How will Mike Babcock's job with Team Canada impact his role with the Red Wings?
Mike Babcock has gone from coaching Pronghorns to coaching Pronger.
In 1994, Babcock was behind the bench with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. In the ultimate Cinderella story, the Pronghorns almost folded that season because of financial trouble before bouncing back in dramatic fashion and winning the national championship.
This week, the 46-year old Babcock was named coach of Team Canada, a squad sure to include big blue liner Chris Pronger, as the countdown to next winter's Olympics in Vancouver shifts into high gear.
With a Stanley Cup, World Championship triumph and World Junior gold on his resume, Babcock definitely has a championship pedigree. But it's the Red Wings loss in this year's Stanley Cup that will have a lot to do with Babcock's Olympic impact and his destiny in Detroit.
During the Cup final, Babcock accused Sidney Crosby of going "head-hunting" when matched against Henrik Zetterberg. Crosby obviously took exception to the comment and Babcock quickly backtracked and even issued an apology to Sid the Kid.
"He's (Crosby) going after Z (Zetterberg) and Z's going after him," said Babcock. "I think it's a great thing. So I misspoke or I didn't speak well, because to me, speaking unfairly about Sidney Crosby would be wrong."
Fortunately, Babcock went with "misspoke" as opposed to Roger Clemens infamous "misremember" routine. Still, you can understand why Babcock hopped on his bike to do some verbal back-pedaling. Crosby is Canada's franchise guy and it will be fascinating to keep an eye on his relationship with Babcock as the Olympics unfold.
In Motown, meanwhile, Babcock will have to put out a lot of fires before he even lands in Vancouver. Yes, Babcock has been to three Stanley Cup finals in his coaching career but he's lost two of them and dropping game seven to Pittsburgh may have opened a big can of worms. During the recent play-off run, a lot of Red Wings raved about how Babcock had adopted a softer approach in dealing with the club over the years. Still, Babcock hasn't completely dropped his hard-edge coaching style and now that the Wings have lost a Cup final under the man, there's a chance that a veteran-laden team could start to tune him out.
But the bigger danger?
Keeping everybody on the same page.
Unless Chris Osgood pulls off a surprise and lands one of the goaltending gigs, Babcock and General Manager Steve Yzerman will be the only Red Wings representatives on Team Canada.
The international sides, however, will be packed with Detroit content.
Datsyuk, Franzen, Hossa, Lidstrom, Zetterberg... the list goes on and on.
Most hockey insiders will tell you that all the principles connected with Detroit's Olympian effort are tried and true professionals who can handle the Olympic split without any problem. But as they proved by dropping four out of the last five contests in their series against the Penguins, the Red Wings are just as human as everybody else in hockey. With the tournament in puck-crazy Vancouver, the focus on the Olympic tournament will be more intense than ever. As a result, there won't be any place for the Red Wings to run and hide when the Canadian media tries to mix things up by asking what it's like to be coached by a man who will be doing anything to beat them when February rolls around.
So, Babcock's do list in Detroit?
Suck up to Sid the Kid, the same guy who ruined the Red Wings dream of winning back-to-back Stanleys.
Running the risk of being labeled a "homer" by naming Chris Osgood to Team Canada, and incurring Ozzie's wrath if he doesn't.
Convincing the Red Wings huge European brigade that he still loves them, even though he'll go to war against them in Vancouver.
And, oh yeah; trying to make sure that an older Detroit team doesn't get sick and tired of the same old message.
Compared to all that, winning a Canadian championship at a school that almost ran out of money must seem like a piece of cake.