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Johan Franzen says Mike Babcock is "the worst person I have ever met,"


Phil

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In an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen Franzen now talks about the incident and reveals the mind games Babcock used against him.

 

I get the shivers when I think about it. That incident happened against Nashville in the playoffs. It was coarse, nasty and shocking. But that was just one of a hundred things he did. The tip of the iceberg.

 

As a coach he is extremely meticulous and well prepared. He is very good at putting a team together and getting everyone to buy into it. That's his strong side.

 

But then, he's a terrible person, the worst I've ever met. He's a bully who was attacking people. It could be a cleaner at the Detroit arena or anybody. He would lay in people without any reason.

 

From 2011 on, I was terrified of being at the rink. That's when he got on me the first time. I just focused on getting out of bed every morning from that moment. Last year I could sleep naturally for the first time since then.

 

The nightmares keep coming back.

 

It was just his attacks, playing in my head. Each and every day. But I got help managing those obsessions during three weeks at a center in Colorado last year. It was me and a group of veterans who also suffered from concussions and PTSD.

 

He was a specialist in handling the media. He creates teams that are very hard to beat, you can't take that away from him. But he makes his players very anxious, they are scared to death of making mistakes, and his teams rarely get past the first round of the playoffs.

 

https://www.expressen.se/sport/hockey/nhl/franzen-he-is-the-worst-person-i-have-ever-met/

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Babcock is done. That's for sure.

 

That said, this sounds like someone dealing with many more mental health issues than getting yelled at by a coach. I'm sure there are a lot of people who had the same thing happen to them by Babs who aren't in therapy.

 

Clearly though, that doesn't justify anything for Babcock.

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He would have got away with all of this if he wasn't a fucking douche bag. That's the dividing line. I've played and worked for plenty of assholes, as has everyone else I'm sure, the difference is the hard ass coach that really leans on you, and makes your life miserable, but he's also the guy you can go to with any problem, the guy that when it comes down to it, will support you any way possible and would never fuck you over.

 

Babcock isn't that guy, and that's his downfall.

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Yeah. Major hard-ass, but for all the right reasons. Wants the best out of every player. Wants the best out of his team. Frankly, for my money, you'll never find a better shield for one than Torts. That guy knew how (and when) to defend his guys by driving all the media criticism directly to him.
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