kipwinger

It's destined to happen. It's got to happen. Bring Jimmy Home BABY!

There is nothing even remotely similar about Jeff Blashill and Dave Lewis. They both took over for successful coaches. That's it. Trying to make a comparison between the two is absurd. It's possible that Jeff Blashill will fail. We all get that. It's the EXACT same possibility that every coach has in his first year behind the bench in the NHL. It's the same possibility that Scott Bowman had, Mike Babcock had, Joe Quenneville had. We get it. Blashill has as good, or better, qualifications than any of these guys did prior to their first NHL head coaching gig. Better than Bylsma. Better than McLellan. Better than Cooper, Eakins, Boucher, too. And most importantly, better than Dave Lewis. Could he fail? Sure. Does the information we have overwhelmingly point toward the opposite outcome? Absolutely.

I am the walrus. I am the walrus. Shut the f*** up Donny! V. I. Lenin! Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!

Probably. I'm saying, if I were him I'd keep them. They were very effective. Plus I imagine they'd help with continuity.

I'd keep both our assistants. They were the only reason we made the playoffs this year.

It's arbitrarily kept for everybody equally though. So it's mostly a wash. The home team tracks it. And they have an incentive to inflate the numbers for their own team. But each team plays the same number of home games (roughly), so it doesn't matter.

Favorite post of the day. The ultimate Ken Holland heel turn. I love it.

Really? The "key" element? Not the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$? C'mon.

You tell me. I'm just reporting how ALL OF LGW responded each time (for the last 3 years?) that I said Babcock wasn't the best coach in hockey.

It wouldn't. He's a worse coach than Babcock. Ask anybody.

Me. Detroit has a bad economy and your money goes really far. Toronto has a bad hockey team and you never get value for what you pay. I'd stick with Michigan. Besides, it's not like Babcock was living downtown on Linwood or anything. The burbs are just fine in MI.

Howard Berger ‏@Berger_BYTES 11m11 minutes ago Can't confirm, but told in email from source #Leafs offered Babcock dual role of GM and coach. Why not, huh?

That's assuming Shanny is good at his job. He may not be. Nobody knows.

Yeah, the update I got this morning said "Keith nears 60 minutes", which was true. But it sort of lumps him in with guys who actually did log that much ice time. Side Note: Did you know that Sergei Zubov was a smoker? Imagine that.

That's because it's not big enough.

Wow, Duncan Keith played 49:51 minutes last night. I bet his dogs are barking today.

That obscures the fact that you shouldn't call ANYOnE who disagrees with you a desperate, whining, pissing, moaning, crybaby. Not just me. I'm not sure why you think its OK just because you didn't address people personally. It breaks any number of rules around here, and also just drags down the conversation in general. Just don't call people names. That shouldn't be amusing, it should be standard practice.

You're welcome to think that way. But it might be better, in the future, to articulate it like that rather than go overboard like you did in your other post and start personally attacking people. I don't think you're a ludite for giving Babcock the benefit of the doubt, but for some reason you saw fit to get personal with the folks you disagreed with. Disagree with me all you want, but don't call names and be rude about it.

Ted Kulfan ‏@tkulfan 6m6 minutes ago "I'll know in the morning" Babcock texts as to where he'll coach next season...says there is nothing else to report. "Same old, same old" 7 retweets 7 favorites

I'm not really sure why you're so upset about people commenting on what is, without question, the biggest story in hockey right now. Seriously what's the problem? You just don't like that I'm talking about Babcock in two Babcock related threads? Or you don't like that I feel differently about it than you obviously do?

So anybody who doesn't agree with you is a whiny, desperate, pissy, moany, crybaby? That's an awfully decent way for you to approach the subject. Thanks for the positive contribution.

Parise and Suter didn't sit down with Darren Dreger during the middle of the process to explain their thought process, and talk about how much they've learned. Mike Babcock did.

To a certain extent the media is going to speculate, that's what they do. My biggest beef with Babs is that everything he's done has fueled that speculation, to the point that it has become completely asinine. When the Wings were eliminated (on April 29th) he said he'd make his decision in "10 days or so". That was 20 days ago. He said he didn't want to be part of a rebuild and then visited Toronto and Buffalo. He said it wasn't about the money and now we're hearing that it's down to Detroit and Buffalo (the team with the least future and the most money). He said his family's wishes were more important than his, and then publicly stated that his family wanted to stay, and then called San Jose himself to get an interview. He went on the biggest hockey media outlet in the world, with their most high profile contributor, to discuss his "decision process" and "what he learned". If you think, for even one second, that this is all being thrust on him from outside you're nuts. Don't want all the attention? Don't do interviews. Don't want people to speculate? Make your actions consistent with your words.

Why not? He said "I won't negotiate a contract during the season" and nobody asked him about it all year long. Why couldn't he have done the same thing after the season was over? Well I certainly agree with this. It's insane. I think part of the reason it bothers me so much is because of how omnipresent the whole thing is. I don't remember any instance in recent memory when there has been this much hype or speculation regarding where someone would end up. Maybe Parise and Suter, but even they declined to talk about the process while it was going on.

That's like saying, minus that Superbowl half time show, he's really kept a low profile. TSN is the biggest media source for hockey, and hockey related information. And Darren Dreger (and perhaps McKenzie) is it's most high profile contributor. Mike Babcock is notorious for shutting down reporters and/or interviews the second he doesn't like something they asked. Watch any of his post game comments (particularly after loss) and he couldn't be more combative. Yet suddenly he's doing sit down interviews, and discussing his through process, etc. and I'm NOT supposed to believe he wants it that way? One sentence, exactly one, would have put an end to this crap a year ago. "I don't discuss contract negotiations publicly, you'll know about it once I've signed the contract".