Fifth Avenue Forum

Hey, it’s our old friend @saracivian

Didn’t that creepazoid have a take about her rake?

Franzen, who suffered from numerous concussions, retired in 2015 after 11 seasons, and has battled post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

Chelios was part of the Wings’ front office at the time of the alleged incident, having ended a 26-season NHL career in 2010, which included nearly 10 seasons in Detroit.

“Some of the things he (Babcock) said to him (Franzen) on the bench, I don’t know what he said to him behind closed doors one-on-one, but he blatantly verbally assaulted him during the game on the bench,” Chelios said. “It got to the point where poor Johan, no one really knowing he was suffering with the concussion thing and the depression thing, he just broke down and had nervous breakdown, not only on the bench but after the game in one of the rooms in Nashville.

“It was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

Johan Franzen has confirmed Chris Chelios’ account on the incident with Mike Babcock to Swedish publication Sport Expressen.

Franzen called Babcock a technically great coach, but a terrible person who made him dread going to the rink.

“I get shivers when I think about it, that was against Nashville in the playoffs. It was gross, nasty and shocking. But it was just one of a hundred things he did. The tip of an iceberg. As a coach, he is extremely careful and prepared. He's great at putting together a game system and getting everyone to buy into it, it's his strong side. But then he's a terrible person, the worst person I've ever met. A bully who went after people, they could be cleaners in the arena in Detroit or anyone. He jumped on people just because. From 2011 I was terrified of being in the ice rink. I was just focusing on getting up in the mornings. That's when he went after me for the first time and last year was the first time I slept naturally since then.”

“He was a specialist in dealing with the media. He creates teams that are very hard to beat, you can't take that away from him. But he makes his players very anxious, they are terrified of making mistakes.”

I was terrified of being in the ice cream parlor. He is a terrible man. The worst I've ever met, he says.

Babcock sure seems mean now that he's not winning...