Darren McCarty takes sides in latest Mike Babcock controversy

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Mike Babcock, who has yet to spend a single game behind the bench since his hiring this offseason, has found himself in the middle of yet another controversy.

He's alleged to have requested to look at his player's phones in order to look at their photos as part of getting to know them better. Former NHL forward Paul Bissonnette, who is now the host of the popular "Spittin' Chicklets" podcast as well as a hockey analyst on TNT, said the following about Babcock on a recent podcast episode: 

"He called in players from his team, and he’ll say, ‘Let me see your phone, open up your photos, and I want to see who you are as a person…' So, the players in the past have obviously handed over their phone, they plug it in, and they bring it up on a flatscreen, and he goes through the camera roll on your phone to see what type of person you are — whether you’re sending memes to the boys, whether you’re sending d-ck pics…" Bissonnette said.

"He gets to Columbus and one of the first things he does is he calls in Boone Jenner, the captain of the f---ing team, and says, ‘Let me see the photos in your phone, I want to know the type of person you are.’ What the f--- is going on?"

Not long afterward, Babcock and Jackets captain Boone Jenner would release statements in which they both criticized Bissonnette's account of what transpired and saying that it was all blown out of proportion.

But in the meantime, former Detroit Red Wings forward Darren McCarty, who spent a brief portion of his career in Detroit under Babcock, has publicly supported Bissonnette on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

McCarty is one of several former NHL forwards who have openly been critical of Babcock's methods, going so far to say that he cost the Red Wings the chance to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in 2009 by misusing forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg by running them "into the ground to prove his point", and that the Red Wings triumphed in 2008 "in spite" of Babcock, not because of him. 

Several other former Red Wings players have spoken out publicly against Babcock, including Johan Franzen, Mike Modano and Chris Chelios.