Detroit Red Wings: Mike Babcock is a Terrible Person

It’s probably improbable, but perhaps former Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock has coached his last game in the NHL in the wake of being fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Since the firing, there has been an overabundance of player recollection surfacing that describes the disgusting behavior he’s displayed over the years. During Mike Babcock’s time with the Detroit Red Wings, he was widely considered as if not the top head coach in the league, definitely one of the elite bench bosses around.

I’ll never forget one of his first interviews in Detroit shortly after he was hired in 2005. He exclaimed ‘this is Steve Yzerman‘s team, don’t be mistaken, this is Steve’s team, and I’m here for the ride.’ That was the second I fell in love with Mike Babcock.

Of course, Steve Yzerman was my favorite player of all-time. The aging veteran was still around leading the Red Wings in more of a support role than anything else, but he was still the reason anyone wanted to head to Joe Louis Arena.

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Well, the team was a contender too, but with Yzerman near the end and this new coach who took an Anaheim Ducks team to the Stanley Cup final entered the fray after a very underwhelming coaching performance from Scotty Bowman’s assistant Dave Lewis. Lewis followed Bowman and had plenty of regular-season success but was only 6-10 in the playoffs from 02-05.

There had been plenty of rumors in the past about veteran players, free agents, in particular, not wanting to sign in Detroit because of Mike Babcock. All of that is coming to fruition now after Toronto canned him.

In an article published by freep.com, Chris Chelios described the scene while on the spittin’ chiclet’s podcast Monday.

"“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.”"

When you consider all that Johan Franzen has been through, this type of verbal assault won’t play well throughout the league when Mike Babcock decides to seek another job opportunity. Babcock may have to step away from the game for a while, maybe forever.

In the same article published by freep.com, Franzen talks about the situation Chelios described and how it’s affected him over the years.

"“I get the shivers when I think about it,” Franzen told Expressen. “That incident occurred against Nashville in the playoffs. It was coarse, nasty and shocking. But that was just one out of a hundred things he did. The tip of the iceberg.“He would lay into a couple of the other players. The nice team players, the guys who don’t say very much. When they left the team he went on to focus on me. It was verbal attacks, he said horrible things.”“From 2011 on, I was terrified of being at the rink,” Franzen said. “That’s when he got on me the first time. I just focused on getting out of bed every morning from that moment. Last year I could sleep naturally for the first time since then.“It was just his attacks, playing in my head. Each and every day.”"

When you consider all of this and group it with the list of garbage Mike Babcock has done in the past, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he never gets a head coaching job again.

I’m not going to defend Mike Commodore for his vulgar twitter outbursts, but he was certainly on to something.

Babcock decided to scratch veteran Jason Spezza in Toronto’s first game of the season this year after finding out the forward who basically signed to play in his hometown for free this year purchased nearly 150 tickets to the game for his family members and friends to attend the game.

Or having star forward Mitch Marner who was a rookie at the time submitting a list of the laziest players on the team in his opinion to Mike Babcock, who, in turn, read the list to the entire team. That stuff doesn’t play well in the locker room.

Don’t forget Mike Babcock scratched veteran Mike Modano on the final regular-season game of the season, leaving the Hall of Famer with 1499 career games played. Another Babcock power trip to feed his ego.

If that wasn’t enough, according to Chelios, Mike Babcock attempted to scratch the Chicago native in an outdoor game against the Blackhawks in Chelios’ hometown of Chicago, a city where he also served as the franchise’s captain before being traded to the Red Wings in 1999. Chelios ended up playing, but I guess it took a dust-up before it was going to happen.

One more thing. As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Bill Peters was recently let go from the Calgary Flames after his inexcusable, sickening racial slurs from the past surfaced. Peters should never be able to coach again in the league. Footage of Bill punching one of his players in the back of the helmet while on the bench has also been circulating.

Peters’ was an assistant coach in Detroit with Mike Babcock. Not a good look.

I do not deny the fact that Mike Babcock is a good coach, but he’s clearly a terrible person. I’m not sure when his ego decided to take over. Perhaps after he guided the Red Wings to a Stanley Cup Championship in 2008? Maybe after the Gold Medals started to fill his mantel, he won with Hockey Canada?

Related Story. Why Does It Feel So Good to Root against Babcock?. light

Whatever it is, he better change his ways immediately, or his time behind an NHL bench will be over.

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