In any close American league, despite widespread caps, roster restrictions and tightness, there are perennial losers. For example, in the NFL, Cleveland has only made the playoffs three times in 30 years, Chicago baseball has failed to become champion in a hundred years, and small-market basketball teams are completely doomed to a miserable existence if they don’t one day. do. Pull out a miracle in the draft.-yudo.
Related Materials
6 NHL teams start a new life. Which of them will be able to repeat the path of the champion?
The NHL has them too. Columbus has long earned a reputation as a place where everyone leaves at the first opportunity, which remains a mystery: while Ohio is a running joke in America, it’s clearly not the worst city to live in the league. And it seems that the club over the last decade has become a good draft, made good trades and went down in history with the elimination of Tampa to the 2019 playoffs, but to this day, this is the only time that the Uniforms have reached the second round.
But, apparently, in Colón they finally decided to shake off the image of boring provincials. Last year, the underdog club criticized the trade of Johnny Gaudreau, who couldn’t fix all the team’s problems by himself, but had to show that the stars would also like to go to Ohio. The Blue Jackets have stocked up on draft picks, drafted Adam Fantilli in potentially the best draft of the decade, and now called up the most renowned coach in the field, Mike Babcock.
After Babcock was fired from Toronto, everyone trampled on the star coach. It was known about the problems with the management of the team in Detroit; this was mainly discussed by numerous Swedes in interviews with their media. “He is a terrible person, the worst person I have ever met. He’s just a bully who attacks people for no apparent reason, whether it’s a player or a janitor in the arena,” Johan Fransson said shortly after Babcock’s departure from Columbus. “Scotty Bowman has always been trusted because he was respected. But I can’t say that about Babcock. This is the most selfish person I’ve ever met,” Darren McCarthy echoed the Swede.
Mike Babcock in Detroit
Photo: AP/TASS
The correctness of the former Detroiters is partially confirmed by the fact that Detroit, in the last years of Mike’s work in the club, practically did not attract the best free agents, whom the club was constantly chasing. You could chalk it up to the lack of appeal in the city itself, but in the immediate aftermath of Babcock’s departure, Mike Green and Brad Richards joined the club, and the NCA market over the past two years shows that the best free agents are ready to choose a team that is famous for creating a family atmosphere.
In Toronto, Babcock was also involved in a scandal. She asked Mitch Marner, who was completely green at the time, to rank the players in terms of dedication. Such things should be closed from prying eyes, but the players who took the last lines in this rating learned all this from the coach himself. Babcock himself does not deny it:
“We talked about the work ethic. I asked him where he ranks. And it was not a problem, it was a personal conversation. It was a good meeting, Mitch left. But then I got out… I’m pretty sure it was Bozak. He was an important part of our team. When we talked about competitiveness, I’d say, “Look at how Mitch evaluates it.” I made a big mistake, I realized it as soon as I did it.”
After resigning from Toronto at the end of 2019, the coach did not work in the NHL, receiving hefty checks from the former club. In 2015, the Leafs invested heavily ($50 million over eight years) to get the coach out from under Buffalo’s nose, but after the firing they still had to pay the former boss. Babcock was attached to Washington when the club fired Todd Reirden, but it didn’t work out. Mike’s only coaching experience during this period was at the University of Saskatchewan. It was surprising not only that the coach chose a provincial league (Canadian USports is several times worse than the NCAA), but also the most prestigious university.
mike babcock
Photo: ZUMA/TASS
“Watching how Babcock interacts with his players, you see him from the other side, not the demanding, almost military leader he is seen in some parts of the hockey world. Here he fools around with the players, he laughs at the differences between Toronto and Saskatchewan and listens to opinions on local restaurants. The atmosphere is somewhere between relaxed and professional,” local journalists wrote.
Related Materials
He crushed Russia at the Olympics and is now a pariah in the NHL. Where is Mike Babcock now?
Babcock’s appointment to Columbus fits well with the philosophy the club has been running under different coaches. NHL head coach Gerard Gallan began his career in uniforms, Ken Hitchcock led the team to the playoffs for the first time, John Tortorella helped him reach his peak of development. Babcock is an old-fashioned, defense-focused coach, and in Detroit itself, he could move chips like Luke Glendening and Justin Abdelkader into the front ranks alongside Zetterberg: Datsyuk.
And in a new place, the coach must first of all create the right team culture, which would start with a clear game in defense. Defense was the main problem in Brad Larsen’s short period of work – 31st in goals conceded last season, 28th the year before, and in advanced metrics everything was even worse. It could be justified by the massive relegation of the main defenders due to injuries, but there were no structural improvements either.
It is no coincidence that the Columbus management strengthened protection in the NHL market. The club acquired underrated right-hander Damon Siverson, who at the Devils remained in the shadow of the highly paid Hamilton. Ivan Provorov also moved to Ohio, which has been stuck in Pennsylvania for the last two years: it seems that after Matt Niskanen’s sudden departure from hockey, Ivan never found a suitable match. After these transfers, the club’s defense, taking into account the main Zak Verensky and emerging talents like Irzhichek and Svozil, no longer looks like a weak side.
Are there any downsides to Babcock’s return? Clearly the history with Marner is not an indicator of his lack of preparation. A good person is not a profession, and the coaches show this very clearly. Bob Hartley will go down in history not as the creator of the “Gulag hockey” and the boss who was openly hated by many NHLers, but as a man who won every league he worked in.
But how justified is the reputation of a winning coach? While Babcock has racked up a Grand Slam of Olympic, World, World and World Games victories, his playoff record is a bit iffy. In 2006, the coach flew with Detroit from Edmonton, who ranked eighth in the conference and overall won just one cup with a team whose all-star backbone was still in the juice. After 2011, Mike only won one playoff series and lost 3-1 to Chicago in 2013. But it’s clearly too early for Colón to think that far.
Kirill Marchenko, Egor Chinakhov
Photo: AP/TASS
What will be interesting for us is how Babcock will deal with the Russian diaspora that has grown up in Columbus. Marchenko, Chinakhov, Provorov, Tarasov, Voronkov, who, with their style of play, should fit into the new coach’s plans – the coach has never met such a big team as ours. Nikita Zaitsev, for example, can hardly speak positively about working with Babcock: His head coach and assistant decided to turn the guard into a homebody and got a player who is ineffective at the NHL level in both roles.
“This is a coach who is very clear and precise about what he wants from you. If you do, then you play. You don’t, sorry. He’s won everything in hockey, and these victories speak for themselves. There is nothing special to add,” said Alexei Marchenko, who played for both Detroit and Toronto. True, the above words were said during the joint work of him.
Whatever Babcock’s character, one thing can be said: This signing proves that Columbus no longer wants to be in the shadow of hockey and a club that becomes a springboard for big contracts elsewhere.
