Published 2023-09-12 20:59
NEW YORK. The comeback season hasn’t even started yet, but there is already a buzz around scandal coach Mike Babcock.
According to reports in North America, he has demanded that his players in Columbus show what kind of pictures they have on their private phones.
“We are investigating the issue,” greets the players’ union.
It is Paul Bissonnette, former player in Pittsburgh and Arizona and now colorful expert commentator during the television channel TNT’s NHL broadcasts, who in his podcast “Spittin’ chiclets” makes new accusations against Mike Babcock.
The 60-year-old coach, who after a few years in the cold was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets during the summer, is said to have called in team captain Boone Jenner and other players and demanded to see the pictures in their private phones.
“I want to know what kind of person you are,” he allegedly said.
– What the hell is going on? It’s hardly even legal, rages Bissonnette.
– He should worry about the cursed forechecking and the team’s power play instead. Why want to see their pictures?
Got fired by Toronto
However, Babcock fights back:
– The way this has been described is humiliating, he says.
– When I met, I asked them to show pictures of their families so I got to know them better. That is all.
full screenMike Babcock. Photo: TT
And Boone Jenner is backing his new coach.
– I think we had a good first meeting. It is disappointing that it has reached these proportions, he says.
At the same time, the players’ union announces that they are investigating the matter.
Mike Babcock was long regarded as one of the NHL’s star coaches, but was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2019 after it emerged that he treated his players badly – both in Toronto and earlier in Detroit. Among other things, it was revealed that he bullied Johan Franzén so badly, during an ongoing match, that the Småland forward, according to his teammates, had a nervous breakdown.
When Babcock got his new job in Columbus this summer after a couple of years as a coach at the school level, he assured that he had learned his lesson and become a better person.
But now he is in bad weather again – before the comeback season has even started.
2023-09-12 19:00:01
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