Mike Babcock and Henrik Zetterberg speak on contentious relationship in Detroit
Mike Babcock and Henrik Zetterberg haven’t worked alongside each other since 2014-2015, but speculation about the relationship between coach and captain continues to this day.
On Thursday night Zetterberg tried to clarify matters in his comments to Greg Kruppa of The Detroit News, positing that the two didn’t “hate” each other, but acknowledging their working relationship wasn’t exactly harmonious.
“Maybe people think that we hated each other, sometimes,” Zetterberg said. “I won’t say we did that. But, there were times when we weren’t that friendly, maybe.”
When Babcock was told about the comment, his response was about as Mike Babcock as it gets.
Babcock has Zetterberg quote read to him, responds with this: “I remember Z getting mad at me a bunch. I also remember Z getting his name on the Stanley Cup for life.”
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) November 2, 2018
By and large conflicts between players and coaches tend to stay in house, but it’s become clear that the prickly Toronto Maple Leafs coach has the ability to rub his players the wrong way.
After the 2017-18 season, Babcock flew to Arizona to smooth things over with his superstar centre Auston Matthews and Mike Commodore made headlines a couple of years back ripping the Maple Leafs bench boss.
Whether this pattern is a problem is open to interpretation. The intensity and competitiveness that gets Babcock in scrapes with his players at times are also likely crucial elements of what makes him a good coach. Players like Sean Avery and Shawn Matthias are just a few who have recently said as much.
Judging a hockey coach is a very difficult task to begin with, and assessing his ability to handle his players is even harder, but it certainly seems like life under Babcock can be a bumpy ride at times.
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