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The end of the Babcock saga. Plus, reactions to reactions |
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You could lay out 50 million reasons why it didn't work out between Mike Babcock and the Buffalo Sabres. A contact worth $50 million over eight years was reportedly offered by Sabres owner Terry Pegula and their GM, Tim Murray, and it was something Babcock's team took back up the QEW to Toronto Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan. The Leafs ponied up and Babcock is now the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The process is done, and for a lot of people, "Thank God" can be placed a the end of that sentence.
Interesting to see the reactions from various outlets, but all of them pretty much mention the Buffalo Sabres as the "jilted lover" in all of this. Which is fine, because the Pegula and Co. pretty much offered Babcock all they could and in the end he chose the Queen of Hockey over the Queen City. "When you think about the Toronto Maple Leafs -- the most iconic franchise, in my view, in the world -- I think that that had an appeal to Mike Babcock that other markets just couldn't match," said TSN's Craig Button on ctv news.ca.
“I wanted to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs," was what Babcock ultimately said about his final decision.
In addition to his $50 million contract, he also has the ultimate challenge for a Canadian hockey coach--bring the Stanley Cup to Toronto. The Leafs have not won the Cup since 1967, the end of the Original Six era in the NHL and he'll be part of a team, lead by Shanahan, that will be tearing down the present roster to commence a rebuild. “The path we're taking has to be different. There’s no chance for a quick fixer here," said the new Leafs coach. "You build a program. It’s going to take a long time. They committed to me for a long time. I committed to Toronto for a long time.”
And it won't be easy. “If you think there's no pain coming," said Babcock, "there's pain coming,”
A successful rebuild into a Stanley Cup champion will mean a place for Babcock right at the top of Mount Maple Leaf earning him legendary, god-like status. Sound the trumpets!!! Kneel and hear these word's from him to his Toronto audience:
"I believe this is Canada's team and we need to put Canada's team back on the map."
It's a goal enough to puff out the chest of every Leaf fan. And ya gotta hand it to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, they brought in some of the best in the business to turn it around.
Good Luck. But not too much.
Many thought the Babcock to Buffalo thing was a done deal. Oops. Missed that one. And just how should we react. I have my idea, which I'll get to later, but right now some reactions from around the league and a reaction to their reactions:
--Our buddy Dave Hodge chimed in with a "thumbs-up" in his TSN column, "The Sabres saw themselves as the successful suitors and news reports backed them up. Buffalo wasn't prepared to lose this lottery. But losing out on Babcock is worse than seeing the wrong ping pong balls come up for Connor McDavid, because losing to Toronto is worse than losing to Edmonton. When Jack Eichel poses for pictures with his Buffalo coach, the captions will be obvious, and fun to read.
"And the Buffalo-Toronto games will be fun to watch. That's the best part of what happened yesterday for all who weren't directly involved."
Reaction: Sure, Mr. Hodge, losing out on McDavid was a tough one. In fact, had the Sabres won the lottery, we might be talking about eight years of a McDavid/Babcock Sabres-lead team. Ahhh, what could've been. Then again, as for "reigniting the rivalry," five years from now when the Leafs should be ready to make a statement, Eichel, along with Sam Reinhart, will both be entering their prime while Zemgus Girgensons, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov will be a tad farther along. There's your top three centers, including a franchise-type center and two top-four defensemen, including a probable #1 d-man, all under the age of 27 yrs. old.
That will be fun to watch.
--TSN's Craig Button was a very busy man today and he joined the morning crew by phone on WGR550. Said he of Babcock, "I don't think he's the best coach on the planet. I agree that he's amongst the best coaches in the world, but I think there's eight or nine coaches who qualify as amongst the best coaches.
"[Detroit Red Wings GM] Ken Holland touched on it yesterday," continued Button, "Babcock had a three-two series lead in the 2009 Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins coached by Dan Bylsma and they lost that series. They were up three-one against Chicago in 2013 and lost that series. And they were up three-two this year and lost (to Tampa Bay.)"
Reaction--Button went on to say that he wasn't "being negative" about Babcock, but "that's just the reality." And so it is. As much as I and many others wanted Babcock on board, it's not like Scotty Bowman coming to Buffalo from the Montreal Canadiens, the greatest franchise in hockey (although, apparently, not as iconic as Toronto.) Babcock has flaws, as button pointed out, and the coach he lost to in those 2009 Finals may very well end up in Buffalo. Although Button was in fact talking to a "jilted lover," the points he made are anything but consoling words pulled from his butt. Stuff like that has been on the minds of, and expressed fans from Detroit to Buffalo and elsewhere.
--When word of Babcock to Toronto was making the rounds yesterday afternoon, The Buffalo News' Tim Graham tweeted, "Sabres livid for way Babcock handled past few days. Sabres so confident he was coming that they were prepared for Monday news conference."
Reaction--Methinks Pegula and Co. were ticked, esepcially upon hearing that it was Toronto. Buffalo was played by the Babcock team, sure enough and I would've thrown a stack of Pegula's hundred dollar bills at the wall upon hearing that. But afterwards, it was time to get back to work. And that's what they did as they asked permission to talk to Bylsma. Craig Custance via WKBW, "Sabres moving on quickly from Babcock. Have received permission to interview Dan Bylsma."
Sometimes the girl you want ends up being a total bitch and the girl you shunned may have been a better match, which is something some of us may or may not know personally.
--The Sabres moved on, and maybe Jerry Sullivan, Senior Sports Columnist of the Buffalo News should move on as well. "Over the last year or so, Sabres fans have become experts at putting a positive spin on losing," began Sullinvan's editorial entitled, Don't kid yourselves, [losing out on Babcock] is a huge blow to the Sabres, "so I imagine they'll quickly find a way to see the bright side of losing out in the Mike Babcock coaching derby. This was a crushing blow for Pegula and Co. I'm not going to be phony about it. I was prepared with a column that said Babcock would be huge get for the Sabres and the city, further evidence that Pegula was making Western New York a destination for free agents.
"Sabres apologists don't want to hear this, but it's also possible that Babcock didn't respect Pegula enough. Pro hockey is a very tight fraternity. Babcock might not have had the most glowing view of the Sabres after watching them fumble their way to the bottom of the NHL and then lose on purpose to fix it.
"It could be that hockey experts badly underestimated Babcock's love of a challenge, not to mention his desire to live in a great North American city like Toronto.
"In the end, it might simply have been that the best coach in hockey was more than Pegula and the Sabres deserved.
Reaction--Those are just the highlights. If you want to go all in on the rest of the piece, grab a bottle of Prozac and dive in. Maybe afterwards you can take a few days out of your lives waiting for Mr. Sullivan to climb down from his soap box which rests precariously close to Mount Maple Leaf.
Personally, I'd rather just shrug it off and move on.
Which is the best way to approach the whole Babcock situation. Move on.
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