The coaches.

Chelios: Babcock’s treatment of veteran players ‘coming back to haunt him

At the time of Babcock’s arrival in Detroit, Chelios was already 21 years into his NHL career and was in his sixth season with the Red Wings. During his Spittin’ Chiclets appearance, he described a number of interactions with Babcock — including a particularly memorable early-season meeting.

“He goes, ‘You’re not here to score goals. You’re here to play defence and babysit Brett Lebda,’” Chelios said, describing the interaction. “And I said, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been plus all training camp’ and he interrupted me right away and says, ‘If you don’t like it, you can go see Kenny Holland — I’m sure he’ll trade you.’”

“So that’s when I became the mentor,” Chelios said. “You know, I didn’t want to leave the team. I loved playing in Detroit, I figured I’d last there as long as I could … by just shutting my mouth and doing what I’m told.”

Chelios said his relationship with Babcock, which spanned four seasons at the end of Chelios’ playing career and included a Stanley Cup victory in 2008, was “cordial” despite the challenging interactions.

“What’s come up here in Toronto … it’s coming out to haunt Babcock for not so much his coaching as the way he treated people,” Chelios said, also citing a few of Babcock’s other well-known — and harshly-criticized — decisions when it comes to playing veterans.

“What he did to [Mike] Modano was incredibly disrespectful. What he did to, just recently, [Jason] Spezza in Toronto — those were the things that are so unnecessary,” he explained.

Babcock made Modano a healthy scratch late in 2011 — the final season of his NHL career and his only campaign with the Red Wings, leaving the now-Hall of Famer stuck at 1,499 career games played. Earlier this season, Babcock’s decision to scratch Spezza in the MapleLeafs’ season-opener against his old club, the Ottawa Senators, was also widely criticized.
He tried to healthy scratch me in the outdoor game in Wrigley Field against Chicago because he knew it was my hometown — just things that were so unnecessary, to show he’s the boss, to show his general manager he’s the boss,” Chelios said. “That’s he’s on a power thing, his ego — that’s a big part of his personality.”


While Chelios ultimately wasn’t scratched for that 2009 Winter Classic, he’d finish the game — a 6-4 Red Wings victory — with a total ice time just shy of two minutes.

“Kenny Holland and Jim Nill, for three days, argued with him. So what Babs ended up doing was, he suited up seven D for the first time ever …. He played me the opening shift, and then didn’t play me another shift the rest of the game. That was his way of showing Kenny and Jim Nill he’s not going to be told what to do,” Chelios explained, later stating that he felt Babcock “had it out for me from the beginning.”

“It’s just stupid things like that, and now it’s obviously coming back to haunt him and we’ll see if someone’s crazy enough to hire him again.”

 

why didn't the other players step in to stop it ?

 

why didn't the other players step in to stop it ?

 

Spezza had family there to see him play too and he was scratched. Modano should've stayed in Dallas. To go to your sworn enemy for 1 season. Blah!

 

Modano is a Michigan guy. My guess is he grew up dreaming of donning the winged wheel. I do not blame him one bit.

 

Yep, Madano's favorite team growing up was always Detroit...

 

He grew up in Livonia and played on various teams within the Wings system as a kid before moving to Texas.

 

i guess i like nostalgia Dan. I like players who play for 1 team their whole careers. doesn't happen often. Many years ago in baseball Tony Gwynn was going to leave the Padres for more money. He was beloved in SD and changed his mind. That's what I'm getting at with Modano. I guess he wanted to play for them that badly enough?

 

Actually, he first played in Minnesota.

 

Marc Crawford put on leave, #metoonhl.

 

Devils fire John Hynes.

 

Alain Nesserdine named interin coach.

 

This one surprised me since I thought he had the respect of the Stars' room. Montgomery was canned in Dallas.

 

Wow... that's a shocker.

 

Joe posted about this - I think it was in the Ditch. It seems as though he is caught up in the turmoil in vogue of "unprofessional conduct".

 

Whatever happnend seems to be an internal matter and nothing is coming out.

 

It will over time... someone will want the attention and glory of breaking a story, especially under the new Bettman rules of no secrecy, lol.

 

On twitter, Dallas fans are saying that the wrong coach got fired, It should've been Jason Garrett.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/...h-jim-montgomery-over-unprofessional-conduct/

Bettman has a new zero tolerance policy on this. He broke it. He's out.