Babcock = boring
BABCOCK: Maple Leafs’ new coach wins through suffocation, but his stultifying style brings wins with it
The Leafs threw a boatload of cash at coach Mike Babcock, but their signing brings with it a mundane, if not successful, style of play
The parade route is a matter of public banter in Toronto these days after the signing of Mike Babcock to be their coach. Just the route, that is — not whether such a celebration will be held in the near future.
That has been determined, evidently, now that the Maple Leafs have landed the man considered to be among the best coaches in hockey — based to a large degree on what he’s done internationally, although he’s also won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings and been to two other finals with the Ducks and Wings, respectively.
He’s a good one for the purposes of winning — something the Leafs haven’t done much of lately — so naturally he is being greeted with greater fanfare in Toronto than was Caesar upon returning to Rome after a long and successful foreign campaign.
Babcock is an easy fellow to like for us in the media, as his answers are almost always interesting, honest and thoughtful, and he’s a tremendously friendly individual on almost all occasions.
But many players have a different view of him, and as such it can’t be a given that Toronto will automatically become a destination city for players to aspire to based on his presence.
He rubs a lot of guys the wrong way; and while others like him immensely, whatever can be said of him, let’s be clear he is certainly an upgrade on Peter Horachek. But let’s look beyond. Let’s leave aside the fact that there is a certain Leafs dysfunction to this hire, in that they hired the coach before getting a general manager. And while Babcock will have quite an influence on management decisions, he’s being hired strictly as head coach, and this kind of cart-before-the-horse behaviour has bitten the Leafs in the butt before.
Further, let’s also leave aside the cynical view that perhaps Brendan Shanahan and Babcock agreed to this deal long ago, and that the interview process with all the other NHL teams was nothing more than a sham to make things look good.
After all, the Leafs would never do that, would they? — though perhaps the Ducks may have had a different view of that when they lost their GM some seven years back. No, let’s not go there, because all the late discussions with Detroit GM Ken Holland Wednesday would have been too much hypocrisy for anyone to stage, much less these two tremendous people.
Let’s focus on what this hire means to the game, and how Rogers has a major role in investing in its long-term television deal with the NHL with the hiring of Babcock to coach the team that drives its television ratings.
We now have an NHL team paying a man $6 million plus per year to grind the game to a stultifying, boring state. That’s what Babcock does, and that’s how he has his success.
He did it in 2003 when he coached the Ducks to the most boring final in Cup history against New Jersey; and he did it at the Olympics in 2014, when with great players he provided the strategy for perhaps the most bulletproof team in history.
He tried his best in Detroit, but no matter how tiresome the system employed might be, you simply cannot make players like Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Nick Lidstrom — and more recently, Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar — boring.
Their natural glitter shows through no matter what a coach is doing or saying. But he’ll be able to do that with the Leafs. Coaches constantly focus on stopping the other team, which is why we’re seeing fewer and fewer goals, and Babcock may be the best at what coaches do best.
While the entertainment value of the old Leafs teams may take a hit, the interest generated by this hire in Toronto — and in the rest of the country, for that matter — will have folks tuning in to watch how the new Leafs will look.
And that is bound to give mainly Rogers’ ratings a boost next season.
What’s $50 million to Rogers — and Bell who owns the same 37.5 per cent stake in the team as Rogers and shares regional rights to Leaf games through TSN — if it gives the ratings for their $5.2-billion national investment a significant boost over the next few years, by getting the Leafs into a late-season playoff race and eventually the playoffs and a round or two?
If Babcock can do that, it will make his salary look like pocket change on ownership’s balance sheet, and it will thrill everyone in the NHL offices in the bargain.
It’s a win for the Leafs, Rogers, Bell and the NHL.
And the Sabres actually thought they had a chance?