McCarty: Red Wings won Stanley Cup in 2008 'in spite of' Babcock
Former Detroit Red Wings forward Darren McCarty believes Mike Babcock cost the club a championship in the 2009 Stanley Cup Final and was anything but the reason Detroit won it all one year prior.
"Our (dressing) room worked in different ways and when I came back you could tell that things were different, but the thing that didn't change was that guys played for each other," McCarty told Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press.
"That's the key. In spite of him, right? In spite of him," McCarty added. "And I learned that more getting into '09 because we won in '08 in spite of him and lost in '09 because of him. That's exactly the thing because he misused (Pavel) Datsyuk, (Henrik) Zetterberg and just because he's stubborn and that was his way."
Babcock coached the Red Wings from 2005-15 before joining the Toronto Maple Leafs. McCarty played 11 seasons for Detroit from 1993-2004 before rejoining the club for his final two campaigns.
Echoing Nazem Kadri's and Chris Chelios' recent comments, McCarty made clear the problem with Babcock wasn't his coaching ability, but rather his treatment of players.
"Preparation, Xs and Os, practice, just like the guys say, there's nobody better," McCarty said. "It's unbelievable. But then the ego and the disrespect for people. ... It doesn't matter who you are. It's a personal thing. So it could be the one who changes the garbage and he doesn't change it properly or whatever. " So all that stuff that happened with (Johan Franzen), it doesn't surprise me because I could see how he was as a person."
Franzen voiced pointed criticism of his former bench boss earlier this week, confirming Chelios' allegation that Babcock verbally assaulted Franzen and caused him severe mental distress during a playoff series in 2012.
McCarty lamented the fact Babcock's behavior wasn't called into question until recently.
"I could see what had started when I left (after 2004) and it just gradually grew," he said. "That's all it is. And it festered and it festered and it got out of control and the disrespect got out of control and now you're in 2019 with everybody else saying things.
"I can see how it got here because it was never handled. And that's the sport."
Detroit defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games to win the Cup in 2008 before losing a seven-game championship series to the Penguins the following year.
Toronto fired Babcock on Nov. 20 amid a six-game losing streak. Less than a week later, Mitch Marner and Babcock himself confirmed reports of the head coach shaming the forward during his rookie season in 2016-17.
Copyright (C) 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.