It's ok to have disagreements with a coach.
Scotty Bowman was loved/hated but respected and respectable. (9 rings as a HC) (5 rings in the FO)
Mike Keenan thought he was the 2nd coming of Bowman and was hated, not respected, and not respectable. (1 ring as a HC)
Mike Babcock is the latter (0 rings as a HC)
Point being, when you have a winning predigree people will hate and love you, respect you and respect you for being respectable.
"Demanding" respect while disrespecting players (or people)...IDC if your a pro athelte or a mentally unstable bum...that attitude is a cancer and needs to disappear forever. (IMHO)
Can’t argue to much with that, though he did win a Cup with the Wings, and made a Final with them (that The NHL gave to Cindy), and one with The
Ducks. Including never missing a playoff with The Wings. So despite always having a team with numerous HOFers, his coaching resume is impressive:
Reg Season: 373-189-95
Playoffs 43-24
But, yes, he is a prick. He was stubborn and over-confident with his system despite the league figuring it out for years. That, combined with his “my way or the bench”, led to many frustrating and questionable personnel decisions (ie Dan Clearly playing all the time and pissing off the likes of Modano, Chelios, and Shannahan)
I wanted him out of Detroit for years, and was worried when he took over a young Toronto team. I figured it would be boom or bust. Had they had enough time to build a roster with players playing his way, we’d of had our hands full in the East. They even gave us a fit with 5 OT games in the first round a few years ago.
Lucky for us, things didn’t progress in Toronto quick enough.
However, it would be interesting to hear what some of his other former players had to say about him, particularly the ones he developed (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Filppula, Abdelkader, etc), or vets in Toronto (Tavares, Spezza). I would bet those that bought in loved the guy, those that didn’t, hate him.