Tough Read... Johan Franzen really struggling

[Bench]

Or.. Or ... or.. stories like that were muckrakers trying to stir up **** in 2005-2006 and they're popping back up now because it is convenient and okay to slag Babcock again.
If all this was out there and everyone in Detroit hated him so much... why was there nary a peep about this stuff when he left to rival Toronto in 2014? Don't you think the millions of ******** Wings that one of their guys went oto *TORONTO* of all places would have said any of this?

I don't really want to get into the topic I'm referencing, at all, but there's hundreds of examples lately where one person speaks up about something that many knew about in the industry, but there was no traction given to it. And then once there was one highly publicized story suddenly the dozens of others get the amplification it needed.

So to simply say, "There wasn't a peep about this stuff" isn't compelling. We've seen that before. It doesn't mean it wasn't happening. It just means the climate of the time wasn't favorable for someone to say something. And if they felt alone in speaking up, well, the hockey world is a small place and that's a lonely island - for what benefit? Usually easier to just air grievances about it behind closed doors and move on with your life. I'd wager most hockey players aren't the kind of people that want to air all their dirty laundry in public. Most locker room stuff, in my experience, stays there.

 

[MBH]

Somewhere Scotty Bowman is hiding out sweating bullets... just waiting for his former players to come out of the woodwork to say how big of a 'meanie' he was. And how that broken Kenny Holland just sat there and let it happen.

Scotty doesn't give a f***.
He's probably on the phone with Stan telling him to hire Babcock, which probably makes sense.

 

[Dotter]

Scotty doesn't give a ****.
He's probably on the phone with Stan telling him to hire Babcock, which probably makes sense.

That would be interesting. I want Yzerman to hire him. It's the perfect opportunity with all the poop-slinging and Babcock's self esteem is probably low enough to come here to this big fat pile of dog shit of players we have.

It's impressive Yzerman would even come back to this shit hole. I'm sure he's filled with regrets.

 

[TheClap]

Snippets about Bowman and his antics/tactics:

The Doghouse Diaries

All of which proves that you can teach an older dog new tricks, something to which Hurricanes defenseman Aaron Ward can attest. In his formative NHL seasons with the Red Wings in the late 1990s, Ward didn't need a Ch√¢teau Bow Wow so much as a kennel the size of Versailles. The joke in the Detroit dressing room was that Ward should have his name legally changed from Aaron to F---ing because that is the way he was generally referred to by Bowman, who once called him up from the minors but sent him back down after the morning skate. Ward presumes he had a bad morning skate.

"One time [the Red Wings] had played poorly on special teams and we were practicing the penalty kill," Ward says. "The puck comes to me, I stop for a second and then shoot it out of the zone. Scotty blows the whistle and starts screaming that I should get rid of the puck before I get it. There I am, wondering if that's even physically possible. Now we're doing a drill where the [defensemen] have to get the puck out of the zone off the face-off, and he's standing at the boards at the blue line. For me to get it out, I'm going to have to wing it right at him. At this point I probably haven't been in the lineup for two weeks. Off the face-off the puck comes to me way too easy in the corner—you can see [centers] Steve Yzerman and Kris Draper grinning—so I fire it around the boards and wham! it hits Scotty in the head. He's bleeding. My career's over. He blows the whistle and screams, 'That's how you get the puck out of a zone.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/capitals/longterm/1998/stanleycup/articles/bowman15.htm

Before this season, when Ken Holland was elevated to the post of general manager, Bowman served as director of player personnel for Detroit as well as coach. As Holland put it, "he was the guy whose philosophy everyone had to buy into. If they didn't buy in, they weren't here for very long." Players such as Dino Ciccarelli, Paul Coffey and Ray Sheppard were cast off, moves that were sometimes unpopular but certainly necessary to Bowman.

Bowman even had some problems with beloved Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, and the situation almost came to a boil in 1995 with rumors that Yzerman was going to be dealt to Ottawa. But the two worked out their differences, both on and off the ice, and Yzerman has become one of Bowman's supporters.

"I found that you really have to prove yourself with him, regardless of your past record," Yzerman said. "It just took a while for me to adjust to what he was trying to do, but it went pretty smoothly after that. He's really driven. Winning is important, and during the season, he demands that guys come to practice and play every day."

Bowman may have been a jerk, a-hole, whatever, but there was a method to his madness that ultimately guys that bought into his system respected because it brought success. They may not have like him, but they respected him, they listened to him.

Babcock does not have the pedigree, and his behaviour seems much worse. He does not have the respect of his former guys like Bowman does. The comparison just doesn't fit.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

I don't really want to get into the topic I'm referencing, at all, but there's hundreds of examples lately where one person speaks up about something that many knew about in the industry, but there was no traction given to it. And then once there was one highly publicized story suddenly the dozens of others get the amplification it needed.

So to simply say, "There wasn't a peep about this stuff" isn't compelling. We've seen that before. It doesn't mean it wasn't happening. It just means the climate of the time wasn't favorable for someone to say something. And if they felt alone in speaking up, well, the hockey world is a small place and that's a lonely island - for what benefit? Usually easier to just air grievances about it behind closed doors and move on with your life. I'd wager most hockey players aren't the kind of people that want to air all their dirty laundry in public. Most locker room stuff, in my experience, stays there.

Yeah. you do have a point. I'll retract a lot of what I said.

However... I will not go on with "HockeyBuzz said this" and treat it like it is something that was out there that simply got no traction. It's click-baity nonsense that you can find in abundance. Like I kinda really don't care what any old random ass blogger puts out there.

 

[Bench]

Yeah. you do have a point. I'll retract a lot of what I said.

However... I will not go on with "HockeyBuzz said this" and treat it like it is something that was out there that simply got no traction. It's click-baity nonsense that you can find in abundance. Like I kinda really don't care what any old random ass blogger puts out there.

For what it's worth, Andy Strickland is very reputable and has been on the Blues beat for a long time. He's always the first to get their stories and is well regarded around the league. Our nearest equivalent is if Khan had something notable to report about another coach.

You're right to be skeptical, but Strickland isn't really in the business of sensational clickbait. But obviously Babcock took notice enough to corner Strickland in 2007 and chew him out for the article, "Former Detroit video coach Jay Woodcroft brought him to me. Had me up against a wall while screaming and pointing in my face b/c of a story I had written."

It comes off as pretty insecure.

 

[lomekian]

British Common Law was very unique for its time and has had gargantuan social and political impact. Don't sell yourselves short

Ha! True - but not such an impact on colonial expansion ;-)

 

[MBH]

Yeah. you do have a point. I'll retract a lot of what I said.

However... I will not go on with "HockeyBuzz said this" and treat it like it is something that was out there that simply got no traction. It's click-baity nonsense that you can find in abundance. Like I kinda really don't care what any old random ass blogger puts out there.

Strickland isn't some random ass blogger.
Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) | Twitter

 

[avssuc]

Scotty doesn't give a ****.
He's probably on the phone with Stan telling him to hire Babcock, which probably makes sense.

Unless Babs has magic powers of turning back the clock for his defensemen, it's a bad hire.

 

[avssuc]

It's impressive Yzerman would even come back to this **** hole. I'm sure he's filled with regrets.

I know, right!?!?

Why would he want to live with his family in the area that made him a millionaire, HoFer, and a true Detroit legend? He must have gotten bad advice from some liberal millenial snowflake POS on social media... that s**t is ruining everything!