As Babcock Weighs Future, Holland Says Money Is No Object
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
DETROIT - Head coach Mike Babcock says he has not ruled out the option of re-signing with the Detroit Red Wings. In fact, Babcock sounded Friday like someone who wanted to stay.
"I've been without jobs before, been fired before, and I've moved a lot, gotten lots of new jobs," Babcock said. "There was always, when I went someplace before, there was always a better job. There's no better job."
Even so, Babcock has not been ready to recommit to the team with which he has already spent 10 years. He knew this time was coming, when his contract would expire and he would have to decide whether to stay or go. He did not expect the time to arrive so soon.
Babcock said it never crossed his mind during the team's first-round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning that it could be his last with Detroit.
"I just thought we were going to win," Babcock said. "I thought we were playing the Habs for sure. I thought we were better than them in Game 7. I thought we had them done, I really did. In my heart and in my mind, we were going to win.
"The worst day I've had in coaching in Detroit, period, in my 10 years here, was yesterday, bar none," Babcock added. "So was that because I thought in my heart we were going to win that series and that we should still be playing? Was that because of what's coming? I don't know the answer to that. But I just know that there's a 24-hour rule in my house for sulking, and I used all 24 hours."
If Babcock wants to explore other options, he should have plenty of them, though he said no other teams have reached out to him yet.
Detroit has exclusive negotiating rights with Babcock through June, but neither the coach nor general manager Ken Holland wants the process to drag out. Babcock said he planned to meet with Holland within the next 10 days, but first he will talk more with his wife.
The first conversation with her on the topic, Babcock said, did not move him closer to a decision.
"I talked to my wife yesterday morning for the first time, and everyone thinks Ken Holland's the boss, actually my wife's the boss, and that conversation didn't go very well," Holland said. "It didn't last that long. So I imagine over the next while we'll have some conversations about this and decide what we're going to do, but what I find every year is after losing or after winning you take some time away, you clear your head, and then you make good decisions based on what's right for you and your family and the situation you're in."
As for why the conversation did not go well, the coach smiled wryly.
"It just got heated up pretty quick," Babcock said. "It's just one of those things, how's that?"
He would not reveal his wife's position on the decision to stay or go.
"You'd have to get her down here and ask her that," Babcock said with another smile.
The coach has often spoken fondly of his wife, referring to her once as "my bride" on Friday, and he said her input and the opportunity to win will be the most important factors in his decision.
"My family and that," Babcock said. "My wife and that. Those are the two biggest factors.
"My wife and I will go through a process, and Kenny and I will go through a process, and within 10 days we'll have a plan," Babcock continued. "I'm not letting this go forever. Neither is Kenny."
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Holland said money would be no object, noting that team owner Mike Ilitch has shown no aversion to stepping up financially to keep key pieces of the Red Wings and the other team he owns, the Detroit Tigers.
Babcock dismissed the dollars as a key component, indicating he feels no need to set a new salary benchmark for NHL coaches. He also debunked rumors that he wants to go to another team where he will have more say in the construction of a team.
"I am part of making decisions here, but I have no skill set to be the general manager, so anybody who thinks I want to go somewhere to be the general manager, they're talking to the wrong guy," Babcock said. "I'm a coach. I love to coach. I love the players. I love the competition, like being close to the ice. I love what I do. I think I'm good at it. I like doing it. I have no interest in sitting where Kenny sits at all."
Babcock's children are now grown - he was heading to his daughter's graduation after he finished speaking with media Friday - but he still has an attachment to Detroit, as does his family.
"They still grew up here," Babcock said. "I still go home to Saskatoon. My dad moved all over the world and the north when we was grinding on the mining business, and then we stayed in Saskatoon and I still have a house outside there, so roots are important, too. So there's lots of things into it."
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Babcock appears to want to stay, but even more, he wants to win, and he seemed unsure of whether the Red Wings will be able to do so in the coming years.
Star veterans like Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall are still great players but no longer in the prime of their careers, so the organization will be relying heavily on a collection of youngsters, and both Babcock and Holland said they need more from those players.
"Zetterberg and Datsyuk and Kronwall, in my opinion, are the best leadership group I've been around in pro sport, and those guys' window isn't as long as a lot of our kids,'" Babcock said. "At one point this year we had 15 kids under the age of 28, and we need the push from those kids. When I first got here, Datsyuk and Zetterberg and Kronwall ... older players that were here, they made them better. They were the kids that came and gave them better and gave them another opportunity, and we had a three-year run there.
"We need to have another run here," Babcock continued. "We're not a million miles away, and the way we played against Tampa in the last, in Game 3 through 7, you think you're a Cup contender. When you lose and you're out in the first round three out of four years, it's depressing."
How the young players will pan out, no one can predict. It is impossible to know whether players like Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan and Danny DeKeyser can become the stars that Detroit needs to carry the team, but Babcock said they have to be able to fill the void.
"The impetus has to come from those kids," Babcock said. "We need Z and Pav and Kronner to maintain where they're at, so their fitness level this summer and work they do, but those guys aren't in the point at their career they're getting better. But these kids are, so that's what I'm trying to say is the challenge is for the other part of the group.
"They're the people that got to push us over the top now, just like Pav and Z and Kronner did when they were 25 years of age," Babcock continued. "That's what Kenny and I have talked about for two days. We understand where we're at totally, and we've got a ton of kids, but we need more from those kids."
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Babcock's reputation for pushing players hard is no secret, and some have speculated that Detroit has not landed key free agents in recent years because they did not want to play for Babcock.
Holland said he believes the opposite is true, and he definitely wants Babcock to stay in Detroit.
"Mike is one of the most talented people at what he does, and some could make the case he's the most talented," Holland said. "I think he's made our organization better. I respect he pushes our players. I want a coach that pushes our players, and when you push people every day ... if someone's pushing you every day, sometimes you wake up and say, 'Boy, I wish that guy wasn't pushing me anymore,' but our team responds to Mike.
"Did the players like Scotty Bowman every day? Do the players like Mike Babcock every day? Probably not," Holland continued. "I like that. I like it that you come to work and you don't really feel like working and the boss makes you work. But at the end of the day, I think that when you analyze everything as a player, he's a fabulous coach to play for."
Zetterberg confirmed that perspective, praising the coach's preparation and work ethic and noting his demanding nature.
"It's been good battles," Zetterberg said. "I think we've both learned a lot from each other. As a coach and a player, I don't think you should agree all the time, and we haven't, but most of the time we have."
Whether Red Wings players will continue to productively clash with Babcock in future years remains to be seen. The coach cautioned that updates on the process will probably not be forthcoming.
"What I found is every time I speak right now, someone tries to read into what I said," Babcock added. "I wouldn't read anything into it because there's nothing there. There's nothing because I don't know myself, and if you think I'm trying to snow you or something, I'm not. I don't have any idea. I'm going to go through it in a logical manner and make some decisions."
