Jamie Nye: Keeping Babcock was right move, to heck with the fans

When running a proper professional sports franchise, you should never listen to your fans when it comes to the personnel of the team.

Leafs fans turned on Mike Babcock after another first-round playoff exit. They picked apart his strategy, all the way down to the amount of minutes certain players got.

Babcock is ninth in career NHL coaching victories and likely gets close to the top five before too long.

But yes, the fans wanted him gone after the Leafs lost to a better team than them as they continue to grow and develop.

Patience is a virtue at times and fans have little. They want instant success and if it doesn’t come, they want change.

Young Kyle Dubas could have won over a fan base by doing the popular choice to make a change behind the bench. Even the media in Toronto would have had the GM’s back as the allure of Babcock has quickly worn out.

Oh, and that reminds me, it’s not just the fans that teams shouldn’t listen to.