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The Detroit Red Wings were off the ice for about 10 minutes before somebody asked head coach Mike Babcock about his future with the club he’s coached for the last decade.
“We’ll have a team meeting and a final press conference,… Babcock said, quickly shutting down the request for him to talk about his own future. “I’ll be happy to talk about any of that crap then.…
The 52-year-old Babcock, the Wings’ bench boss since the start of the 2005-06 season and under contract through the end of June this year, is a most wanted man. With openings in Buffalo, Philadelphia, San Jose, Toronto, and maybe Boston and St. Louis, the market for a coach that’s been to three Stanley Cup Finals in 12 NHL seasons (and reportedly wants front office control as well) is deep.
And many have started making their hypothetical pitch to bring Babcock to Boston. (Just look up the hashtag BabcocktoBoston for a quick teaser.) Such a move, of course, would mean parting with current head coach Claude Julien, a fixture behind the Boston bench since 2007.
Is Babcock a great coach? Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. Is his resume probably the best on the open market if he does indeed hit it? Again, yes. And is he the most sought after free agent coach in league history? Honestly, I can’t recall a situation like this, at least in this era, so I’ll say yes.
But would he be an upgrade to the Boston coaching staff? I honestly have my doubts.
This isn’t an indictment against Mike Babcock the NHL coach by any means. But I’ll be honest-- the hype around this guy seems entirely overblown. For as great a coach as Babcock has been for the Red Wings, he’s not a god amongst men. His Wings teams, for various reasons depending on the season, have not made it beyond the second round of the postseason in six straight years now.
To compare: Babcock’s clubs are 3-6 in playoff series over the last six years, while Julien’s squads are 9-4 over that stretch (the biggest difference is that Babcock’s club made the postseason this season while Julien’s team did not). Boston’s run to the 2011 Stanley Cup obviously helps those numbers in the case of Julien, but the Bruins have twice made it to the Final since 2011, whereas a trip there has eluded Babcock since 2009. The Wings have failed to make it beyond the second round since then, too.
And if the second round of the playoffs is the goal, then Julien, who has coached to the Bruins to at least the second round in all but three of his eight seasons here, is still the perfect coach for the B’s.
I know the outcry coming, too. Babcock is a better coach for letting his talents thrive offensively. Sure. It always help when you have a Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg in your lineup, too. But Babcock, like any coach in any league ever, has also made decisions that I’ve questioned. I personally find that he’s quick to throw players to his doghouse, and (like Julien), is sometimes too loyal and/or stubborn when it comes to expecting his veterans players to produce like they used to (Dan Cleary in recent years is the easy go-to case study).
At the same time, if there’s one thing you have to give Babcock credit for, it’s been his ability to get his Wings teams, no matter the injuries or seemingly-constant-goaltending-flux, into the dance.
But is that enough to warrant throwing the moon and then some his way (and ditch Julien in the process) if you’re team president Cam Neely and the Bruins? I just don’t think so.
When I look at the 2014-15 Boston Bruins and what ailed them, coaching played a factor at times, without question, but it was not the overwhelming reason why they fell apart. As we’ve discussed time after time now, the Black and Gold were an incomplete mess from the start. But Julien, somehow someway, found a way to push them to 97 points, the most by a non-playoff club in NHL history. Those results, down a top-six winger (Jarome Iginla) and top-four defender (Johnny Boychuk) from the start, along with major in-season injuries to Zdeno Chara and David Krejci, are reason enough to keep him around for another year. And I’m of the belief that ditching an otherwise massively successful coach after one ‘bad’ year sets the course for a dangerous path as a franchise moving forward.
If you give Julien the tools to make it work, he will. And I think that could be said about Babcock’s early success in Detroit. And when you don’t, well, you’ll become a middle-of-the-pack club no matter the coach. In essence, I don’t think the separation Babcock and Julien as NHL coaches is great enough to warrant such an expensive decision (in every which way) from the B’s point of view.
As crazy as it sounds, I’ll take the guy that’s routinely made it work (and then some) for an often underwhelming club in terms of its pure talent alone. And no, I’m not talking about Babcock.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter