Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Hannibal]

If I were him I'd either stay in Detroit or go to Toronto. Stay with the big spenders.

[Prime2]

I read the Flyers want him bad, smartly he will let the free market determine his worth and allow Detroit to match IMO. His daughter is heading to Michigan and that is huge.

Coaching in Toronto or Montreal is a heart attack in waiting, scrutiny is ridiculous, Bowman was happy to part with the Habs.

[Hannibal]

I wouldn't equate Toronto to Montreal. Toronto seems to have more reasonable expectations. That's a great job for the right guy. Toronto has had lots of talented underachieving teams. They just need a coach.

[Mike]

Is he? I haven't been impressed by what he has gotten out of his players the past four years or so. You've got some guys who have prospered since they left Detroit (e.g. Hudler) while you've got some free agents who have been brought in and have been poop (Weiss). Remember when the opposite was always true? He hasn't been bad either but I think that his time in Detroit has probably run its course. It might be time to bring up that guy from Grand Rapids.

I view Babcock as the best coach in the league, top 3 for sure. When Team Canada needs a coach to lead a bunch of all-stars to a gold medal they call him. I think if the Wings had whatever an average coach looks like, they'd be mired in the muck of 85-90 point teams that don't make the playoffs.

The talent just isn't there anymore, especially on the back end. They have average goaltending (at best), and a pretty lousy defense corps. Kronwall is great, and everyone else pretty much sucks. Ericsson is NHL caliber and Dekeyser has promise but that's about it. The best players, Datsyuk and Zetterberg are still very good when healthy but they are obviously on the downside of their careers. Franzen's career is probably over. You can't do much with those ingredients. The fact that the Wings still consistently put up 100 points is an amazing testament to Babcock's abilities as a coach. When/if he goes, coupled with the continued decline of Dats and Z, there will be a prolonged rebuilding process.

Right now the Red Wings are in purgatory. They are consistently in that 5-8 seed range but you don't stay there for long. You are either building toward getting into that top group of legit contenders are you are falling into the lottery. Best case for the Wings is Babcock stays, Holland is able to improve the back end to something resembling average, and they get some extra run from the new building in a few years. If Detroit is still competitive by then, maybe that can help attract FAs. There's a lot of moving parts but, to me, Babcock is the straw that stirs the drink.

[Hannibal]

A monkey could win a Gold Medal with Canada's team. Babcock gets a team that goes three lines deep with future Hall of Famers and all but one of his opponents (USA) has at least one player who isn't even in the NHL. That's true for even Sweden.

I wouldn't call barely scraping into the playoffs every year to be great performance. It's definitely not bad but it's not significant overachievement either. In the salary cap era everybody has a few holes. Every year teams with mediocre talent step up and squeeze at least into the second round. I haven't felt that he has gotten the most out of his team since 2008. Think of all of the shitty, overmatched teams that gave the Red Wings fits over the past 20 years and look at the whimper that the Wings put up against Boston last year and so far against Tampa Bay this year. They don't make life tough for the teams with more talent.

But you are right, it's purgatory. They aren't bad enough to miss the playoffs and they aren't good enough to win more than one flukey playoff game before they get the shit kicked out of them. The players don't appear to have completely tuned Babcock out, but they don't seem to be motivated by him anymore either. I guess in this case, you stay the course but it won't be too depressing if a change is made. He might be keeping us in the playoffs, but I think that Babcock's days as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender in Detroit are over. I like his chances at winning one somewhere else, but not in Detroy-it.

[Prime2]

Holland has lost his mojo and Now appears average IMO. There are plenty of teams under the same CAP that are annually competitive.

Current openings: Buffalo, Toronto, Philadelphia & San Jose. Anaheim and Pittsburgh likely should the Pens fail to beat the NYR Cup favs, in-fighting reported in Pittsburgh and clash with Johnson so never had NHL coaching experience. A few other positions should open too with early upsets.

Babcock grew up in Saskatoon, played at McGill in Montreal. Played for Dave King out west and in Vancouver. Coached Lethbridge, Red Deer, Kelowna, wouldn't surprise me to see Edmonton take a run at him, chance to build a team around Connor McDavid, tons of cash and player personnel control?

I guess Babcock has kids heading to Portland and Boston for University, thought he has a daughter heading to M?

[Prime2]

New 21 000 seat Arena downtown next fall doesn't hurt either.

1/2 billion, 9k lower bowl seats.

Rogers Place (Cable/Telecom giant) sponsor.



http://www.rogersplace.com

[Mike]

A monkey could win a Gold Medal with Canada's team. Babcock gets a team that goes three lines deep with future Hall of Famers and all but one of his opponents (USA) has at least one player who isn't even in the NHL.

I didn't mean to imply that Canada wins the gold because of Babcock. Just pointing out that the most powerful hockey nation on earth, who can presumably hire anyone they want, continues to stick with Babcock.

I agree that his days as a Cup contender are probably over in Detroit, though. At least for the foreseeable future. Things will likely get worse before they get better for the Wings and I don't think the current stars and leaders of the team will be around the next time the Red Wings are relevant on the Cup stage.

[WingsFan]

Toronto wants Babcock bad from what I hear, that's fine with me. I'm looking for a change (Jeff Blashill) barring a miracle that the wings get past second round. 2008 was a long time ago.

[Prime2]

The Oilers have been a trainwreck over the last 10 years, poorly coached amd managed, Babcock changes that overnight. Edmonton just added Hockey Canada President Bob Nicholson as the Oilers new CEO, things are getting serious.

Here is what Gretzky had to say about McDavid to Edmonton:
Wayne Gretzky says Connor McDavid is ‘best player in last 30 years’
What does the last great franchise player for the Edmonton Oilers think of the future great franchise player for the Edmonton Oilers?

No, not Jason Bonsignore – Wayne Gretzky!

“I hope he brings Edmonton a Stanley Cup and he breaks my records ... he’s got the talent and the makeup to do it. I hope he leaves a couple for me, though. I could use that,” Gretzky said of Connor McDavid, as told to Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal.

From the Journal:

“He’s as good as I’ve seen in the last 30 years, the best player to come into the league in the last 30 years, the best to come along since (Mario) Lemieux and (Sidney) Crosby. He can definitely change a franchise’s fortunes,” said Gretzky, who feels Edmonton will be like a nice warm blanket for the teenager from Toronto, just as it was for Gretzky, who was born in Brantford, Ont.

[Ed. Note: “The best player to come into the league in the last 30 years” would seem to indicate better than Crosby, no?]

”I think it’ll be a perfect fit for Connor in Edmonton. Not one bit is Edmonton a suffocating place to play. He’ll be treated like an Edmontonian. People will give him his privacy while they’re enamoured by his ability.”

Gretzky said for a player McDavid’s age, “he’s very mature for an 18-year-old who’s rated No. 1.”

Hey, that sounds familiar! Gretzky on Sidney Crosby, circa 2005: "He's probably more mature at 17 than maybe I was.”

Now … who officially gets to be “The Next One?”

[Hannibal]

That's very high praise.

[WingsFan]

Wings up 2-0 in the 3rd!

[Mike]

Wings up 2-0!

[Mike]

They're having fun down at the Joe! Looks like we might have a series after all.

[WingsFan]

3-0!! Wings win!