Edmonton Oilers<\/a> next season. Expect a press conference as soon as Tuesday.<\/p>\nSo desperate are the Oilers to win a Stanley Cup before Connor McDavid starts looking elsewhere, they will overlook every transgression that the Mike Modanos, Chris Chelios\u2019 and Mitch Marners have testified to, not to mention the many voices who would rather not be quoted on a man about whom they have nothing positive to say.<\/p>\n
The NHL\u2019s Players\u2019 Association followed quickly with a release of its own:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we found the allegations of Mike Babcock\u2019s conduct as the Columbus Blue Jackets\u2019 head coach very concerning, the League has decided that there is no current basis on which to restrict his employment.\u00a0Moving forward, we expect that Mr. Babcock will uphold the high standards required of NHL head coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, this is where the Edmonton Oilers have taken us. To a lens we must peer through \u201ceven in the least favourable light,\u201d with empty hopes that a man who has built his reputation over a quarter century in the NHL and a lifetime in the game will suddenly \u201cuphold the high standards required of NHL head coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
How many 63-year-old men are adept at change? And when does this change begin?<\/p>\n
Oilers GM Stan Bowman emerged from the Kyle Beach scandal in Chicago with tangible evidence of his pursuit of betterment. He had spent the time with Beach and earned the player\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n
Bowman also sought counsel from Sheldon Kennedy, and at the press conference when he was announced as the Oilers\u2019 new GM, Kennedy was there as a character reference. Actual, tangible work, with actual tangible people who could attest to the genuine efforts Bowman had made to learn from past mistakes.<\/p>\n
Has Babcock looked in the mirror the same way that Bowman did? What restitution has he made to the Hockey Gods, for years of abusing the power that comes with his position?<\/p>\n
Who has counselled Babcock, and for how long? After all, it was a second chance for Bowman. It\u2019s a third chance for Babcock.<\/p>\n
All in all, this hire seems murkier than a goaltender interference challenge. As questionable as a World Cup \u201cinjury.\u201d<\/p>\n
When their attempt to hire Bruce Cassidy was thwarted by the Vegas Golden Knights, the Oilers immediately acceded the moral high ground, going after the man whom Johan Franzen so famously labelled, \u201cA terrible person. The worst person I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n
If it were only one player who despised Babcock, we\u2019d write it off as everyday business. There isn\u2019t a coach in the NHL who has left behind a trail only of advocates.<\/p>\n
Some players even hated the great Scotty Bowman. Glen Sather had his detractors. The \u201cJolly Rancher\u201d Darryl Sutter\u2019s mailbox does not overflow with Christmas cards from past players, to be sure.<\/p>\n
But those men understood the oldest rule in the coaches\u2019 handbook. The one about keeping the five guys who hate you away from five guys who are undecided.<\/p>\n
Babcock, likely due to an ego that is said to be as big as Saskatchewan\u2019s Qu\u2019Appelle Valley, never worried much about how other coaches do things. Never worried about the people he\u2019s met along the way, from the parking lot attendant to the Zamboni driver.<\/p>\n
Babcock has never worried about how he\u2019s perceived, which can be a useful trait when you are standing behind the bench of an NHL team.<\/p>\n
Useful, until it becomes something you are asked to explain.<\/p>\n
Come Tuesday, or whenever the Oilers take this loathsome plunge, there will be questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0Even in a light least favourable \u2026 In its Thursday press release announcing that Mike Babcock\u2019s awkward,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-745998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}