Mike speaks to the media prior to the team’s final preseason game vs. the Flames
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Baba Yaga
Sama lama Ding dong
Excellent question today,,,,, ladies and gentlemen we are looking at coach of the year
Couldn't decide between getting a Podz or Bouch jersey for this year but looks like im getting a custom Babcock one
He is as sharp ever
damn… he is going win even more people over with his stance on minutes. He said they can’t perform at their best like that. Knob ran them into the ground. Babs needs to get to the finals in both his first and second year coaching here. otherwise it wasn’t as good at knob and that’s not really debatable
Funny when he was announced as coach yall claimed Edmonton was doomed
LOL…Babs is not bringing in a new System lol lol he is bringing in a STYLE OF PLAY….and if you ask him if the Players are picking up his new System already hes foxy enough to know darn well NOBODY is learning an NHL System in a few weeks lol lol….so he says its all about Teaching as if a SUPER Teacher can expedite that Systemic learning curve…hes trying to wriggle out of the question lol lol lol…I am a Tactical Systems Analyst and we will be discussing this a lot more very soon. Mikes trying to tell you that his acumen as a Teacher erases the questions about the Players learning a new System fast enough to be able to compete to win games….fact is Babs is NOT bringing in a new System at all hes Teaching a STYLE OF PLAY…it is what it is.
This Coach is going to play the 2-Kings together hard, hes going to make them OWN IT… BECAUSE YOU SEE the only way to spread minutes is to spread trust and that means letting other players besides the 2-Kings take risks…being on the same line cuts their ownership of that in half immediatly…but it does not mean Happy Land and everyone gets fed tons of icetime…its is just a realignment of the risk factor. Its about where and when you take your chances.
Coach great Babs!!! 🧡💙
In September 2023, newly hired Columbus Blue Jackets coach Mike Babcock became the subject of a short, intense controversy over how he used players’ phones in one-on-one meetings. He resigned after 78 days, before training camp or a single game.
## What was alleged
The story broke on the Sept. 12, 2023 episode of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast. Paul Bissonnette said an anonymous NHL player told him Babcock was calling players into his office, asking to see photos on their phones “to know what type of person you are,” and (in the podcast version) AirPlaying the camera roll onto a TV. Bissonnette named captain Boone Jenner as an example and said similar requests had happened on Babcock’s earlier teams.
That framing made it sound like the coach was rummaging through private camera rolls.
## What Babcock and players said publicly
The same day, Babcock and Jenner put out statements through the team.
Babcock said he asked players and staff to share *family pictures* from their phones as a get-to-know-you exercise, that they kept the phones and scrolled themselves, and that the podcast version was a “gross misrepresentation” and “extremely offensive.”
Jenner said the meeting covered family, hometown, his upcoming wedding, and hockey; Babcock asked if he had family pictures; Jenner was happy to share some; Babcock showed his own family photos. Johnny Gaudreau and others publicly described it as unremarkable relationship-building. One later report quoted a player saying Babcock held a phone for an “awkward” amount of time.
Babcock also told The Athletic players sat with the phone in their own hand and scrolled.
## Why it still blew up
Several things stacked:
– *Power imbalance.* A new head coach asking to look at a player’s personal phone, even for “family pics,” sits differently than a teammate asking the same thing. – *Babcock’s existing reputation.* He had been fired by Toronto in 2019 amid reports of harsh psychological tactics (including making a player rank teammates by work ethic and then sharing the list). Other former players later described verbal abuse. That history made people more willing to assume the worst. – *Conflicting accounts of the method.* Podcast: coach takes/controls the phone and projects the roll. Babcock/Jenner: player scrolls selected family photos. Later Athletic reporting said people who had worked with him previously described photo-sharing as a recurring “team-building” tactic of his. – *Union involvement.* NHLPA officials (including Marty Walsh) interviewed Blue Jackets players in Columbus. The union’s public line after Babcock left was that players “deserve to be treated with respect in the workplace” and that “was not the case in Columbus.” The detailed findings were never published.
The NHL initially treated it as overblown; deputy commissioner Bill Daly said players who spoke to the league/union had not described the meetings as inappropriate. That did not stop the resignation.
## Outcome
On Sept. 17, 2023, Babcock and the Blue Jackets mutually parted ways. He never coached a game in Columbus. Pascal Vincent took over.
In June 2026, after Edmonton showed interest in hiring him, the NHL ran a formal review of the Columbus episode (including Zoom interviews with former Jackets players). The league said that even viewed least favorably to Babcock, there was “no current basis to restrict his employment.” The NHLPA called the 2023 allegations “very concerning” and said it expected him to meet the standards required of NHL head coaches if he returned.
*Bottom line:* Everyone agreed he asked players to show photos from their phones. The fight was over how invasive that was, whether phones were handed over and projected, and whether a coach with his track record should be doing it at all. Public veterans defended the “family photos” version; the union’s intervention and his resignation showed enough internal concern that the organization decided he could not stay.
-Grok fact check ✅
Man, I see a Babs interview, I click, no questions… every single time.
Mike Babcock and the word fun don’t seem to seem right but darnit I can’t not tune into his interviews right now
Best coach in the NHL
Edmonton vs Cowtown on a Saturday night its preseason BUT ITS OUR NUMBER 1 RIVAL
Wow edmonton has a coach with actual answers and the biggest things a personality.
coach so far .. beyond expectations .. let's go Oil🎉🎉🎉🎉
Unsure how to read Babcock . Either he’s a genius or a meathead.
Baba Yaga
Sama lama Ding dong
Excellent question today,,,,, ladies and gentlemen we are looking at coach of the year
Couldn't decide between getting a Podz or Bouch jersey for this year but looks like im getting a custom Babcock one
He is as sharp ever
damn… he is going win even more people over with his stance on minutes. He said they can’t perform at their best like that. Knob ran them into the ground. Babs needs to get to the finals in both his first and second year coaching here. otherwise it wasn’t as good at knob and that’s not really debatable
Funny when he was announced as coach yall claimed Edmonton was doomed
LOL…Babs is not bringing in a new System lol lol he is bringing in a STYLE OF PLAY….and if you ask him if the Players are picking up his new System already hes foxy enough to know darn well NOBODY is learning an NHL System in a few weeks lol lol….so he says its all about Teaching as if a SUPER Teacher can expedite that Systemic learning curve…hes trying to wriggle out of the question lol lol lol…I am a Tactical Systems Analyst and we will be discussing this a lot more very soon. Mikes trying to tell you that his acumen as a Teacher erases the questions about the Players learning a new System fast enough to be able to compete to win games….fact is Babs is NOT bringing in a new System at all hes Teaching a STYLE OF PLAY…it is what it is.
This Coach is going to play the 2-Kings together hard, hes going to make them OWN IT… BECAUSE YOU SEE the only way to spread minutes is to spread trust and that means letting other players besides the 2-Kings take risks…being on the same line cuts their ownership of that in half immediatly…but it does not mean Happy Land and everyone gets fed tons of icetime…its is just a realignment of the risk factor. Its about where and when you take your chances.
Coach great Babs!!! 🧡💙
In September 2023, newly hired Columbus Blue Jackets coach Mike Babcock became the subject of a short, intense controversy over how he used players’ phones in one-on-one meetings. He resigned after 78 days, before training camp or a single game.
## What was alleged
The story broke on the Sept. 12, 2023 episode of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast. Paul Bissonnette said an anonymous NHL player told him Babcock was calling players into his office, asking to see photos on their phones “to know what type of person you are,” and (in the podcast version) AirPlaying the camera roll onto a TV. Bissonnette named captain Boone Jenner as an example and said similar requests had happened on Babcock’s earlier teams.
That framing made it sound like the coach was rummaging through private camera rolls.
## What Babcock and players said publicly
The same day, Babcock and Jenner put out statements through the team.
Babcock said he asked players and staff to share *family pictures* from their phones as a get-to-know-you exercise, that they kept the phones and scrolled themselves, and that the podcast version was a “gross misrepresentation” and “extremely offensive.”
Jenner said the meeting covered family, hometown, his upcoming wedding, and hockey; Babcock asked if he had family pictures; Jenner was happy to share some; Babcock showed his own family photos. Johnny Gaudreau and others publicly described it as unremarkable relationship-building. One later report quoted a player saying Babcock held a phone for an “awkward” amount of time.
Babcock also told The Athletic players sat with the phone in their own hand and scrolled.
## Why it still blew up
Several things stacked:
– *Power imbalance.* A new head coach asking to look at a player’s personal phone, even for “family pics,” sits differently than a teammate asking the same thing.
– *Babcock’s existing reputation.* He had been fired by Toronto in 2019 amid reports of harsh psychological tactics (including making a player rank teammates by work ethic and then sharing the list). Other former players later described verbal abuse. That history made people more willing to assume the worst.
– *Conflicting accounts of the method.* Podcast: coach takes/controls the phone and projects the roll. Babcock/Jenner: player scrolls selected family photos. Later Athletic reporting said people who had worked with him previously described photo-sharing as a recurring “team-building” tactic of his.
– *Union involvement.* NHLPA officials (including Marty Walsh) interviewed Blue Jackets players in Columbus. The union’s public line after Babcock left was that players “deserve to be treated with respect in the workplace” and that “was not the case in Columbus.” The detailed findings were never published.
The NHL initially treated it as overblown; deputy commissioner Bill Daly said players who spoke to the league/union had not described the meetings as inappropriate. That did not stop the resignation.
## Outcome
On Sept. 17, 2023, Babcock and the Blue Jackets mutually parted ways. He never coached a game in Columbus. Pascal Vincent took over.
In June 2026, after Edmonton showed interest in hiring him, the NHL ran a formal review of the Columbus episode (including Zoom interviews with former Jackets players). The league said that even viewed least favorably to Babcock, there was “no current basis to restrict his employment.” The NHLPA called the 2023 allegations “very concerning” and said it expected him to meet the standards required of NHL head coaches if he returned.
*Bottom line:* Everyone agreed he asked players to show photos from their phones. The fight was over how invasive that was, whether phones were handed over and projected, and whether a coach with his track record should be doing it at all. Public veterans defended the “family photos” version; the union’s intervention and his resignation showed enough internal concern that the organization decided he could not stay.
-Grok fact check ✅
Man, I see a Babs interview, I click, no questions… every single time.
Mike Babcock and the word fun don’t seem to seem right but darnit I can’t not tune into his interviews right now
Best coach in the NHL
Edmonton vs Cowtown on a Saturday night its preseason BUT ITS OUR NUMBER 1 RIVAL
Wow edmonton has a coach with actual answers and the biggest things a personality.
coach so far .. beyond expectations .. let's go Oil🎉🎉🎉🎉
Unsure how to read Babcock . Either he’s a genius or a meathead.
Winners, win