46 replies to this topic

[dobbles]

while i am not exactly excited about what babcock said, in a way i understand. and also, in the mlive article today he calls out the datsyuk line and the abdelkader line for not being very good last night. in addition, he is moving guys around in practice and that means a million times more than some offhand comment to the media.

i was skeptical of babcock when he first arrived, but he has shown himself to be an outstanding coach. i can't believe so many are dumping on him. can't we all pile on hudler or ericsson instead??!?!?!!?

[dats13owns]

I think that this offseason is going to be a pressure cooker for Holland. He has stood pat for too long now and the rest of the league is catching up to the Wings because of it. I smell a huge offseason, Holland is too good of a GM not to.

[nate94gt]

I thought they played a great game starting halfway through the first period. their power play looked great, and the PK did its job.

I believe a wise man once said that there will be times when your hot and you'll win games you should lose, and there will be times when you play games that you should win but you lose. IMO that was one of those games where they played great but lost. We've seen those games a number of times.

we could outshoot an opponent 59 to 4 and we could lose, ti was just one of those games.

[AceInTheSleeve]

I think that this offseason is going to be a pressure cooker for Holland. He has stood pat for too long now and the rest of the league is catching up to the Wings because of it. I smell a huge offseason, Holland is too good of a GM not to.

This isn't Holland's fault. All the pieces are there, its up to the coach and ultimately the players themselves to buy into the system and put the effort into playing the game. No effort, no wins. Thats true regardless of the talent on this team.

Edited by AceInTheSleeve, 31 March 2012 - 06:08 PM.

[b.shanafan14]

This isn't Holland's fault. All the pieces are there, its up to the coach and ultimately the players themselves to buy into the system and put the effort into playing the game. No effort, no wins. Thats true regardless of the talent on this team.

Agree and disagree. I place the majority of the blame on the players themselves. Most of them have the tools, but aren't playing up to their potential. The effort isn't there and its the players themselves who are at fault; way ahead of coach and management.

That said: its the coaches job to motivate and manage his personnel. If things work as they should, a player who isn't playing up to snuff will either be motivated to improve or demoted. In the case of Franzen, he has neither improved on the ice or been demoted to less ice time or scratched. No accountability.

In the case of Holland, he has done a great job of getting pieces in place, but in recent years has lacked the ability to pull the trigger on deals which would improve this team. He seems understandably hesitant to mess with the current formula. However, while he refuses to make risky transactions, other teams have begun to eclipse the Wings, while this team seems to stagnate.

Players need to play. If they aren't, the coach needs to coach. If that isn't working, the GM needs to deal. The frustration exists because none of these SEEM to be happening.

[GMRwings1983]

Babcock may be forced to commmit seppuku in the offseason, to avoid shame and dishonor.

[b.shanafan14]

Babcock may be forced to commmit seppuku in the offseason, to avoid shame and dishonor.

I wonder what his death poem would sound like...

"We did a lot of good things,
we took a step forward tonight,
I thought we carried play,
their goaltender was the difference,
I thought Bert was physical and created space,
I thought Mule was skating well
... I have no regrets!!"