The 2019-20 Around the League Thread

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Flyers and Flames deadlocked 1-1 in the 3rd..C'mon Flyers.

 

[vanuck]

MacKenzie Weegar having a nice start to the season playing big minutes for FLA... I remember @thefeebster advocating taking this guy with a late round pick in 2013!

 

[MS]

Did anyone ever hear this before? Lolol.

Commadore on Babcock NSFW

This is hilarious! Always knew that he hated Babcock but never really heard the whole story behind the scenes.

Babcock might be an ass but Commodore is a real piece of work and an unreliable narrator.

'We started the season 0-5 and he still wouldn't play me'. Uh, actually it's pretty easy to look up that the team started the season 5-0 that year.

And the irony of someone accusing someone else of being 'all about them' and then actually thinking that a Cup-winning NHL head coach was going to push his team to waste $1 million in cap space just so he could end the career of a depth defender he had a spat with a decade earlier ... just wow.

Commodore at that point if his career was a washed-up 33 y/o depth defender who had just been bought out by Columbus, got a reputation contract in Detroit and stunk, and was then picked up by TB, stunk again and out of the league. Babcock didn't play him because he was a bad hockey player.

And the story about how he fell out with Babcock in Anaheim his hilarious. If you read between the lines, he was acquired in a big trade with NJ and expected to make the team, showed up to camp out of shape (like, I'm pretty sure the Anaheim trainers know how to fitness test and weren't making things up), and then told the coach to go f*** himself when he was called out for being out of shape. Like, I can't believe Babcock didn't like him much!

 

[PG Canuck]

Whether Commodore is lying or not, Babcock is more full of himself than most of the players in the NHL. I have throughly enjoyed watching him not be able to get the Leafs over the hump....and win a playoff series. What more does that guy need there?

 

[I am toxic]

Whether Commodore is lying or not, Babcock is more full of himself than most of the players in the NHL. I have throughly enjoyed watching him not be able to get the Leafs over the hump....and win a playoff series. What more does that guy need there?

He needs to lose that mentality (certainly in the playoffs) that we see all too often among NHL coaches - valuing his grinders more than his elite talent.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Whether Commodore is lying or not, Babcock is more full of himself than most of the players in the NHL. I have throughly enjoyed watching him not be able to get the Leafs over the hump....and win a playoff series. What more does that guy need there?

I try not to put too much stock in first impressions, but Commodore doesn't sound like a liar. He does make some extraordinary claims, however. Incidentally Chelios said in public that veteran players don't want to sign with teams coached by Babcock.

 

[krutovsdonut]

Babcock might be an ass but Commodore is a real piece of work and an unreliable narrator.

'We started the season 0-5 and he still wouldn't play me'. Uh, actually it's pretty easy to look up that the team started the season 5-0 that year.

And the irony of someone accusing someone else of being 'all about them' and then actually thinking that a Cup-winning NHL head coach was going to push his team to waste $1 million in cap space just so he could end the career of a depth defender he had a spat with a decade earlier ... just wow.

Commodore at that point if his career was a washed-up 33 y/o depth defender who had just been bought out by Columbus, got a reputation contract in Detroit and stunk, and was then picked up by TB, stunk again and out of the league. Babcock didn't play him because he was a bad hockey player.

And the story about how he fell out with Babcock in Anaheim his hilarious. If you read between the lines, he was acquired in a big trade with NJ and expected to make the team, showed up to camp out of shape (like, I'm pretty sure the Anaheim trainers know how to fitness test and weren't making things up), and then told the coach to go **** himself when he was called out for being out of shape. Like, I can't believe Babcock didn't like him much!

commodore was 31 to start the season with detroit in 2011.

the game log record indicates he got his first start nov 3 which followed a 5 game losing streak by the wings right after the 5 game win streak you mentioned, so while i would agree his memory is garbled as to when it started there was indeed a 5 game losing streak at the beginning of the season and he didn't play during it.

his point with detroit is that he made a call to babcock to make sure the guy actually wanted him, was told he did, then got the bench treatment anyway. i'd say 3 games by christmas represents the bench treatment for a new ufa signing and a giant fu. it's also similar to the season the leafs signed corrado to a one year deal then babcock kept corrado up all year but only played him in 1 game before christmas.

and i am not sure why you are taking babcock's side on the anaheim story. it sounds like exactly the kind of thing that might happen to a slowfooted depth dman in camp who gets carelessly tagged by the coach as needing to get into shape. why would you necessarily prefer babcock over commodore on that story? pedigree?

anyway, here's a compromise theory. commodore is a self declared mouthy hothead and i think to some degree so is corrado judging by those articles where he burned his bridges. they no doubt both wanted to play and both managed their feelings poorly. instead of managing those personalities as a coach should, or simply moving them on if he didn't like or want them, babcock chose to mess with their very shaky careers and sit them on the bench "pour encourager les autres". that seems like a pattern of dick moves to me.

 

[vanuck]

Babcock might be an ass but Commodore is a real piece of work and an unreliable narrator.

'We started the season 0-5 and he still wouldn't play me'. Uh, actually it's pretty easy to look up that the team started the season 5-0 that year.

And the irony of someone accusing someone else of being 'all about them' and then actually thinking that a Cup-winning NHL head coach was going to push his team to waste $1 million in cap space just so he could end the career of a depth defender he had a spat with a decade earlier ... just wow.

Commodore at that point if his career was a washed-up 33 y/o depth defender who had just been bought out by Columbus, got a reputation contract in Detroit and stunk, and was then picked up by TB, stunk again and out of the league. Babcock didn't play him because he was a bad hockey player.

And the story about how he fell out with Babcock in Anaheim his hilarious. If you read between the lines, he was acquired in a big trade with NJ and expected to make the team, showed up to camp out of shape (like, I'm pretty sure the Anaheim trainers know how to fitness test and weren't making things up), and then told the coach to go **** himself when he was called out for being out of shape. Like, I can't believe Babcock didn't like him much!

Yeah, the bolded was a sort of grey area for me where I heard that part and just took him at his word that he was absolutely convinced he was in shape. Because it's either the trainers were incompetent or he's just a boldfaced liar. I guess I was inclined to be suspicious of the former.

Everything else though was definitely iffy. Like I can buy that Babcock can come off as a **** but I don't believe anyone would be so vindictive as to purposely waste $1M just to end someone's career, plus refusing to play someone if he didn't think he gave the team a chance to win. NHL coaches are generally all about the results at the end of the day, after all.

 

[MS]

commodore was 31 to start the season with detroit in 2011.

the game log record indicates he got his first start nov 3 which followed a 5 game losing streak by the wings right after the 5 game win streak you mentioned, so while i would agree his memory is garbled as to when it started there was indeed a 5 game losing streak at the beginning of the season and he didn't play during it.

his point with detroit is that he made a call to babcock to make sure the guy actually wanted him, was told he did, then got the bench treatment anyway. i'd say 3 games by christmas represents the bench treatment for a new ufa signing and a giant fu. it's also similar to the season the leafs signed corrado to a one year deal then babcock kept corrado up all year but only played him in 1 game before christmas.

and i am not sure why you are taking babcock's side on the anaheim story. it sounds like exactly the kind of thing that might happen to a slowfooted depth dman in camp who gets carelessly tagged by the coach as needing to get into shape. why would you necessarily prefer babcock over commodore on that story? pedigree?

anyway, here's a compromise theory. commodore is a self declared mouthy hothead and i think to some degree so is corrado judging by those articles where he burned his bridges. they no doubt both wanted to play and both managed their feelings poorly. instead of managing those personalities as a coach should, or simply moving them on if he didn't like or want them, babcock chose to mess with their very shaky careers and sit them on the bench "pour encourager les autres". that seems like a pattern of dick moves to me.

Every UFA signing ever gets told they're wanted and then, unfortunately, some of them end up being old and finished. I'm sure we told Marco Sturm and Marc Chouinard and Brandon Prust they were wanted, too.

Like, two other organizations decided within that same year that Commodore was finished and regularly healthy-scratched him. It isn't like Babcock was on some sort of island here and Commodore did great before and after Detroit. Late-career Commodore was a pylon, got hurt coming out of the presason, and Babcock decided that younger players in Kindl and Eriksson were better, and you know what? He was right.

Babcock is probably an ass. I'm not denying that. But Commodore comes off far worse here as a total self-involved and not self-aware gasbag who actually thinks that Babcock was willing to sabotage his own team just to ruin Commodore's career. It's insane.

As for the Anaheim thing, if the team tells you you were out of shape, you were probably out of shape. And then probably shouldn't tell the coach to go f*** himself when he calls you on it.

 

[MS]

Yeah, the bolded was a sort of grey area for me where I heard that part and just took him at his word that he was absolutely convinced he was in shape. Because it's either the trainers were incompetent or he's just a boldfaced liar. I guess I was inclined to be suspicious of the former.

Everything else though was definitely iffy. Like I can buy that Babcock can come off as a **** but I don't believe anyone would be so vindictive as to purposely waste $1M just to end someone's career, plus refusing to play someone if he didn't think he gave the team a chance to win. NHL coaches are generally all about the results at the end of the day, after all.

It's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Babcock might be an ass, but he's also a winner. He isn't going to push to sign a player he doesn't like and thinks is a bad player at the expense of a better player and his team's cap space just so he can settle a minor grudge from a decade before.

You can pretty much tell what happened here. Detroit management liked Commodore and wanted to sign him, Babcock said sure and did his part in the recruiting, and then they saw the guy in camp and realized why Columbus had bought him out. And then he got hurt, and young guys in Kindl and Eriksson outplayed him, so they stayed in the lineup. Stuff like this happens all the time.

And given what we know about Commodore's personality, I'm sure he was a real peach through the whole process and endeared himself to everyone, and totally didn't throw gas on the fire.

 

[StreetHawk]

At that point Commodore should have contacted his agent and ask for a trade or at the worst look into mutual contract termination if he truly wanted to play.

depth players don’t get many chances.

 

[Jay Cee]

It's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Babcock might be an ass, but he's also a winner. He isn't going to push to sign a player he doesn't like and thinks is a bad player at the expense of a better player and his team's cap space just so he can settle a minor grudge from a decade before.

You can pretty much tell what happened here. Detroit management liked Commodore and wanted to sign him, Babcock said sure and did his part in the recruiting, and then they saw the guy in camp and realized why Columbus had bought him out. And then he got hurt, and young guys in Kindl and Eriksson outplayed him, so they stayed in the lineup. Stuff like this happens all the time.

And given what we know about Commodore's personality, I'm sure he was a real peach through the whole process and endeared himself to everyone, and totally didn't throw gas on the fire.

Oh it is clear that Commodore is not the victim here. It was interesting to hear the sequence of events. I found his frankness about Babcock the most interesting and hilarious part of the whole thing which is why I posted it. When he mentioned the big long story about Detroit and finally got to the end and basically said in his one game he got a shot from a coach he completely f***ed it up and somehow that was on Babcock really made me laugh. It sounded like one of my employees wind me up about why they can't take responsibility for f***ing up.

It does also shed some more light into what we already know about Babcock and I don't care what anyone says. He is a good coach but like most good coaches he has ideas about some players sometimes that just makes no sense at all but he will favor one kind of inferior guy over the other. Every coach has their favorites and prototypes of what he is looking for in certain lines. The Modano thing is just also strange. It's not seeing the forest through the trees and that's the kind of guy he is.

 

[Consistencee]

Disregarding the Commodore situation, I did think it was pretty brutal to not play Modano.

 

[Upoil]

Toronto having a rough 2nd. Hehe.

Three goals against in quick succession. (78 seconds)

 

[mathonwy]

Toronto is a goalie graveyard but they got the horses to outscore this... in the regular season.

 

[JT Milker]

Wonder if the Leafs are regretting their lack of defensive... responsibility? Attention? They play like the Warriors but there’s no equivalent hack to being really good at shooting the 3.

 

[Fire Benning]

Stars about to lose again (1-6-1), will they be the first team to fire someone?

 

[krutovsdonut]

filthy goals in the avs penns game

 

[Motte and Bailey]

Disregarding the Commodore situation, I did think it was pretty brutal to not play Modano.

The only reason why I’m leaning towards believing Commodore’s side of the story is because of stuff like this. Other players like Modano hate Babcock’s guts and there must be a reason. I remember Datsyuk’s quote about not giving a **** about what Babcock says to be indicative of something as well.

 

[Hoghandler]

Gudbranson healthy scratched for 3rd time in 6 games. The good news for Pens fans is there is only a couple years left on that deal.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Western Canada has not been kind to the Flyers...looks like they're getting skunked.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Are the Oilers actually good or they are just having a hot start

 

[Joe Rogan]

Oilers are a 4 man team playing their stars 23-25 minutes a game. I give them till November before they implode

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

What is the old saying again?
“Sidney Crosby has came to play and you are all in trouble.”
He had the most quiet 100 pts season ever last season, I think people are slowly starting to underrate him. Pittsburgh is fine as long as Sid and Geno both still have it.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Just checked the game sheet of the Oilers Flyers game
It’s like the oilers only have three players