Thirty minutes after the press conference ended, Mike Babcock walks down the north stairs and made his way through a quiet corner of Rogers Place.

He found me. Shook my hand. I wanted to ask him about Emma Lake – where, I think, he has a place – in Saskatchewan: something small, a thread of common ground between two people just beginning to figure each other out.

TAIT: What a quiet moment after the Mike Babcock press conference taught me about respect Back to video

I have cerebral palsy. My speech has never come easily. So I tried again. He leaned in. I said it a third time, then a fourth, then a fifth.

Most people reach their limit somewhere around the third attempt. The smile softens. The eyes drift. There is a graceful, practiced exit, and I have learned to recognize it from a long way off.

Babcock didn’t take it.

He stood there and said, simply and without embarrassment: “I’m sorry I can’t understand you. The next time we talk, I’ll find someone to help me understand you.”

No performance. No hollow warmth. Just an honest man, acknowledging the limits of what he could do in that moment and promising to do better the next time.

It was one of the quieter things that happened on Tuesday, and it........

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