Hockey Randomness

Postby **Gabe** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 4:36 pm

Leafs fire Babcock. hahaha

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 4:45 pm

Babcock is a goblin faced NTP66.

Postby **faftorial** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 4:47 pm

Mike Babcock, pack your ****.

Seems like yesterday that the Leaves brought in the best hockey minds.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 4:53 pm

Sheldon Keefe's re-rise to the good graces of hockeydom is an interesting one...

Postby **Lemon Berry Lobster** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:04 pm

Remember when many Pens fans wanted him?

Postby **MR25** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:53 pm

Sheldon Keefe's re-rise to the good graces of hockeydom is an interesting one...

Do tell, because Wikipedia doesn't.

Postby **offsides** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:07 pm

Wow, Sheldon Keefe has a big task in front of him.

Postby **meow** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:11 pm

Does he? The roster is there. Just pull a Bylsma and let the horses run. How hard can it be?

Postby **offsides** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:14 pm

Does he? The roster is there. Just pull a Bylsma and let the horses run. How hard can it be?

So, did the players just quit on Babcock or can't he coach any more?

Postby **meow** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:26 pm

Yes and was he ever a good coach?

Postby **MR25** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:29 pm

I contend not but I know mikey has disagreed with that in the past.

The Leafs are spending like 20-30mm more than Ottawa and have the number number of wins.

Postby **offsides** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:55 pm

I thought Babs was pretty good in Toronto. After his first season up there he was 140-81-30. Even this year after the players quit on him, he is almost 500. At least he got them in the playoffs 3 years straight. They missed the playoffs 10 of 11 years before Babcock. I guess he is the coach so he gets the blame. No Cup and Toronto has to cry a lot and make changes.

Postby **MR25** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:26 pm

He lost in the first round every year he made the playoffs, and specific to last season's exit, he gave 39 year old Patrick Marleau more 5v5 ice time than Auston Matthews in a do or die Game 7.

He also scratched Spezza for Torontos home opener after Spezza bought a bunch of tickets for family (this on top of his time in Detroit where he healthy scratched Mike Modano in order to keep him at 1499 career games).

He lost the room there. No one's fault but his.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:29 pm

Babs might not be the right coach for an offensive juggernaut...he insulated two absolute slug goalies to the Final though (Giguere, with an expansion team plus Kariya and Ozolinsh) and the Wings (a wagon, no doubt) with Osgood...

The Leafs were not built that way...I'll talk more about this tomorrow when I have more time...same with the story on Keefe based on my recollections...

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:41 pm

Postby **offsides** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:42 pm

I sure don't know much about who he sits and plays or why, but to only miss the playoffs 3 times in 17 years with 3 different teams is kinda good. At least to me. I would have to say, if it is over, he had a successful coaching career.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:43 pm

Postby **Gaucho** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:56 pm

Postby **Gaucho** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:56 pm

I think he should stop.

Postby **Pavel Bure** » Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:22 am

I think he should stop.

Nah, not after what Babs did to him. Seemed to do the same bullshit to Spezza as well.

Postby **NTP66** » Thu Nov 21, 2019 6:42 am

I think he should stop.
Nah, not after what Babs did to him. Seemed to do the same bullshit to Spezza as well.

What happened between the two? I don't have the backstory.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:31 am

I think he should stop.
Nah, not after what Babs did to him. Seemed to do the same bullshit to Spezza as well.
What happened between the two? I don't have the backstory.

It's early in Commodore's career, the summer of 2002, and he's just been traded by the Devils to the Ducks. Babcock is entering his first season as Ducks head coach. He calls Commodore to tell him to show up to training camp in shape. Sounds good, Commodore says.

"I don’t know who Mike Babcock is. I've never heard of him, I’ve never had a run in with him, nothing. There’s no previous history whatsoever. I show up to camp, fight everybody in camp, I’m supposed to play (when the season starts). I’m penciled in, but he has someone else he wants to play. Sends me down to the minors, carves me in the papers, says I showed up out of shape. I swear to god, I never showed up out of shape because I wasn't talented enough to do it. I would have been in the East Coast League and done in, like, two years. ... I was never able to get rid of that reputation, like, 'The guy doesn’t work out,' because he want to the fu*king paper and said that. I read it. I’m like, are you fuc*ing kidding me?"

So Commodore, who played 57 games for the Devils over the prior two seasons, spends the bulk of the year with Anaheim's AHL team in Cincinnati. He thinks he's finally getting his shot midway through that season when the Ducks visit the Blue Jackets and give him a call. And this is where his relationship with Babcock really goes south.

"They called me up and did a fat test on me. I’m not even playing in the game. They do a fat test on me, a pinch test. For anybody that's done that test, it's very subjective. Somebody that you put on the front of a magazine that’s ripped out of their mind, you can make them, like, five percent body fat. You just grab the three points where there’s a little bit of extra skin.

"I’ve been playing four or five nights (a week) the whole first half of the year, I’m in great shape. I’m the exact same body weight, if not lighter, than I was in training camp. I was always around 10, 11 percent body fat. They do this fat test and I’m 22 percent body fat. It was a brand new strength coach, and he’s like, 'Hey, I gotta fire this in.' So he hands it in to Babs, and Babs waits and gives it to me in front of the team. I don’t know any of these guys. So I told him to go fu*k himself. I’m like, 'You know what, fu*k you. Your test is fu*ked. Let’s go do a real test. I'm not fuc*ing 22 percent body fat, fu*k you.' And that’s when I was done in Anaheim."

You don't say.

The Ducks trade Commodore to Calgary in March, and by the start of the 2005-06 campaign he's in Carolina. He plays a key role on the Hurricanes' Cup-winning team that season and flourishes the year after that. When he hits free agency in 2008, he lands a five-year, $18.75 million contract with the Blue Jackets. But Columbus makes a coaching change three years later and buys out the rest of Commodore's contract. He winds up back on the free agent market in 2011 with considerably fewer suitors. He doesn't expect any teams to call until sometime in August.

On the morning of July 1, five minutes into free agency, his phone rings. The Red Wings have an offer: 1 year, $1 million. Commodore is friendly with then-GM Ken Holland. He's always wanted to play for the Wings. It's the perfect scenario, except for one tiny detail: Babcock. So Commodore calls his agent and says, "No fuc*ing way. I'm not going to Detroit." His agent tells him he has 15 minutes to make up his mind for sure. Then Detroit's taking the offer off the table.

"I'm like, you gotta be fuc*ing kidding me. 15 minutes, free agency just started. Even if another team kind of likes me they’re not even thinking about calling me for like, two weeks. So I hang up the phone, call Ken Holland and I'm like, 'I would love to play for you. I would love to play in Detroit. I always enjoyed going in, even when we got our asses kicked. I love the city, I think Joe Louis is awesome. You always make the playoffs. I would like to play there. But you what I think about Babcock. We had beers at your golf tournament and I was fuc*ing ripping on him. You know what I think of him. Does he want me on the team or not?'"

He really does, Holland says. Commodore asks for Babcock's number.

"So I call that piece of sh*t, and now I’ve got like 10 minutes left. He’s like, 'Hey, Commy.' I didn’t say this, but I'm like, don’t call me 'Commy,' you piece of sh*t. We’re not friends. And I’m like, 'Mike, please be honest with me. Do you want me on your hockey team or not? If you don’t, if you're just getting me in here because you want to fu*k me over and end my career, please be honest with me. I just won’t sign. I won’t say anything, no hard feelings. But I know this is my last chance. I need to know wherever I go that I’m going to get an opportunity.'"

We need you, Babcock tells him. We need a physical presence. We need a right-handed defenseman to play with Lidstrom.

"I’m like, 'Mike, please. I understand this is my last chance. Please be honest with me. I asked him again, 'Do you want me on your team? Am I going to get a decent opportunity? I don’t need to get fuc*ed right away.' He’s like, 'I want you on my team.' I hang up the phone, call my agent and I'm like, 'This guy’s going to fu*k me, for sure.'

"He’s like, 'Well, Detroit is going to make the playoffs, you’re going to get an opportunity. I think you should take him at his word.' And then I’m thinking, 'Well, I get to play with Nick Lidstrom, literally all I would have to do is go D to D all year and that’d be 35, 40 points. I’m back (in free agency), maybe another five year deal, I’m rolling again.' That’s what’s going through my head. So I'm sitting there, I got a couple minutes left, and I’m like, you know what, I'm going to take this guy at his word and sign there."

So Commodore signs, gets hurt in training camp, misses the first couple games of the year and then doesn't crack the lineup when he's healthy. One scratch after another.

"I’m like, this motherfu*ker. It’s happening. I just got bought out, I have zero leverage. What am I going to do, go to the media? Nobody gives a sh*t. So for the first three weeks I was miserable. I was pissed off. And after that I was like, you know what, this guy isn't going to dictate how I live my life. Fu*k him. He doesn’t want to play me, fine. Don’t play me. I’m going to come to the rink, I’m going to run the stairs, I'm going to practice as hard as he’ll let me, because he would always blow drills down when it was my turn. I’m going to go one on one versus Pav, he likes doing that in the neutral zone along the boards. I’m going to do that and then I’m going to plan the parties. I’m going to be a good guy to be around and I’m going to have fun, so that’s what I ended up doing."

Commodore's first game comes in November, a total trainwreck, as he recalls. He winds up playing 17 games total, about 11 minutes a night, before he's shipped to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline.

"Complete disaster. Career over."

https://971theticket.radio.com/articles ... ep-out-guy

Postby **NTP66** » Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:37 am

Wow. Babcock's a real NTP66.

Postby **iamjs** » Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:24 am

I think he should stop.
Nah, not after what Babs did to him. Seemed to do the same bullshit to Spezza as well.

and Modano. Shorted him of his 1500th game by making him a healthy scratch during the final week of Modano's career. If I remember correctly, Detroit already had wrapped up the 3 seed a week prior.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtisrush ... 84c6884606

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:57 am

I think he should stop.
Nah, not after what Babs did to him. Seemed to do the same bullshit to Spezza as well.
and Modano. Shorted him of his 1500th game by making him a healthy scratch during the final week of Modano's career. If I remember correctly, Detroit already had wrapped up the 3 seed a week prior.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtisrush ... 84c6884606

Wow. I had not heard that one before. What an absolute **** munch. He should be forced to spend eternity locked in a room with Kris Draper.

So apparently Bobby Ryan left Monday's practice early after stating he didn't feel well and now it's been announced that he's out indefinitely while enrolled in the NHL/National Hockey League Players' Association assistance program.