the attitude and culture around in there he would be worth every penny. What is the alternative? Hire more no name coaches who couldn't hack it elsewhere or ones who have been beyond their best before date for a decade before?

I do think Babcock help the Leafs change their culture in a positive way. I also stand by everything I said.
He threw his own GM and players under the bus several times. If you were a GM would you want to hire a guy you know would do that to you?
If you were a player would you want to play for a guy who would do what a lot of former players have accused Babs of doing? Especially considering he has never taken full responsibility for either.

 

[HockeyVirus]

If you truly in think he is a diva brining Babcock in won't change that, it will just drive him out of town at the earliest possible opportunity.

If thats what it takes. Sort out the locker room and ship out those making it toxic. If Eichel can be a real leader he will be welcomed. But if he needs to be moved to make the culture not a shit show, then that happens.

 

[Kuznetsnow]

Boudreau would be the best available coach for them imo. He's second to none at making offensive players happy and productive. Skinner would be a 30-30 player under him and they'd firewagon their way to the playoffs consistently.

Babcock is a more unpleasant version of Krueger, he also decides in advance if he cares for a player or not and if not the player gets doghoused with no way out. Cody Eakin would lead the team in ice time under a Babcock regime

 

[tsujimoto74]

What an absurd take.

Is it? Babcock can actually coach to win at the NHL level. f***, he can coach at the NHL level. Sounds like a massive upgrade over anyone who's been behind the bench since we fired Lindy Ruff to me.

He wouldn't be my 1st choice among the candidates out there right now, but I'd certainly take it over the absurdity of keeping Krueger.

 

[explore]

Yeah but this is Dallas Eakins in Edmonton bad, Krueger is managing the team like a second rate football club and he came in with a preconceived notion that a 9 million dollar top 6 player was not a top 6 player and is sabotaging the team to validate it. I'm a neutral fan and it's one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life. Their offense is literally try to get headers off long volleys from midfielders except the long volleys are shots from the point or outside and headers are deflections that don't materialize

I agree. It's mind-boggling that Krueger is still the coach when the results are as atrocious as they are and the team has been getting humiliated for the better part of the season

 

[Kranix]

How did Krueger get this job in the first place

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

It's time IMO to stop catering to this diva. This is his what, 5th coach, and 3rd GM? And yet again this season, he is coasting and looks like he has a major attitude at all times. Like the first goal tonight



He fails to tie up his man and takes no responsibility and tries to blame Dahlin.. Where is his personal accountability? He can coast and pout and then put in efforts like that in his own end and only score 3 goals? This guy is a complete individual and not a team player. Babcock would be perfect for him if he let him put his ego in check.

Eichel have two goals

 

[FrozenJagrt]

Buffalo fans would hate him. Babcock is good to an extent, but once he finds out who his "real gud pros" are, he'll be giving them far too much ice time at the expense of the guys that can actually win games. His lineup decisions are baffling. Hell, he might even decide Jeff Skinner needs to play 23 minutes a game.

 

[explore]

Buffalo fans would hate him. Babcock is good to an extent, but once he finds out who his "real gud pros" are, he'll be giving them far too much ice time at the expense of the guys that can actually win games. His lineup decisions are baffling. Hell, he might even decide Jeff Skinner needs to play 23 minutes a game.

Babcock would eat Jeff Skinner alive, he'd more realistically plug Okposo on the first-line

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Why did they hire Krueger in the first place? Nothing screams "NHL head coach" like a guy you plucked out of running an English soccer club.

 

[NK94]

A team with a rotten core deserves a rotten coach. Let it happen.

 

[Kranix]

Why did they hire Krueger in the first place? Nothing screams "NHL head coach" like a guy you plucked out of running an English soccer club.

Well the bigger question is how did he wind up coaching a soccer team

 

[explore]

Why did they hire Krueger in the first place? Nothing screams "NHL head coach" like a guy you plucked out of running an English soccer club.

Someone on the Sabres board said Krueger was a family friend of Botterill, don't know if that's true, but he was a Botterill hire

Well the bigger question is how did he wind up coaching a soccer team

He impressed the new money owner of the club from China?

 

[Martin Skoula]

Babcock just took a job why would he leave to coach a team with worse cup odds?

 

[Kranix]

Someone on the Sabres board said Krueger was a family friend of Botterill, don't know if that's true, but he was a Botterill hire



He impressed the new money owner of the club from China?

Oh okay. But how did he get into the position to impress the club owner. Just applied for the job?

 

[Kuznetsnow]

Why did they hire Krueger in the first place? Nothing screams "NHL head coach" like a guy you plucked out of running an English soccer club.

Krueger was decent in his Edmonton stint, I don't know what the hell is going on with him now.

Eakins on the other hand was all time bad in Edmonton but seems to be doing ok with Anaheim

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Well the bigger question is how did he wind up coaching a soccer team

Wikipedia says he took over some sort of managerial role, not coach. So even the soccer club didn't think much of him as a coach.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Since 2013, the Sabres have had six different head coaches. You have to think at some point there’s something else going on that’s holding back this team. No coach is going to turn that shitty team around.

 

[GKJ]

If I were the Sabres, I'd be figuring out how to get George McPhee to come down out of Vegas.

 

[Kranix]

Krueger was decent in his Edmonton stint, I don't know what the hell is going on with him now.

Eakins on the other hand was all time bad in Edmonton but seems to be doing ok with Anaheim

Decent compared to what? Retired Pat Quinn and MacTavish Chapter 2? He had one dismal season in Edmonton.

 

[explore]

Oh okay. But how did he get into the position to impress the club owner. Just applied for the job?

Ralph wrote a book on coaching/managing a team and was involved with the Swiss national hockey team for a while, so I'm guessing he was seen as a 21st century renaissance man

 

[NK94]

Since 2013, the Sabres have had six different head coaches. You have to think at some point there’s something else going on that’s holding back this team. No coach is going to turn that shitty team around.

That core is absolutely rotten. It's so painfully obvious and yet Sabres fans would rather blame Krueger for why Skinner has sucked for two full calendar years.

 

[BruinsBtn]

Since 2013, the Sabres have had six different head coaches. You have to think at some point there’s something else going on that’s holding back this team. No coach is going to turn that shitty team around.

How many of the guys who are there now were on the roster in 2013?

 

[Kranix]

Ralph wrote a book on coaching/managing a team and was involved with the Swiss national hockey team for a while, so I'm guessing he was seen as a 21st century renaissance man

Lol wow