from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
The end for Mike Babcock as an NHL coach was neither sad nor sentimental — just more bull-headed narcissism for a man who no longer seems capable of getting out of his own way.
He tripped over his words, his actions, his intentions and his thoughts before he coached so much as a game or a practice for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
You can say this much about Babcock now, the one-time star coach of the Detroit Red Wings, Team Canada and the Toronto Maple Leafs: His NHL career is ostensibly over.
Coaching Columbus was his shot at redemption and it fizzled out before a shot was even fired. Instead, his own version of Goodbye, Columbus was not a Philip Roth novel, but an epitaph for a once-terrific career.
The end for Babcock in Columbus began with a player-leaked story to a podcast — one of his players, clearly, and never identified. The story exploded within days of the original report by former NHL player Paul Bissonnette on Spittin’ Chiclets — and from there it just got worse. The NHL got involved. The players’ association, clearly on direction from some of its members in Columbus, got involved. The very experienced and wise Blue Jackets front office, led by John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen, got involved.
from Aaron Portzline of The Athletic,
While Babcock didnt shoulder any of the blame in his well-crafted statement through the club, this is entirely on him. Davidson and Kekalainen will face some difficult questions on Monday during the clubs annual media day, which has now been hijacked by this story.
The Blue Jackets took a major risk by hiring Babcock. Minority owner John H. McConnell would be wise to demand answers from Davidson or Kekalainen, or whoever was most adamant about his hiring.
This is another long line of embarrassing moments by the Blue Jackets through the years. Theres the phallic-shaped mascot, Boomer, who was shelved in 2010 after only one game. The raging incompetence of the Doug MacLean era. Having to beg Jeff Carter to accept a trade from Philadelphia to Columbus and trading him after one year. Pierre-Luc Dubois quitting on the franchise in the middle of a game.
Despite all this, the Blue Jackets, who have only once made it past the first round of the playoffs including five playoff appearances in Kekalainens 10-year tenure have a loyal and passionate fan base that deserves better.
The only saving grace is that the terrible decision to hire Mike Babcock backfired, before he had time to do more damage.
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I have all the respect in the world for Davidson and Kekalainen, but the whole org must have had a collective brain freeze when they decided Babs was a good hire. I don't know the details, so I don't know if this incident warranted his ouster, but it was never a good idea from the get-go.
Somewhere, Johan Franzen is smiling.
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