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Red Wings GM Holland on Leafs' Babcock: 'We want to kick his ass'

Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports / USA TODAY Sports

There seems to be no love lost between Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland and Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock.

"We want to kick his ass," Holland told the Toronto Sun's Mike Zeisberger of his former coach.

Babcock made the decision to leave the Red Wings this offseason after 10 years in the Motor City, when he signed an eight-year, $50-million contract with the Maple Leafs. It was the 10-year relationship with his former coach, Holland explained, that brings out his competitive nature.

"When you work with someone for 10 years and you’re in a business that is really competitive, you create a bond with each other," Holland said. "We won a Stanley Cup together. We were on a staff with the Canadian Olympic team that won two gold medals together. When you are at the Vancouver Games and you’ve just lost to the U.S. and your preparing to play Germany and you are joining in with Mike and Steve Yzerman and the rest of the staff to find a way to dig in and get the job done ... that’s how you build relationships that last for the rest of your life.

"The last three years in Detroit, we found ourselves at points where you are on the bubble of making the playoffs and you are digging your fingertips in to find a way to make the playoffs and you accomplish those things together, well, all those things, like I said, combine to build relationships that last a lifetime.

"The relationship I have with Mike will go on for the rest of our lives. I have tremendous respect for what he does professionally and personally."

With all that being said, Holland seems ready to put Babcock in the past and move his Detroit franchise forward.

"Well, he decided he wanted to move on," Holland said. "And now, we want to kick his ass."

Despite his desire to lay a pounding on his former head coach, Holland said the Red Wings plan to honor Babcock when he and the Maple Leafs visit Detroit for the Wings' season opener on Oct. 9.

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