Detroit Red Wings Roundtable: Will you miss Mike Babcock?

Feb 21, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock watches his team warm up prior to the game between the Dallas Stars and the Red Wings during the first period at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Jack Mullen – Octopus Thrower Staff Writer

Hell. No.

Detroit Red Wings fans need to be honest: We loved Mike Babcock. No other fanbase in the past decade has had such admiration for its coach, and no matter what the circumstances were, we made sure to ultimately honor and support his authority, even if we didn’t necessarily agree with his decisions.

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However, we did it because, unless your coach is absolutely tanking your team, you don’t want to bash him. You’ll go to great lengths to defend the face of your team, and that can overshadow errors that a coach makes. We can finally admit that Mike Babcock, although possessing a great hockey mind, is a tad overrated. His career was built by talented rosters at the NHL and Olympic levels. He has never been asked to coach a poor team until now – Toronto.

His unfathomable preference of lackluster veterans over young talent, coupled with an already-weak roster that is on thin ice, will likely expose Babcock’s weaknesses that were eclipsed by the outstanding tools he was given during his time in Anaheim and Detroit, and Jeff Blashill seems like a much better fit for Detroit’s young and developing players.

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