Hockey peeps help!

Some say he is the best coach in the NHL?

Is it just a salary dispute now between him and detroit? and he is essentially a FA?

and if he is that good, why not any offers?

and....are the Hawks really considering him?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Rozner says they should. Apparently he is going to switch, but who knows where he'll end up. It's nice to be talking about a different kind of coc.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Many do, but if you hate the way Quenneville fucks with lines and falls in love with old plugs, you probably won't like a guy who once boat-anchored Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg with the remnants of Todd Bertuzzi. Did you know Bertuzzi cuts the skin between his toes and puts snuff on the cuts? This isn't germane to anything, but is that gross or what?


The read I've gotten is that Babcock and Kenny Holland have kind of reached the end of their relationship, with Babcock wanting more input on personnel (if not a shared coach/GM duty outright), which the Ilitches aren't gonna do. His contract expires on June 30th, so he's still under contract with Detroit, but they're letting him talk to other teams who want to get a jump on negotiations. However, the NHL has a new rule that teams who hire other teams' executives must send back compensation in the form of draft picks even if it's a promotion -- a rule that was enacted because Holland himself wouldn't stop bitching about everyone hiring away his lieutenants.


There have been offers, notably from Buffalo and Toronto (Edmonton was a longshot but they seem to be casting their lot with erstwhile Babcock assistant Todd McLellan) but they've been done through Dan Bernstein's Back Channels™ because of the aforementioned compensation issues.


Quenneville is signed through 2016 and eight wins away from a third Stanley Cup, so I'm guessing no, unless Quenneville retires after a life spent in hockey, which I broached the other day but had shot down.

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think bill parcells

Todd McLellan to the Oilers is now official, so for Babcock it's pretty much down to Toronto, Buffalo, or staying in Detroit.

Good move for the Oilers. McLellan did the best he could under a general manager who can't draft/develop for shit.

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Babcock's wife likes Detroit and wants to stay there, is the informal report. I think she likes being Mrs Red Wing in that relatively small ( celeb-wise ) market. So that'd give Buffalo an edge over Toronto or Chicago.

Pretty good break down from the Toronto Sun from a few weeks ago (with a pic of Babcock and his wifey):

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/05/01/mi ... ture-plans

Not the first time Babcock has bowed to his wife publicly:



The comment his wife dressed-down Babcock over?



Audio at this link:
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/04/24/ ... h-response

I don't know how nice Buffalo's best suburbs are but I'm guessing they fall well short of Bloomfield Hills and the Grosse Pointes or wherever they live.

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Babcocks live in the area between Detroit and Ann Arbor, Novi. Their 3 kids all went to Detroit Catholic Central (which isn't in Detroit, but in suburban Novi). Oldest, Alexandra, just graduated from Univ Michigan. Mike Jr, middle child, plays junior hockey and will be attending/playing for Merrimack out near Boston in the Fall. Their youngest, Taylor, graduated from high school this spring and is fucking off to the west coast, University of Portland. Taylor prolly got tired of hanging around punch-face Babcock, her uber-hockey mom and her over-achieving siblings.

So if they are gonna leave Detroit, not a bad time to do it.

$50MM over eight years with Toronto. Reunited with Shanahan (even though I don't think Babcock coached Shanahan more than a year).

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Huh. Hey, why not? I take it he's gonna get some personnel say-so.

So, who takes over the Wing?

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Not a mult.

Presumably Jeff Blashill, who has been overstaying his welcome in Grand Rapids almost as much as the players he coaches.

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Remember that Toronto also fired their GM, but with the money and term they gave Babcock, you get the feeling that he'll have significant input on the personnel side of things. I could see a situation like Colorado where Patrick Roy is technically Joe Sakic's boss, if not de jure, at least de facto: they'll have a general manager in name whose job is to do what Babcock wants him to do. I think this was how Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli worked.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Paying a coach $6+ mil, and they are still in tank mode. Still have to clear the decks of Fatboy Kessell and Sissy Phaneuf.

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