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Coach Mike Babcock

Nik Bethune said:
I'm always amazed by the sheer number of people who will attribute what's going wrong with a professional hockey team to either an easily identifiable and fixable tactical problem or a conscious decision on the part of players to play poorly.

Seriously. Millions and millions of dollars are at stake here and people think the collective group running the Leafs can't see what they gleaned through their copious brilliance picked up at beer league and minor midget.
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I am also amazed by this. I enjoy the message board and I also enjoy the banter between fans of any sport. I just don't think that I know better or that a team's problems can be fixed with the simple change on the powerplay. The workings that go on to make the machine known as the Leafs operate is incredible. The tireless hours put in formulating a plan by management and a staff is crazy. The time put in by the players to stay in shape and improve as players is incredible. To think they just don't care, or are losing on purpose mind boggling.
 
Have you guys heard the interview with Commodore regarding Babcock? I don't know what's accurate and not, but it's quite entertaining though.
 
Stebro said:
Have you guys heard the interview with Commodore regarding Babcock? I don't know what's accurate and not, but it's quite entertaining though.
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Commodore clearly has issues. Nobody well adjusted would spend most of their online life deriding a former boss.
 
I'm not sure I'm at the "fire Babcock" stage yet, but looking forward in case Dubas goes down that path, what options are out there?

Boucher?
 
AvroArrow said:
I'm not sure I'm at the "fire Babcock" stage yet, but looking forward in case Dubas goes down that path, what options are out there?

Boucher?
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Keefe will be the guy and I'm ready. Defensive zone structure is horrible. Not playing your stars enough. Being stubborn with line matches, back up goalie playing time, all that stuff. I posted in the GDT, Matthews played just under 17 mins against the Habs and around 5:30 in the 3rd period while we're down by a goal, at first. I also don't like this not allowing our top lines to start in the D zone area. You can't learn if you don't play the positions.
 
AvroArrow said:
I'm not sure I'm at the "fire Babcock" stage yet, but looking forward in case Dubas goes down that path, what options are out there?

Boucher?
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Keefe is definitely next in line, he's been waiting for a while now.
 
Sounds like Keefe will be the next coach when the time comes. Does anyone watch enough Marlies games to be able to say anything about how they play in the dzone? Do they look like they know what they're doing?

I can't figure out whether the Leaf players have tuned out Babcock or whether he doesn't teach a good defensive zone system but it often looks like a complete mess out there.
 
It's a mess out there but Keefe's advantage is that most of the players will do anything the coach says because they want to make it to the NHL. They do play a system from what Ive seen but I don't watch them enough to say how well it works game to game.
 
Guilt Trip said:
It's a mess out there but Keefe's advantage is that most of the players will do anything the coach says because they want to make it to the NHL. They do play a system from what Ive seen but I don't watch them enough to say how well it works game to game.
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The system should theoretically be the same when coming up to the NHL. That's the whole point of the Marlies.
 
Bender said:
Guilt Trip said:
It's a mess out there but Keefe's advantage is that most of the players will do anything the coach says because they want to make it to the NHL. They do play a system from what Ive seen but I don't watch them enough to say how well it works game to game.
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The system should theoretically be the same when coming up to the NHL. That's the whole point of the Marlies.
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It should be theoretically but the AHL game is different then the NHL. What I find is the biggest problem, Leafs wise, is their defensive positioning. So many times the D and forwards are in the wrong position/not covering their man or going in the wrong direction. It's really not that hard to do.
 
Guilt Trip said:
So many times the D and forwards are in the wrong position/not covering their man or going in the wrong direction. It's really not that hard to do.
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I think that's way too simplistic of an argument. Good offensive players make it incredibly difficult to play effective positional defense; that's why they're good. Some players are better than others at reading plays in the moment and changing strategy; systems can help, of course, but at lot of that is innate and speaks to talent at an specific part of the game.

Dubas made the decision to have a defense where the top talent base (apart from Muzzin) was made up of puck movers and skaters, at the detriment of size/strength/ability to box out traffic and the cycle game. The leafs have been running around in their own zone, unable to counter effectively when the don't have the puck, and taking a substantial number of defensive zone penalties as a result.

Ultimately with all the babcock complainers, it really is just an outlet to show frustration with the team. Since the easy targets, like Polak/Komorov/Martin/Hainsey etc, etc, are gone, the coach has become popular target, and as usual, when the team plays well, it's the players that get the credit, and when it goes poorly, it's on Babcock.
 
If the team fires Babcock, who is available to replace him?  I could only see them firing him if things get really bad and there is actually someone out there that could do a better job.
 
sickbeast said:
If the team fires Babcock, who is available to replace him?  I could only see them firing him if things get really bad and there is actually someone out there that could do a better job.
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If Dubas fires Babs I would be surprised if Keefe isn't the head coach.
 
Babcock will not be fired this year, until after the playoffs, if we lose in round 1 he is history, round 2 is questionable, if he goes to round 3 or the Cup, he will be back for at least one more year. Rinse and repeat.  Keefe is probably one to two years away, but he is Dubas man.
 
I think that Babcock is a great coach, not that flexible though, which is an issue. I don't know why but sometimes it feels like Babcock is playing players the wrong way to punish Dubas, like Barrie and Ceci for example. When it comes to sports or organizations in general I don't buy into this "proven winner" argument. Berube won and wasn't a proven winner, do I think Babcock could have won the cup with the Blues? No. Berube was the right guy at the right time. Either Dubas will make some trades or Babcock needs to go.
 
Stebro said:
I think that Babcock is a great coach, not that flexible though, which is an issue. I don't know why but sometimes it feels like Babcock is playing players the wrong way to punish Dubas, like Barrie and Ceci for example. When it comes to sports or organizations in general I don't buy into this "proven winner" argument. Berube won and wasn't a proven winner, do I think Babcock could have won the cup with the Blues? No. Berube was the right guy at the right time. Either Dubas will make some trades or Babcock needs to go.
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Babs needs to go. His misuse of Matthews alone is enough for me.
 
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