Mike Babcock’s very short tenure as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets continues to be talked about throughout the National Hockey League (NHL), and one of his former protégés didn’t hesitate to express the depth of his thoughts.
Former defenseman Chris Chelios, well known to hockey fans here, had some issues with leaving his post in Ohio this week. While the coach’s tempestuous relationships with several players have been widely documented both in recent days and over the past few years, the former Montreal Canadiens color man offered some details about Babcock heading to the Detroit Red Wings.
• Also read: NHL: Derek Stepan ends his playing career
• Also read: The Canadian takes over for Tanner Pearson
• Also read: NHL: He changes his number and offers fans a discount
Additionally, Chelios has very bad memories of the 2009 Winter Classic, which took place at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Windy City native thought he would shine in front of his loved ones that day against his former club – the Blackhawks. However, the Pilot preferred to bench him and limited him to five sequences on the ice with a total playing time of 1 minute and 57 seconds. This is one of the many examples that show why the coach stayed on the dodge route after his shot against the Toronto Maple Leafs in November 2019.
“The unpleasant things he did to the players to make them uncomfortable were simply not necessary. If you win, you go to the arena and have fun. But even if we won, it wouldn’t be pleasant for a lot of the guys. Something tells me he wanted to get fired so he could get his money and escape. I have no idea how the agreement was made back then. “Still, this guy is smart as a fox,” the former hockey player told the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast.
One of Babcock’s victims, Swede Johan Franzen, called him “the worst person ever” and Chelios revealed why.
“Too many people in hockey have to deal with someone like that. Johan Franzen comes to mind. After this poor young man suffered a concussion, he called him into his office once a week and called him a fat pig. He told him that his teammates hated him and asked him why he didn’t give up everything.
“Fuck him.”
Chelios did not want to cause too much attention with his particular case because, being 47 years old at the beginning of 2009, he wanted to avoid a move that would have been detrimental to his family.
“I loved Detroit. “Thank God, because Ken Holland, Jim Nill and the Illitch family supported me,” he said, referring to current Wings executives. They couldn’t order Babs to play me, but they could tell him he wouldn’t get rid of me. I knew the secretary who worked right outside Holland’s office [le directeur général à ce moment]. Every time Babs went in there, she heard everything. Babs tried to convince him to trade me.”
“If I had been ten years younger I would have demanded a deal and told him to go fuck himself.”
In Columbus, Quebecer Pascal Vincent took over as manager from his predecessor, whom the Jackets had hired in the offseason.