As previously noted, Red Wings alumnus Jimmy Howard appeared on the “Cam & Strick” podcast on Tuesday morning, and he told some stories about coach Mike Babcock being his arrogant self during Babcock’s tenure with the Red Wings.
At the same time, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Howard was somewhat insulated from Babcock’s antics thanks to the fact that Babcock rarely interacted with the team’s goaltenders…
Howard sheepishly admitted that some of those stories were news to him.
“All the stuff that came out publicly, I was kind of like, ‘Whoa. Was I that naive? Was I living in my own little world that much that I didn’t notice what was going on?’” Howard said. “But then, a lot the stuff that went on was during the game, and I was 90 feet from the bench, standing in the crease. So I had no idea any of that was going on.”
Thought Howard also noted that some of Babcock’s coaching decisions raised eyebrows throughout the team:
There were a couple of episodes that he was witness to that stuck in Howard’s craw. At the top of the list was the night against Minnesota late in the 2010-11 season when Babcock made future Hall of Famer Mike Modano a healthy scratch in what would be his farewell appearance against the city where he was launching his career as an NHLer. That decision also left Modano with 1,499 career NHL games on his resume.
“We were just all in shock,” Howard remembered. “All of us we’re like, ‘What in the world is going on here right now?’ To this day, I still don’t know why?
“Why would you do that? Why would you bench Cheli (Chris Chelios) in Chicago for the outdoor game (at Wrigley Field)? Some of these moves, they made zero sense. Why do that? Probably just to flex his muscles.”
Duff continues, and I guess I can only say that I’m incredibly disappointed to find out more and more about Babcock’s treatment of his own players as time goes on and more stories leak out of the figurative locker room that he once controlled.
He helped the Red Wings earn a Stanley Cup and a couple of deep runs in the playoffs, but the cost thereof was significant, and the way he treated his players was pretty awful and pretty bloody arrogantly.
He was the coach. There was no need to be an asshole just to be an asshole. Players today don’t respond to the Scotty Bowman-style game-playing that Babcock seems to have adhered to, and in the end, Babcock just ends up looking like a dinosaur of a coach in the modern NHL world.
