Camp Opens With the Roster Incomplete and the Room Unsettled

Mike Babcock ran his first practice with five players watching from the side. Andersen, Henrique, Janmark, Regula, and Savoie — all out, all still out — and the coach who was hired to install defensive discipline is instead spending his opening days improvising around absences he didn't create. The goaltending situation is the sharpest edge of it: Andersen was signed in July specifically to anchor the net with veteran experience, and he hasn't been on the ice yet.

The Formenton noise hasn't quieted either. The petition, Mama Stanley's public withdrawal — I wrote about the fanbase signal last week, and nothing since has softened it. Bowman defended the signing, Formenton spoke about the opportunity, and the organization moved forward. But a fractured fanbase is a real thing to manage, and Babcock is now coaching through it before he's coached a single regular-season shift.

What he does have: McDavid and Draisaitl, which is more than most coaches get to start with. The late-season defensive tightening last year — the number that mattered most coming out of April — gave Babcock something real to build from. The question was always whether that discipline could hold across a full season. Right now, the more immediate question is whether he can field a stable lineup by September 29.