Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Still Thinking, Mike? If So, It's Time To Go

05/20/2015 at 1:36am EDT

Well, when winning is the mantra, when it's "the thing", when you're all about winning and winning won't wait? Why not...

...Buffalo.

To be honest, if this is such a gut-wrenching decision, we'll catch you on the flip side, Mike.

When they say it's not about the money? It is. When they say winning is the primary consideration? It isn't. What did Mike Babcock say a few weeks ago? Essentially it was "the money's gonna be there no matter where I go."

As I said yesterday, I don't begrudge Mike Babcock for considering offers. It doesn't make me bitter that he'd consider teams like the Blues or the Sharks, especially the Blues. That team is stocked and stacked. The only negatives associated with going there would be dealing with the aftermath of Hungry Ken Hitchcock and having to live in a shithole with the worst fans in all of sports.

Mike Babcock would win with St. Louis. And not just divisions or conferences. He'd win a Cup there.

So, if that was the decision, I'd literally have sympathy for the guy. It would be an honest dilemma between winning very soon in a toilet or maybe winning soon, maybe a little later, or maybe not at all in a town he loves with an organization he trusts.

But now it appears the dilemma is boiling down to money and that makes Mike Babcock no better than any other athlete we've been stupid enough to put on a pedestal. When they say it's not about the money, it's about the money.

You know what killed me? 1988 killed me. It absolutely devastated me when Gibby left the Tigers. It was all about money then, even though it panned out for one season and one more title, one more amazing at bat that cemented Kirk Gibson in baseball history. But the circumstances destroyed me because he left for more money. The Tigers let him walk away from a great team barely past its prime, but still poised to win.

Gibson was probably swayed by Tommy Lasorda. Understandable. And he won immediately after he left.

Who is swaying Mike Babcock? Who can actually convince him the Buffalo Sabres will, you know, win anything? As Cam Cole pointed out, via Paul earlier today, they frigging tanked. No shit, they intentionally lost games to get that #1 pick and then, baby Jesus punished them for being assholes and wouldn't let them have the guy they submarined themselves to get.

That's the organization Mike Babcock is considering joining for 50 million bucks. A paradise on the Ontario. Oh, and by the way, don't forget all the times Mike Babcock has chuckled as he pointed out the reasons why Pittsburgh and Chicago are so good right now....because they sucked for so long. Mike Babcock was, then, proud not to have been party to a franchise resigned to self-flagellation for the sake of drafting talent.

All about winning. "Babcock wants to win now." Win what? 20 games, then 30, then maybe 40 in three years?

Take the money and run, Mike Babcock. Take the money and run to obscurity. Take the money and hide behind it, never to be heard from again.

We'll take the kid and the kids he's raised. We'll take the Michigan man and the team we have. Babcock can be Bill Frieder. Blashill can be our Steve Fisher.

If Mike Babcock hasn't made up his mind yet. If he's still waffling at midnight, the day before he'll allegedly tell the world where he's taking his talents? Then Buffalo's the place.

St. Louis, San Jose? I can stomach that. Because he would have done it for the reasons he's said were primary all along. Shit, I was always convinced Pittsburgh would be the team to beat in this race.

But Buffalo? Have fun with that. Take the money, Mike. Just take it and go, because the dilemma is as distasteful as the decision itself.

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Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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