Marner on Babcock

7 comments

1. >I had a pretty good relationship with him at the end of it.”

   Shhhhh this goes against the narrative!

2. Honestly I’m not big on the hire but I think we can all agree none of us were big on the Torts hire. All we can do is sit back, have faith that Jarmo and JD took the players into account, give Babs a short leash, and hopefully he has learned from the past just like Torts did.

   Under Larson apparently the locker room culture took a huge hit, his systems sucked and he let players coast. Babs won’t let that happen and has a system that’s better for the highly skilled kids.

   Fingers crossed that it works out but honestly there is nothing we can do about it till we hear from Jarmo, JD and Babs at the press conference.

3. The Marner stuff always just appeared to be Toronto media BS to me, it’s the stuff with Franzen that’s worrying. At the same time, Patrick Roy has been called [“one of the worst people I’ve met”](https://torontosun.com/2014/04/21/patrick-roy-is-one-of-the-worst-people-ive-met-former-goalie) by an NHL player, yet many of us preferred Roy to Babcock (including myself).

   At the end of the day, I view this hiring exactly how I would have viewed hiring Roy: Boom/Bust. I can really only hope it works out for all of us.

4. I have wondered a lot after the news broke and the subsequent outlash by Reddit/intern webs if the Babs hatred has something to do with Toronto media and internet pack mentality. I obviously don’t know the dude and didn’t know a ton about the story when it happened I’m just speculating on something that makes sense in my own brain

5. I’m going to wait to judge because the players had a pretty big role in this hiring search. I know Laine and Babcock had a long conversation and Nash did as well.

6. I have been extremely negative of Babcock since he was first rumored to be in the running, mostly regarding his coaching style and the way he appears to treat players.

   But all of that aside, also the same reason I was initially disappointed with the Torts hire, is that we already know what Babcock brings to the table. Unless you are an utterly stacked Red Wings team, he doesn’t really get you anywhere close to winning a cup. There is an expiration date with the way he handles his staff and players, and how he runs an NHL team’s day to day grind. He was unable to get out of the first round with a Maple Leafs team that was built significantly better than what we have here. The eastern conference and metro division specifically are just as strong as the Atlantic division that chewed up and spit out those Leafs teams.

   Best case scenario is that Babcock brings this team back to the endless struggle of mediocrity that the team was in for the entire Tortorella era. Yes that is still significantly better than the 2000’s, but it’s still nowhere near what you hope for as a fan. Yes, the floor for a Babcock team is higher for the first 4-5 years than with an unknown coach, but honestly I think that’s worse in some ways.

   He’s practically guaranteed to last 5 years barring any scandals, and if things aren’t still trending upwards in year 3, we pretty much know that there’s not a second peak somewhere. The team is just gonna fizzle out in the early playoff rounds, and waste a couple more years with Babcock behind the bench and ultimately nothing to show for it other than the “improved team culture of accountability”. Which we have just learned takes all of 2 years to completely disintegrate.

7. I’m just here to wait and see what happens. This has gotta be it in my opinion we gotta show improvement under him and we gotta compete if not goodbye front office.