Now that Mike Babcock is officially coaching again, he’s making the rounds with media outlets trying to address the bullying reputation he’s been labeled with since getting run out of Toronto.

It all stems from that incident in Mitch Marner’s rookie season when Babcock had Mitch rank every player’s work ethic and subsequently showed the players that Mitch picked Kadri as the ‘laziest’

The story broke the day after Mike Babcock left Toronto.  Several stories about Babs surfaced, including the inhumane abuse of Johan Franzen, who played for Mike in Detroit.  Franzen is so crippled by Babcock’s day-to-day verbal and mental abuse, he has severe mental illness as a result.

Every story was about verbal and mental abuse and there were dozens of them.

https://crier.co/sports/nhl/former-red-wing-johan-franzen-said-mike-babcock-caused-his-ptsd-and-is-the-worst-person-ive-ever-met/

https://crier.co/sports/nhl/brendan-shanahan-finally-addresses-mike-babcock-calls-his-tactics-inappropriate/

Normal people tend to learn from these experiences in an effort to become a better person.

Not Mike.  He’s still playing the victim card which tells me Mike Babcock isn’t sorry for shit and he hasn’t learned anything.

SN: During his first live interview since being fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mike Babcock addressed the elephant in the room with an analogy he hopes the everyman can relate to:

“Have you ever said anything to your wife you’d like to get back?” the coach told The Rod Pedersen Show Tuesday.

The golden farm boy wants you to relate. He wants you to understand why he’s going home.

“You know when you’re reaching out and you’re trying to get things back? My oldest girl would always say to me: ‘Dad, it’s not what you say. It’s your tone.’ We’ve all made mistakes in our life. You have to own everything you’ve done wrong — I think that’s really important. But I also think your intention is so important,” Babcock went on.

“You can’t have the wife I have and the kids I have and the family I have without being a good human being. I don’t have any problem with that whatsoever. I always said to people when I went to Toronto, ‘I got half my salary for coaching the team and half my salary for getting whacked.’”

In tone, Mike Babcock sounded much like the same man who bet on Mike Babcock in November 2019, even when he sensed his first firing as an NHL head coach was only hours away.

Babcock, 57, spoke on-air with conviction, enthusiasm and that unmistakable Sasky charm, all of which he’ll bring to his new gig coaching the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, starting May 1.

He touched on the past but focused on the future. He casually referred to the NHL as the “Income Tax League,” which is a good line. And he boasted about his upcoming golf trip to the desert.

He also avoided words like “Marner” or “Franzen” or “sorry.” (Babcock’s prime-time interview Wednesday with Sportsnet’s Christine Simpson should be more challenging.)

People near to the serial winner advised Babcock to keep a low profile after his bench was transferred to Sheldon Keefe.

So, he cashed his hefty cheques — the Leafs owe Babcock $5.875 million per season until June 30, 2023 — and spent time outside with his passions (hunting, waterskiing, downhill skiing) and inside with his three 20-something children, stuck working via Zoom.

“When I got fired in Toronto, we went all-in on the entertainment,” Babcock said. “But after a while, you get tired of hearing some of the things. I think it’s important you get to say your piece.

“None of us are perfect. We’re all trying to get better.”

Even in his bubble, Babcock could feel the spears.

The infamous Mitch Marner list debacle looks indefensible. Former player Johan Franzen revealing his mental struggles in Detroit and telling Swedish outlet Expressen that Babcock was “a bully who was attacking people” and “the worst person I have ever met” looks worse. Chris Chelios, the Hall of Famer, backed up Franzen.

“I’m not a big media guy, following what’s going on. You know if you’re getting whacked or not. You also know in today’s world, the way it is, even the people that really value you, it’s hard for them to step up just because they’re going to get whacked. I know who I am. I know what I’ve done. Some of this doesn’t pass the smell test at all,” said Babcock, speaking during a family ski trip in Colorado.

“It’s just common sense. When you look at my career, I’ve always been hired by people who knew me. It’s not like we had a Zoom meeting.”

Babcock rhymed off deep connections to the late Bryan Murray in Anaheim, Jim Nill and Ken Holland in Detroit, Steve Yzerman with Canada’s Olympic program, and Brendan Shanahan in Toronto. If they wanted to work with him after knowing the real Mike Babcock for years, he suggested, what’s the problem?

“Something doesn’t add up,” Babcock said.

I’m not gonna shit post Mike Babcock, but there are some suspect comments in that interview that don’t make Mike sound apologetic or remorseful.

Let’s unpack this.

“Have you ever said anything to your wife you’d like to get back?”

Stupid example and he’s using it to dumb down the real abuse he doled out to players FOR YEARS. It’s like Charles Manson saying he might have been a bad influence in the 60s.

It’s a cheap way to minimize any accountability he has for the damage he’s caused over the course of his coaching career.  It says his ego is still in charge and the verbal abuse of players over his 30-year career is nothing more than a flippant comment or two he wishes he could get back. Johan Franzen is still so fucked up from playing for Mike Babcock, he has severe PTSD and works with others who have suffered through life-changing abuse at the hands of others.

In an interview with a Swedish magazine, you can see the pain that still lives in Franzen and you don’t need to speak fucking Swedish to see it.  Whatever Mike said to him is more than an off-hand comment he’d like to “get back.”

“When I got fired in Toronto, we went all-in on the entertainment,” Babcock said. “But after a while, you get tired of hearing some of the things. I think it’s important you get to say your piece.

“None of us are perfect. We’re all trying to get better.”

There we go.  Now we’re getting to how Mike REALLY feels.  He’s saying he feels like the victim after Leaf Fans and the hockey world beat the ever-loving shit out of him online FOR WHAT HE DID.  He’s saying he’s taken all the bullets and now it’s his turn to speak and what he’s saying is ‘Fuck you’.  Mike Babcock is tired of hearing about what he did to players for 20 fucking years, so he’s minimizing the harsh reaction to his abuse as ‘entertainment’.  It’s a classic move for narcissists who can’t stomach the possibility that they may be accountable for some wrongdoing and it fucking reeks of a detachment.  He’s saying he’s above the process of becoming a better person and was railroaded and hopes everyone had a good laugh at his expense because he’s “tired of hearing some of the things.”

That’s rich.  How fucking incredible would it be if all we had to do after destroying someone’s mental health was to claim imperfection after calling very real consequences ‘Entertainment’.

Wow, Jeff O’Neill doesn’t hold back sharing his feelings on Mike Babcock. pic.twitter.com/6ntMX59JIP

— Holl 4 Norris (@LeafsAllDayy) February 23, 2021

“I’m not a big media guy, following what’s going on. You know if you’re getting whacked or not. You also know in today’s world, the way it is, even the people that really value you, it’s hard for them to step up just because they’re going to get whacked. I know who I am. I know what I’ve done. Some of this doesn’t pass the smell test at all,” said Babcock, speaking during a family ski trip in Colorado.

“It’s just common sense. When you look at my career, I’ve always been hired by people who knew me. It’s not like we had a Zoom meeting.”

This part of Mike’s interview really stood out to me because he’s referring to himself as the victim here while on a family ski trip to Colorado which is fucking funny.

‘How can I be that bad if my family and friends like me and people used to hire me?  Something doesn’t add up?’

No shit.

What doesn’t add up is how Mike still doesn’t understand what he did to players for decades was wrong.  Mike still isn’t convinced his abusive tactics were a bad thing because he’s married and has kids and used to work for people.  That’s the logic Babcock is employing here.  He didn’t get ‘whacked’.  He suffered the natural consequences of his actions and any assertion by him to represent his cancellation any other way means he’s not only not sorry for mentally abusing human beings in the past, but he’ll also probably do it again.

At every turn and in every interview Babcock has given recently, he STILL absolves himself from any failure.  He’s unable to address his role in anything that affects him because his ego won’t let him be accountable for his actions to the point where he thinks Lou leaving Toronto had something to do with his firing for fuck sakes.

“I knew when Lou left, I was getting fired.”

Mike Babcock joins @SNChrisSimpson on The Big Picture to discuss his time with the Maple Leafs and how it feels to see them finding success.

Watch the full interview tomorrow on Wednesday Night Hockey.
7pm ET / 4pm PT on Sportsnet. pic.twitter.com/MygXBiqG8S

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 24, 2021

OR, Mike’s firing had something to do with how much the players hated his fucking guts because he was an abusive dick who couldn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs.

How about that?

You’re giving this guy a redemption story. He didn’t know what mental health was in 2014?

Stop this madness. Report the facts. Report the actual words he called players. I’ve heard of what he’s saying. Dig and report on it.
Make him accountable to do work to earn redemption pic.twitter.com/dlRXVLR7Em

— Brock McGillis (@brock_mcgillis) February 25, 2021

How about “I’ve taken some time to listen and talk to some players who I’ve negatively affected over the course of my career and I hope to continue to be a solution to the problems I may have caused.” 

That is really the only thing Mike needs to say in these interviews if he wants to be respected again, but he won’t and I don’t get it.

Living in your own ignorance is lonely.  Guys like Mike craft reputations over time and place ultimate value on that creation then find themselves on the outside looking in instead of literally being a better person so they find themselves alone.

There’s nothing more important to a guy like Mike than what people think of him.  Thanks to the iron trap of NHL dressing rooms, Mike was able to hide who he really was from the rest of us while presenting his carefully crafted reputation in media scrums and interviews.  It worked for him until he failed and now he finds himself on an island trying to mold a new reputation out of his old shitty reputation without even so much as an apology or an ounce of contrition for the damage he caused.

Mike Babcock is the author of his own circumstances (we all are) and he’s still narrating his own journey as a victim.  That’s how you know Mike Babcock isn’t sorry for shit and still hasn’t learned anything.

D