Mckinley25

Did you break into Putin's mother's apartment again and swap out all her photos with pictures of MacGratton?

Why would he leave in the middle of the playoffs? Did Toronto offer him 8 gajillion bazillion dollars to coach the Marlies?

So, how would an 8 million/year signing affect say, Quenville's next contract? Especially if he wins another cup?

If that's true he better go there, he'll never get an offer like that ever again.

I've never done either job, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like they'd both be too involved for one person to do both. I mean maybe I'm underestimating the work load, but it doesn't feel like a formula for success.

Which option gives us the best 3rd round pick?

Well to be fair, money may not be THE issue, but if you have a couple options where everything else is equal, money may become, understandably, the deciding factor.

Maybe they didn't want to spend 5 million when they could get the same thing for 2.

I honestly didn't realize the $5 million number that's been tossed around was more than twice as much as he's getting now....

What if he signs long term and we miss the playoffs? Does management have the guts to fire him?

Who was the starter for USA? I assume Quick didn't go either.

I dont think people forget that, it gets brought up all the time. I'm certain Blashill is in the best spot to replace Babcock if he leaves, particularly if the Griffins do well, although that may not matter.

He seems to get a lot of hype because of the Olympic victories, but am I wrong to think that he got the job initially because of recent success with Detroit and then the second stint because of the Gold the first time around? And it's not a stretch to think, Q or Cooper or Barry Melrose could've had as much success? Or is it because Canada failed previously to, Sweden?, and Babcock got the gold back from '02? Also, Cooper is a great hockey name. I mean who didn't grow up head to toe in Cooper equipment?

On a side note, I do think he's a great coach, but I would trade him for Quenville if that was an option. I'm hesitant to want him gone because I don't know what better options there are, which admittedly is influenced by ignorance, I'm not an authority on coach talent. But if coaches do have shelf lives, I don't think we're a new coach away from a Stanley cup, so if roster adjustments are made as well I wouldn't be too sad to try something new.

Is it possible he didn't sign with Detroit because he doesn't really want to? There could be many reasons why, such as he is self aware of a coach's shelf life and realizes even if he's a good coach staying in Detroit won't amount to much. Those are things you won't tell the media. Is it also possible that the reasons he might stay are family concerns? Which even if you're dream is to be Bowman v.2 your family takes precedence. The media hype is ridiculous but that's the nature of media. More realistically Babcock is human and has a tough decision to make and is making the best of it, or even just trying to at least get as much $ out of the deal if he has to stay at job he no longer wants. While this is all speculation you see how what we don't know vastly trumps what we do. I don't know much about him personally, maybe he's a giant, selfish dick. The media is just grabbing dollars, what Babcock is doing will be revealed when his future ex-wife writes her memoir.

I didn't know Cherry went to the Rockies. Is there a more practical outlet for him to write than Twitter? I know it's a minor issue, but it's kind of annoying reading everything broken up into tweets.

Kronwall is not a number 1 until he wins a Norris. And Franzen isn't a soft Euro until he wins a Lady Bing.

I don't have a problem with Florida having a team, I really was curious if any NHLers came from Florida. I know there's been a few from Southern California lately, I was wondering if that had occurred elsewhere. There's obviously massive holes in the "have mostly NA/local talent on your team" argument that you and I likely would have nothing to debate about.

Just out of curiosity, how much home grown talent could the Panthers have?

It's only important for the identification of a team if the fans are xenophobic. Otherwise, as kliq mentioned, find the best combination of skill sets to create the make up of your team. If that results in all North American boys, so be it. Or if it means 23 boys named Pierre from Marseilles well so be that too.

Even if it is about the money, isn't Detroit prepared to match?

If the Ducks make it I want the Caps to make it. If chicago makes it, I want the Rags.

I haven't watched Chicago at all, but with Detroit, in spite of any point totals, the defense is not good at helping the offense gain and sustain pressure. Particularly at 5 on 5. I don't know what Detroit's defensive numbers look like outside the man advantage, or if it even matters, but something was amiss with their transition game. I agree Kronwall is a #1, and I honestly forgot about him when I stated our best offensive d-men were average. Everybody but him are average. I think Babcock can be credited with the shot suppression and possibly also with the transition game.

It's partly because our defense is terrible at offense. Every game I watched I was cringing at our transition attempts. Sustained pressure starts with defensemen who can move the puck forward and be relied upon to be part of the offensive cycle. It felt like there were always 3 players trying to create instead of five, the forwards never even looked comfortable passing back to the defense, which results in poor angle shots and turnovers. I'm certain there's more to it than that, but our best offensive defensemen are average at best.

I'm getting impatient waiting for league parity to make Chicago garbage again.