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Buffalo Sabres Coach Watch: Final Thoughts On Mike Babcock

By Tim Redinger

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Are you looking forward to the Buffalo Sabres vs Toronto Maple Leafs games even more now?  The Buffalo Sabres seemingly spurned by Mike Babcock in favor of the Toronto Maple Leafs now must continue to search for a head coach to lead the Buffalo Sabres into the future.

We have already shared some thoughts on the whole Mike Babcock situation.  Editor Melissa Kania says who cares that we didn’t get Mike Babcock.  Honestly, whether you really wanted Mike Babcock or not as your head coach, the fact that he did not select Buffalo doesn’t mean that life is over.

So here are my final thoughts on the situation, based on the activities of the Toronto Maple Leafs press conference yesterday.

Was a press conference necessary, sure, why not?  It is big news in Toronto – and everyone who was interested in where Mike Babcock was going to end up wanted to see the announcement.  Teams do that.

Did the Buffalo media need to hijack the press conference conference, a positive step foro the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise and demand an answer for sports fans in Buffalo that may have felt burnt by the decision of possibly the best coach in the game right now?

Think about it though – while he has made the playoffs every single year since becoming an NHL head coach (with the exception of one season in Anaheim) – he only won the Stanley Cup once.  He only went to the Stanley Cup three times out of the eleven trips into the playoffs.

Am I saying that we should all think about Mike Babcock differently now – that he isn’t such a great coach.  Actually the opposite, because guess what, the thing about statistics, is you can make them say whatever you want.

This actually isn’t about Mike Babcock or the Toronto Maple Leafs at all, but about the Buffalo media, who might be the ones with the most hurt feelings.

Was it really necessary to make the trip to Toronto to ask questions in a press conference that we already know weren’t going to get answered?

Mike Babcock is a classy guy, and despite what the “right” answers might be, he deflected questions from Buffalo Media personalities who were there looking for justification about why he “leveraged” Buffalo or went back upon an agreement made between him and the Buffalo Sabres.

First off, the Buffalo Sabres could have gotten as excited as they wanted to about Mike Babcock’s visit with Terry Pegula and Tim Murray.  Terry Pegula offered Mike Babcock a ton of money.  There is a previous relationship between Tim Murray and Mike Babcock.  Why would there be any need for hard feelings during a meeting.

Even if Mike Babcock looked Terry Pegula and Tim Murray square in the eye and told him this all looks great, the fact of the matter is – Mike Babcock was on the payroll of the Detroit Red Wings who had given Mike Babcock the ability to search for a new coaching gig.

No ink on the paper – no contract, no agreement, no deal.

As far as leveraging the Buffalo Sabres against the Toronto Maple Leafs?  Come on.  My only thoughts are here, is if you really wanted to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the story is true from the mouth of Brendan Shanahan that this was the original deal offered to Babcock, why go through the motions of talking to other teams.

Maybe if there was more money on the table from another team, he would have taken it.  Since the money was right in both spots, why not take the city you love more right?

As soon as the announcement came out that the Toronto Maple Leafs landed Mike Babcock the Buffalo Sabres oved on to the next guy on the list for the vacant head coach spot.  You have to.  It is business.

The Buffalo Sabres fans moved on too, because guess what – it happens.

Maybe the Buffalo media should have moved on as well – instead of wasting everyone’s time.

Next: 2015 Draft Profile - Jeremy Roy

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