Mike Babcock is great but the NHL Awards are mostly stupid, so we thought we’d let you write your own story about his [victory/loss]. (Okay, so he lost.)
Back in April of 2017, so long ago, Mike Babcock, the Oilers' Todd McLellan, and Blue Jackets’ John Tortorella were all nominated for the NHL's Jack Adams Award for the coach who contributes the most to his team's success. This year's winner was [Todd McLellan/John Tortorella/Mike Babcock], much to the [joy/consternation] of Leafs fans everywhere.
The winner is selected by the National Hockey League Broadcasters Association. I can't find a handy page that says who the members of this association are (unlike the Professional Hockey Writers' Association -- geez, get it together, broadcasters), so I used the Wikipedia page to guess at the following names for Toronto's members: Gord Miller, Chris Cuthbert, Paul Romanuk, Dave Randorf, Ray Ferraro, Greg Millen, Joe Bowen, and Jim Ralph.
That’s right, we [thank you guys/hold you accountable] for Babcock’s [victory/loss].
Katya pointed out that the winner of this award often gets fired the year after, so it’s [good/ominous] that Babcock [lost/won]:
Five of the last six winners have been fired. Last year’s was Barry Trotz, and obviously if he could coach up that bunch of plugs on the Capitals to play well, you have to give it to him, and he did okay this year too, so he still has his job.
This year’s winner definitely won due to [reasons]. And it’s clear that Babcock’s record, 40 wins and 15 overtime losses, was worthy enough to put him on the same playing field as Tortorella (50-24-8) and McLellan (47-26-9).
Anyway, what are you guys going to do to [console yourselves/celebrate]? I might pull on a pair of Babsocks under my Snuggee and drink some Maple Leafs wine.
